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Old 11-22-2015, 02:49 AM   #1 (permalink)
oil pan 4
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Electric coolant pump speed controller

The electric pump is working. Its actually working too well.
To make it less effective all I need to do is cut its voltage.
The cheapest, simplest most reliable I can think of is to use pure electromechanical controls.

I also use the electric coolant pump to circulate coolant with my http://ecomodder.com/forum/showthrea...9-a-32503.html.

My Meziere coolant pump moves 55gpm and draws 7 amps. That is way more than I need during winter.

Right now the pump is wired through a 1 ohm 300 watt resistor. That drops the voltage across the pump down to 9.6 volts and 4.6 amps. The standard Meziere pump moves 35gpm and draws 5 amps. So my guess is the big pump on a resistor moves close to the same coolant as the standard pump.
On the cool winter days the coolant temperature still only gets up to about 160'F with reduced pump speed.

So I ordered a 2 ohm 300 watt resistor. I could have ordered a second 1 ohm resistor but they are the same price and same size.
Hopefully this further drops the pump voltage to close the minimum recommended voltage of 6 volts. The resistor arrived today, hopefully I will get to test it in the next few days.

Then I still need to get the pump going when I plug in the 5500 watt coolant heater. I can do this 2 ways.
1 way is to wire in a 120VAC relay and use this relay to switch on a pump and resistor circuit. But I figure, why drain the battery when I have a high voltage source on tap.
2 wire in 1 or two 277v emergency light transformers with rectifier to turn the pump when the 240 volt heating element is powered up. I have these transformers, just need to wire them up and test them.
I would like to power the pump with external power so it does not drain the battery and so that the pump automatically turns when the coolant heater is on.

These 277 volt transformers should have a turns ratio of 17:1. So on 240 volt power it should produce about 14 volts AC which is a little low, but should work. For a typical "12 volt system" you want to see up to about 16 volts AC on the secondary side of the transformer. These were free and should work so they will be used first.

The control logic for a cold start will be 30 second time delay for all pump power. Then energize a circuit that will send power to the pump through the 2 ohm resistor. When the pump reaches 100'F to 120'F then a switch will activate the 1 ohm pump circuit. Next use a 170'F to 180'F switch to activate straight pathway for power to the pump.
All these pump circuits will be ran through relays, the switches will control the relays.

Any of the temperature switches being activated will bypass the start up delay and the 277 volt transformers will be wired straight to the pump.

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