An Electronic Control Unit for Early Detection of Vehicle Engine Overheating

Internal Combustion Engines (ICE) get overheated due to several unavoidable reasons. The consequences of missing a timely shutdown of the ICE can be serious and the engine can be considerably injured. In this paper, a novel, efficient, and reliable electronic control unit for providing ICE Overheating Early Detection and Alarm (OTEDA) is proposed, implemented, and tested. Regular sampling of the engine block temperature and the rate of temperature change within a cooling system stressing period is used to establish an engine’s thermal signature. The theory of early detection based on the engine's thermal signature is explained. The OTEDA hardware is built around the latest temperature-sensing digital technology provided by Texas Instruments. The main OTEDA unit building blocks and the software structure are explained. Field test on several commercial vehicles of different make and brands proves the value added by the proposed Electronic Control Unit (ECU) in protecting the engine from incidental overheating.