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I own an 1984 Series 3 Land Rover and was needing a set of instruments to monitor my engine
as the old girl only had an oil pressure gauge and a very basic original Land Rover water temperature gauge in it.
Looking at the various options I was looking for at least 4 measurement gauges namely (a far more accurate ) water temperature,
oil temperature,voltmeter and exhaust gas temperature at the very minimum .Pricing these individual gauges up was quite an eye opener as if (as I would)
buy good quality accurate gauges, then just a water temp gauge alone could cost well over R500!!! an EGT R1000!!!!
So after investigating the various online ads I came across the Madman range of engine monitoring systems.
With the EMS1 I could get a whole range of monitoring values all in one small box along with user programmable alarms for @R2000 (less individual senders).
This may sound very expensive compared to individual gauges but you have to remember that this monitoring system can be easily removed from your vehicle upon selling with just the cost of a few new senders installed into your future vehicle try doing that with a set of individual gauges and see if the buyer is happy with big spaces in the dash!
This Madman EMS1 was just the thing I was looking for and although I had looked at other similar systems they were more orientated towards the microlite/small aircraft user.
Now my Landy may fly at times but generally not more than a meter or so and these other monitoring systems seemed to have a very cluttered and complicated multi coloured screens
reminiscent of ones in a jet aircrafts cockpit and not a mud splattered Land Rover!!
So I bit the bullet and ordered from Landyonline and was very pleased with the easy online ordering and being fully informed on the order progression and parcel
tracking with the item delivered to me as stated by the third day.
The EMS1 is the size of an average cell phone and has an easy to read digital display along with four input buttons.Although not at all terrible I felt the front fascia could have
been more pleasantly designed and felt that the name "MADMAN" emblazoned on the front panel was unnecessary ,but hey! they are selling the product so may be its
personal choice (I have actually set the unit into a covered panel so all you can see is the display and the 4 input button which I am also able to hide away from prying eyes when unattended- the unit could also be easily be installed so that it could be removed upon leaving the vehicle as it has a push in wire connector block ) .
Fitting the unit would have been extremely easy had I had an original Land Rover engine as there is a full fitting kit which comes separate from the main unit,but I happen to have a Toyota engine conversion
in my Land Rover and despite living 3 minutes from a Land Rover dealer in Cape Town who are the recognized dealer for the Madman they turned out to be very unhelpful to the point of running down the very Madman EMS that they were suppose to be selling to customers and not even having a pretty standard coolant sender adapter to fit my engine . So I would suggest if you do get the EMS
get all the related fittings from Landyonline and make sure that your set to fit it as soon as it arrives-for the sake of a few Rand I wasted many days with my Land Rover drained of coolant and oil trying to find basic adapters from an unwilling agent .
The instructions for fitting the Madman are quite basic and can be found online on the Madman site (along with videos of the process),anyone with basic competence can do it I would say.
As for the operation of the gauge it measures the following variables on my Landrover:
1) Exhaust Gas Temperature
2) Coolant Temperature
3) Oil Pressure
4) Oil Temperature(with a 2 way switch you can also measure gearbox oil or any other oils-but the display is only able to show one value at a time )
5) Auxiliary Pressure which I have measuring the onboard air compressor pressure,but could equally measure one of fuel,turbo boost,manifold pressure etc
(Again although the installation guide does not say so for this one I am sure that it could also measure all of these if you really wanted to as you only need to install the separate senders and multiple throw switches)
6) Voltmeter( although my vehicle is 12 volt can also be used on 24 volt system)
7) Coolant level detector with adjustable dampening to allow for the vehicle going across rough ground
All the above have pre settable high and low alarms,be aware that if you set say a coolant temperature alarm for 95 degrees it will trigger the alarm at exactly 1 degree ABOVE that temperature(I.e. 96 degrees- thought I had a problem at first when at 95 degrees nothing happened!)
8) Hour meter with service interval countdown(this I feel will be very handy as my speedo is incorrect due to different tyre sizes/diff ratio so allows me to still be accurate on servicing)
9) A pitch and roll meter
Although as stated I had my reservations about the style of the gauge and if a digital gauge would fit in with my "basic" vehicle, I feel when the EMS1 is switched on the display is very good with a green backlight but not at all flashy or gimmicky(although I feel it could equally fit in with the more modern vehicles ).
The operation of the menu is very user friendly and is very intuitive needing minimal/no time looking at the instruction sheet enclosed in the original packaging.
It is very easy to read where I have mounted it, approximately in the middle of the Land Rover although one problem that I have is the alarm sounder level is too quiet for me to hear it at speeds above 55 kmh ,but the display flashes a relevant alarm message and a small LED flashes too.The buzzer being too quiet is not any real problem as the EMS has a relay output which can be used to sound a buzzer/light/ switch the engine off /or run a cooling fan etc
One thing I very much like is that while driving I am not constantly playing spectator tennis trying to look all over a cluttered dashboard for the various information .This was a big reason why I liked the EMS1 right from my initial research into my options.I can also either set the EMS1 to scan through all the values, or just the values I am interested in can be manually displayed .The displays are VERY accurate and do not seem to have the usual dead spots which come with so many gauges.The only other small item I think could benefit the EMS1 is if it could have a clock programmed into the device , but maybe that's just me not having a clock inside my vehicle.
Overall I am very happy with my purchase and would thoroughly recommend it
.If I had listened to the unhelpfull staff member at the sole dealers agent in Cape town I would not have purchased the system as he on two separate occasions ran the product down saying it was overpriced. But personally I would definitely advise future buyers to purchase from Landyonline and get everything you need from them......Great service......Great product.........Great Price!!!
Rating:  [5 of 5 Stars!] |
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