I was just wondering if anyone has ever seen or used an hour indicator for their engine.

It more accuratly reflects the amount of time that your engine has been used, more so than just the odometer. Aircraft and heavy military vehicles use this, but I have never seen a car application of it.


I am REALLY bored at work, so bear with me.

It's called a Hobbs meter, and it's a very easy item to install as they come in 12 volt versions. Just wire it into ignition power and you're all set! They come in mechanical ro LCD versions.

Hobbs Hour Meters (http://www.hobbs-corp.com/cat1.html)

How about a meter that registers how many revolution that engine has turned? That should measure the life of the engine even better than hours. :)

-Ray

I used to work for a VDO distributor, and we sold a lot of their hour meters--mostly to heavy-equipment rental companies.

David S. Wallens, managing ed
Grassroots Motorsports
www.grassrootsmotorsports.com

Originally posted by rkkwan
How about a meter that registers how many revolution that engine has turned? That should measure the life of the engine even better than hours. :)

-Ray

Heheh that'd have to have alot of digits, if it existed. You gotta figure that RPM is Revolutions Per Minute.... well even at idle that's several hundred to a thousand.... What about all those times you're crusing to work at 2000-4000 RPM?

Cool idea though, just would produce some seriously astronomical sounding numbers :)

lateRZ

I like the idea of putting a "Hobbs" meter or whatever to measure service hours, an odometer certainly cannot tell you about the countless times someone has been stuck in a 1+ hour traffic jam regardless of the "low mileage".

Now if only recommended service intervals were given in hours instead of miles :)

lateRZ

I see the hour meters daily! On my ambulances :D Also on my fire trucks. That's the primary method for telling how much usage the diesel engines get since many times the rig won't be moving but stationary but the engine is still in high usage powering various equipment etc. Maintenence is based on how many hours used..obviously. My fire trucks have all their oil replaced x2 a year, which doesn't sound like much but considering they use something like 20w30 weight oil and each can take up to like...15-20 gallons of oil! :eek:

-chrisC

I was a trucker for a fairly large sized trucking company before. The modern diesels are totally computerized. Our service mechanic can know all the run time, idling time, top speed, over-revving and gas mileage by tapping into the ECU. Still, I think we based oil change with mileage the old-fashioned way. I believe it's every 15000 miles, which is about once every month and a half.

We idle these engines a lot, mostly for heat in the winter and a/c in the summer while we rest in the sleeper.

-Ray

Originally posted by PhlypSide

Cool idea though, just would produce some seriously astronomical sounding numbers :)

lateRZ [/B]

You might be surprised how well our numbering system can accomodate that sort of problem - or perhaps you are still using punch cards and vacuum tubes because a computer with a 1,300,000,000Hz processor and 20,000,000,000 byte hard drive would be rediculous?;)

GM will be introducing an 'change oil' light in some if it's newer cars. A computer monitors engine usage parameters and trips the light when the oil should be changed. Maybe Subaru will adopt the technology too.

I don't know what parameters they measure but I can think of a few in addition to engine hours such as: oil temp history, start/stop driving history, RPM history, fuel consumption, miles since last oil change...

Now that I think of it, one of the best ways to handle oil change interval would be to monitor fuel useage. Idling, racing and such would increase usage, as would cold weather or short trips. And you'd do an oil change every 200 gallons of gas or some such..

I too like this idea.. Maybe we should make it a club thing? Like how many hours you should use your engine before an oil change. Seems kinda weird but I would like that more than mileage bases changes.

MikeyG

Any boating store will have them in stock. Helpful if you live close to water!:p

How about a way to examine and analyze the oil itself?

Okay, I'm way past my bedtime. :)

-Ray

Pat is correct. Most boats use an hourmeter to track engine hours. They are very easy to install on an ignition system. I fail to see why you would want one in an automobile though. In a boat it is the only way to track engine time as boats usually don't have an odometer.

www.overtons.com

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