Quote:
Originally Posted by serialk11r
. Having a hot resistor sitting in the engine bay near plastic/rubber components such as the coolant hoses doesn't seem like a good idea.
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My resistor is mounted on the under side of the hood, away from everything. It was free, I salvaved it from a broken battery charger. Its rated to disapate 100w worth of power, it absorbs about 10w and it barely gets warm. I mostly use it during the winter when its freezing out, that resistor stays cold to the touch in winter. Running a 10w resistor would be stupid.
I have already thought of and considered all of this, years ago.
The pump runs at full speed most of the time so there is no point in involving a PWM controller anywhere, at that point it just becomes more crap that can break and cant be bought off the shelf. I try not to custom build everything.
I may wire the resistor though a 120'F thermal switch on the engine with a relay, in the spring it takes about 2 minutes for that switch to open, summer about 1 minute. The biggest thing the resistor does is slow coolant flow to try and warm the engine up faster in winter, other than that it frees up some amps for battery charging and the intake heaters that are some times used on start up on cold days.
The pump and resistor system has been in use for over a year and has 8,000 miles on it and its proven its self. Its staying, with a few minor alterations.