As I mentioned in February's Blackstone
Labs Oil Report, emerging technology is allowing enthusiasts to analyze and
monitor their vehicles as never before. This month, I'll be covering the
Aeroforce Technology Interceptor Scan Gauge.
I first became acquainted with the
Interceptor Scan Gauge twenty years ago when it was available for my Mustang
GT. In those dark ages, it was a lot more cumbersome and a lot less
sophisticated than the sleek 52mm gauge that is present today. The old unit was
just slightly smaller than a woman's shoebox and featured black text on a gray
background. The most useful function was the ability to advance or retard the
timing on the Ford EEC-IV computer. Other than that, the unit was pretty
rudimentary.
Aeroforce now offers the Interceptor's
LED display in either white, red, blue or green and it comes with a white or
black face plate and a brushed aluminum bezel. I opted for the $10 silver face
plate and the $10 polished silver bezel to better match it to my car's interior.
Aeroforce also recommended a $10 Add-A-Circuit (which I picked up) but I found
out that mine was able to draw its power through the OBD-II port so I
didn't need it. As such, all I had to do was plug-in the supplied 9-foot cable
and it was up and running. There's even a nice customization
feature whereby on start up, the Saturn logo is
displayed.
The current Interceptor (Firmware Version
2.8) serves duty in a variety of GM vehicles such as the Bonneville, Cobalt,
Grand Prix, etc. and is infinitely customizable. It is capable of displaying
over 100 parameters, two at a time (8 using cyclic scan), at an adjustable rate
of up to approximately 20 times per second. Naturally, this is information
overload so I'll just cover the ones I use on a daily basis.
The Interceptor features two buttons, both
not much larger than the head of a ballpoint pen, on either side of the gauge
that lets you toggle through the available menus. Slogging through all of
them can make your head hurt, but I found some of the defaults to be way off.
For instance, the Altitude was arbitrarily set as 1000-feet, which is about
900-feet too much. This helps with the correction factor, but some of the
readings such as Transmission Temp, are only available for vehicles with an
automatic transmission. As such, my five-speed trans temp was reported as 65,000
degrees which might be accurate if I was driving on the surface of the sun.
The Boost feature is one of the main things
I bought the Interceptor for. While an analog gauge would be easier to read in
bright sunlight, it requires a lot of extra legwork and cable splicing. With
the Interceptor, it was as simple as plugging it in. On a third-gear highway
pull, I saw a maximum of 12.7 PSI which is slightly better than the factory's
rating of 12.0 PSI and something I attribute to the higher-flowing catless
downpipe.
It's also nice to be able to check and reset
an engine diagnostic trouble code (DTC) on the fly with the Interceptor. For
years, I've owned a handheld OBD-II scanner but it required the vehicle to be
off and sometimes by then the code was lost. The Interceptor makes it extremely
easy to view the code and clear it without stopping.
I also like the Intake Air Temp (IAT)
which displays the ambient air temperature. Most GM vehicles have a temperature
feature, but for some reason it was not an option on the Red Line Edition.
Additionally, the Interceptor features a post-intercooler Intake Air Temp 2
(IAT2) reading which is particularly useful for monitoring heat soak.
Typically, my IAT2 readings sit about 20 degrees higher than ambient as
the Laminova air-to-water intercooler works to keep them down. However, spin up
the supercharger and it throws off enough BTUs to instantly heat the air an
additional 20-30 degrees.
Another interesting parameter is the
Instantaneous Fuel Economy. With it, I observed 29.1 mpg at a steady 70 mph but
under full-throttle it plummeted to a staggering 5 mpg. As such, it only takes
a few full-throttle bursts to erode an otherwise impressive return at the
high-octane pump. And with the Miles Per Hour (MPH)
and Engine Revolutions Per Minute (RPM) statistics, I've been able to verify
that my analog speedometer and tachometer are dead on. I can even monitor my
battery's voltage to warn me of an impending failure.
There's also some esoteric information that
I don't need to know such as Run Time Mins, which is the time in minutes the
engine has been running. Chances are, I will already know this since I'm driving
it, and it resets every time the car is started. The Total Misfires is similarly
arcane-- it reports the misfires of all cylinders but then inexplicably resets
every minute. So unless something catastrophic prompts you to check it right
then, it's highly unlikely you will ever see whether your engine is experiencing
them or not. Finally, the Engine Load is an intriguing aspect, because
it illustrates the tangible strain various accessories have on the system. The
biggest culprit is, of course, the air-conditioning which I've seen account for
up to one-third of the total resources. Naturally, there are other energy
offenders but the A/C is far and away the biggest reprobate, responsible
for cannibalizing as much as 3 mpg when in use.
So what are the drawbacks? Aside from the
$250 price tag, I've found the Interceptor is practically useless in the mid-day
sun when you're running errands or waiting in a fast food drive-thru.
Even adjusting the brightness to the highest setting, and inverting the image
from negative to positive, makes little difference. Polarized sunglasses, such
as my Serengeti Drivers, also effectively erase the legibility of the LCD
screen. Clearly, it's easiest to read in low-light situations such as dawn and
dusk when glare is kept to a minimum. Considering that, the
Interceptor is excellent for Vampires and other creatures of the
night.
There's also the problem with mounting it.
Several aftermarket companies make A-pillar pods, but putting it there not
only hurts visibility, but also looks like something you might find in a
riced-out import. And others place it in a dash vent, where hot air can
unintentionally damage it. For those reasons, I went with a custom-made pod from
JCS Gauge Pods that mounts on the steering
column and the Ion's unique, center-mounted instrument cluster is ideal for
this. Jason Summerhays specially makes each gauge pod from an actual Saturn Ion
steering column cover so the finished product is truly OEM quality. It looks and
fits perfectly, unlike cheaper reproductions that require tape to hold them in
place.
After getting accustomed to it, you'll
wonder how you ever did without it. Honestly, I use it more than anything
else in my car. And with true plug-and-play operation, the installation couldn't
be any easier. However, if you do plan on purchasing one, I'd recommend buying
from an authorized
dealer and not directly from Aeroforce. Not only can you get a small price
break, but you'll more than likely get better customer service as Aeroforce
never responded to my emails.