Banks Engineering iDash 1.8 Gauge
I wanted to display the usual engine monitoring parameters that are available on the OBD II CAN Bus, but wanted a permanent display that starts up/shuts down automatically with the engine. Gale Banks Engineering offers this type of gauge, called iDash 1.8. Banks is a turbo diesel specialist, so the product does a lot more than just display OBD II parameters - for example calculates inlet manifold air density which is key to turbo diesel power. It also provides many of the scan tool functions. An attractive feature for me was that the gauge can display up to 8 parameters at a time, and there can be up to 5 pages each with up to 8 parameters. Multiple gauges can be linked to a common data bus, and there is also a data logging option.
I have attached a photo of this gauge installed on my 2015 SS. The limitation of the iDash 1.8 is that the display parameters are picked off an internal gauge menu, rather than by directly entering a PID #. My gauge is set to display engine oil pressure, engine oil temperature, coolant temperature, intake air temperature and battery voltage. When I first installed the gauge, engine oil temperature was not available on the Banks Generic GM menu. I contacted Banks Engineering (with the PID# I picked up on this thread), and a couple of days later I received an email with 12 firmware update files. I copied these files on to a micro SD card, and loaded them into the gauge - and now have the engine oil temperature displayed as well.
So far I have learned that engine oil temperature runs 10-15 degrees F hotter than coolant temperature. Also coolant temperature varies quite a bit more than the dashboard readout would indicate. The dashboard needle stays approximately centered for coolant temperature between 185 and 230F. I first saw this behavior on my 2005 Chev 2500HD Duramax truck, when GM was trying to mask the fact that the truck was prone to overheating when pulling a heavy trailer up a steep grade (e.g., the Grapevine). I have also learned that the Rotofab cold air inlet provides ambient temperature when started up, but then the plastic filter housing located in the engine compartment absorbs heat. When the car is parked for an hour or so, inlet air temp is 60-80 F higher than ambient. This cools down some with driving, but slowly and incompletely. In other words ambient air flowing through the plastic ducts is not enough to completely cool down the system. Now I have a new SS project to apply insulation to the outside of the cold air inlet.
