Safe Mode - Enigne protection

Hi everyone,

Are there any hints for engine protection strategies, in case of overheating or bad fuel for example?

The basic idea is quite clear, but some experience proven tricks would be welcome.

How about a relative webinar?

Cheers.

Some will add fuel when an engine is over a threshold point to reduce combustion temperatures. With forced induction, you can pull boost.

Depending on how flexible the ecu is be mindful of what could potentially happen in terms of vehicle dynamics with a hard cut, it's all well and good to save your big end bearings with oil pressure loss but if that means the car around it spears into a wall and puts you in hospital, what have you gained?

Back in the day, we used a large indicator ligh switched by a high-ish oil pressure switch* - 35PSI, IIRC - so you knew you had the problem but you had the option of dipping the clutch or, as you say, driving out of the situation at the risk of the engine.

Again, old school problem was losing/loosening of the oil filter - this was when many of the rally chaps were using the Kent pushrod engine in Escorts. After several engine failures and close calls and folks using different clamps and retainers to stop the filters backing off, it was found that that wasn't the problem when one filter failed and the retainer was still intact - turned out that Ford had changed from an "Imperial" thread to a "Metric" one when they metricated the engine and some of the filter manufacturers were using a univeral 'sloppy' thread that had enough clearance to fit both imperial and metric threads - under high oil pressure, that was enough slop to allow the filter to 'jump' a thread and the oil to pump out.

Don't know if that is still a problem, but if any of you use screw on filters that feel a bit loose in the thread, perhaps you should try a different brand?

*On most vehicles the idiot light seems to be 5-10 PSI - more useful for telling you that you'd already toasted the engine than as a warning.

Thanks for sharing, it's little bits and pieces like that which can save a lot of headaches. Not an issue on most of the 80s/90s jap stuff i an likely to work on but I am doing bits and pieces on my cousin's s3 XJ so he can sell it them will rewire and fit an ecu to the 350 chev in his s2 XJ. I'm hoping between the old stuff my father has given me and when my cousin has left over I won't have to buy any more imperial spanners or sockets either. Working on hydraulic and pneumatic systems is a pain with all thd different thread and connector variations. At least vacuum stuff is pretty much slways CF or KF clamps.

On 350 Chev' oil filters, and as you're in Aussie, had a close call with my old Pontiac running a mild (very mild compared to modern engines) Chev' 350 - again back in the mists of time.

Went to the local parts shop and asked for a spin on filter for a 350 Chev' - they didn't have a listing so I told them it was the same as the Holden 307, 327 and 350 engines, they looked it up and gave me the filter which screwed on as normal. Oil light went out and backed it out of the workshop and noticed an oil trail, popped the bonnet and it was squirting oil out from between the filter and block... turned out they gave me a Holden 253/308 filter which spun on perfectly normally but the sealing "O" ring was in a different position - different brand so numbers were different anyway. If I hadn't noticed I could have driven it until it ran out of oil and knackered the engine...

Baskets wouldn't apologise for their mistake, let alone give me the correct filter gratis since I'd already bought a faulty part.

Forgot the moral of the story - just because it fits it doesn't mean it's right - check everything!

Hi guys, thanks for the input.

I am mostly focusing on the EFI side of things, but the high threshold oil switch is a good hint!

What is the engine, vehicle, and ECU? It's very application dependent.

Let's say a Nissan Micra, 1.3ltr N/A running on Elite 1500 and CR at around 12:1 and ~280deg cams, producing 125ish bhp. Bottom end is stock, pistons are upgraded.