Finally got to pull a grill block today!

[DaveinOlyWA]

ok, i got the fan to come on and its still pretty loud. VERY easy to hear from the cabin even when car is idling... Went to Seattle, did a VERY roundabout drive home and had chance to cross a valley which meant a VERY steep climb up a hill. i realized this would be a good chance to heat up the Pri (since i am back to 100% blocking because weather has cooled off here again)

i went up the hill maintaining 65 mph, got to the top and immediately pulled off the freeway and sure enough, the fans came on and water temp was only at 206º F. so i have to assume the fans have come on several times before and i simply could not hear them. before the run, temps were running between 190-202

but now, it gets weird. the fans came on, ran about 20 seconds and shut down. now the engine was not running, so i moved it so they would come on to circulate water to give me a more accurate temp reading and it only dropped to 198º. after that run, i thought i would get a temp spike, but that never happened. after that, as far as i could tell, the fan never came back on again plus it was in the mid 50's so not really good for testing fan time anyway.

either way, i realize that even with grill blocking, the fan will always be there as a backup protection in case of a occasional temperature spike like in my situation. i have always used 210º as my personal "redline" so to speak and rarely do much higher than 204-206. what is probably happening is the fan is coming on in those circumstances and i just cant hear it. would be nice if someone could monitor the fan time, report back when it comes on. wonder if that would be a CANVIEW option?

[PaulHS]

Originally Posted by ArtH

snip

I am reading this thread with interest because I did some grill blocking this weekend (pimping my ride) with the foam pipe insulation stuff from Home Depot. I got the SGII so I can see the Water Temp (FWT) but I can't see the invertor temp. Nor the state of charge (SOC) of the HV batteries.

The scangauge cannot display inverter temp (To the best of my knowledge). However, you can program an Xgauge into the scangauge to read SOC.

snip

Quickly, what temperature does the EBH heat the engine to? Does it run all night or do you plug it in and it can heat the engine while you make coffee and brush your teeth? Does it make a difference when the temp only reaches 50F at night and the Prius is in the garage (unheated but warmer)? I think I need one.

I am just trying to get better mpg's and I think this is an area to concentrate on.

Art, the temp generated by the EBH depends on ambient temp, wind speed, length of time it's powered on and probably other factors. By watching the water temp when the Prius is first powered up, I get a rough estimate of effects of the EBH. On a 20 deg F morning, I'll see around 90 deg FWT. On a 50 deg morning I'll see around 135 deg FWT.

It's not necessary to power the EBH continuously. Most guys connect the EBH to a timer. Switched on for three to four hours before you leave in the morning seems to be sufficient to warm up the ICE without wasting electricity.

Grille blocking and the EBH work well together. The EBH heats the engine block in advance, and the blocked grille helps retain the engine heat.

[hill]

Originally Posted by PaulHS

The scangauge cannot display inverter temp (To the best of my knowledge).

snip

hmmmmm . . . kinda makes ya wonder how the OP was viewing the inverter temp than.

[efusco]

Originally Posted by hill

hmmmmm . . . kinda makes ya wonder how the OP was viewing the inverter temp than.

CAN-view index

[JimboK]

I pulled mine a few days ago, not so much because of the temperatures (it's been somewhat rainy and cool recently) but because I finally got off my duff to take the car in for the squeaky CHS pump. I figured I didn't need the grill block complicating anything with the dealer.

Originally Posted by ArtH

Quickly, what temperature does the EBH heat the engine to? Does it run all night or do you plug it in and it can heat the engine while you make coffee and brush your teeth? Does it make a difference when the temp only reaches 50F at night and the Prius is in the garage (unheated but warmer)? I think I need one.

I am just trying to get better mpg's and I think this is an area to concentrate on.

Some have reported the EBH gets the block up to about 140F after three hours or so. I see that only in warm weather. Instead, similar to PaulHS, it's dependent on ambient temperature, typically about 60-70F above ambient.

An EBH will help, even with the car in a garage. If you can start the ICE out at 120F instead of 50F (or 140 instead of 70 -- I use it all year round), you'll shorten the warmup cycle and improve fuel economy substantially in the first 5-10 minutes of driving.

[Mike Dimmick]

I've no doubt that the ScanGauge can show the inverter temperatures, it's just a matter of knowing the correct XGauge commands - since all the XGauge commands are doing is sending the command to retrieve the data in the same way that the Toyota scan-tool would. The bulk of ScanGauge technology works on every vehicle because SAE have standardised various engine parameters. By reading the chart, it's obvious why you can't show both SOC and HV battery current: because the same command is sent in both cases, just the resulting output is interpreted differently. That is, the response to the command contains both SOC and HV battery current, it's presumably a limitation of ScanGauge that it can't display both parts of the response.

I don't know if the CAN-view designer would be willing to let ScanGauge owners know what the commands for inverter temperature are.

It should be possible for anyone with a serial protocol datascope and the Toyota scan-tool notebook - since this appears to use classic RS232 serial to talk to the CAN interface module - to actually just try all the commands and log what the scan tool is sending, and the car's response. Of course the scan tool is $8,000!

[efusco]

Originally Posted by Mike Dimmick

I've no doubt that the ScanGauge can show the inverter temperatures, it's just a matter of knowing the correct XGauge commands - since all the XGauge commands are doing is sending the command to retrieve the data in the same way that the Toyota scan-tool would. The bulk of ScanGauge technology works on every vehicle because SAE have standardised various engine parameters. By reading the chart, it's obvious why you can't show both SOC and HV battery current: because the same command is sent in both cases, just the resulting output is interpreted differently. That is, the response to the command contains both SOC and HV battery current, it's presumably a limitation of ScanGauge that it can't display both parts of the response.

I don't know if the CAN-view designer would be willing to let ScanGauge owners know what the commands for inverter temperature are.

It should be possible for anyone with a serial protocol datascope and the Toyota scan-tool notebook - since this appears to use classic RS232 serial to talk to the CAN interface module - to actually just try all the commands and log what the scan tool is sending, and the car's response. Of course the scan tool is $8,000!

That info is all pretty public and based upon the research done by Atilla Vass The new 2004 Toyota Prius : My CAN Project