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Beta 50 oil pressure issue


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Not my boat/ engine. Chap behind me has a less than 4 year old Beta 50. A problem has developed:

 

When the engine is cold and/or running above tick over revs all is fine. However, when the engine is warmed up and revs drop to tickover the oil pressure warning light comes on. There is also an oil pressure gauge which drops well below the normal operating band at the same time as the light comes on. The engine starts and runs normally. Oil level is fine. RCR (or whatever they are called) have been out but were unable to diagnose the problem. They've passed the job to another firm who can't attend at the moment because they are busy with other things.

 

Any ideas that I might be able to pass to the chap in question?    

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Those are the classic symptoms of the oil pressure relief valve jammed open but I don't know if Beta has access to it without taking the sump off. It might also be the oil used is too thin (like a 0W5 grade synthetic) or the oil pressure sender may be faulty.

 

As the senders are not that reliable I think the first thing to do is to get a mechanical gauge on the engine to see exactly what the pressure is. Any half decent engineer should have one. Also question the boater about the oil in his sump and feel some off the dipstick the compare the feel with yours.

 

If its not possible to check the oil pressure then fitting a new sender might be a good first step but I fear they may be far more expensive than a £20 car one so I would want to check the oil pressure first.

 

 

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5 minutes ago, Tony Brooks said:

I fear they may be far more expensive than a £20 car one

A little over 12 quid :)

http://www.splash-marine.com/beta-600-62670.html

 

 

Ahh, that's the switch, not a pressure sender...

 

 

£25 for the pressure sender: http://www.splash-marine.com/beta-200-94350.html

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Over the last few years I have had this irritating problem with my Beta 50.

I have changed the sender and changed the gauge a couple of times and was even convinced that the engine was at too slower tickover.. However, reading through the Beta service manual for the umpteenth time I have been made aware that there is an adjustment that can be done. 

So, I took out the gauge and there seemed to be a brass bit with a hole in it. Having had the problem for so long and that it was really starting to wind me up, I had to have a go!

I managed to get a very small screwdriver to grip the side of this brass thingy. I gave it a turn, it moved, I turned it again to something like halfway around, reinstalled the gauge and during the last two weeks of cruising the oil alarm has not come on again.

Tony will probably know what the brass thingy does, but it seems to have stopped my problem at the moment.

Now if only i could cure the engine not starting when the key is turned, I'd be a happy man!

Edited by nipper
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2 minutes ago, nipper said:

Over the last few years I have had this irritating problem with my Beta 50.

I have changed the sender and changed the gauge a couple of times and was even convinced that the engine was at too slower tickover.. However, reading through the Beta service manual for the umpteenth time I have been made aware that there is an adjustment that can be done. 

So, I took out the gauge and there seemed to be a brass bit with a hole in it. Having had the problem for so long and that it was really starting to wind me up, I had to have a go!

I managed to get a very small screwdriver to grip the side of this brass thingy. I gave it a turn, it moved, I turned it again to something like halfway around, reinstalled the gauge and during the last two weeks of cruising the oil alarm has not come on again.

Tony will probably know what the brass thingy does, but it seems to have stopped my problem at te moment.

Now if only i could cure the engine not starting when the key is turned, I'd be a happy man!

Well the gauge is in the instrument panel and is normally connected electrically so I suspect that you mean you took the sender out. I very much doubt Kubota would fit the PRV into the sender drilling so all I can assume is that is some kind of restrictor that was blocking and moving it unblocked it. It makes no sense to me so, no I have no idea what the brass thing is.

If it was in the actual sender then it may be a pressure to voltage adjuster and that might mean that you have simply covered up a fault.

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Something in the back ofm what's left of my mind is that Beta recommend that the tickover speed is set to 1000 or mebe 1100 rpm mainly because the pressure drops and sets the alarm.

If folks have bee diddling around with the tickover, I suspect and alarm is what they get.....

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As i said in my message.

I have already changes the sender a couple of times over the 8 years I have had Largo and I have also changed the Gauge, which is in the control panel, with a new one from Beta.

None of the changes worked for the alarm going off.

Adjusting that brass screwy bit did!

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59 minutes ago, nipper said:

As i said in my message.

I have already changes the sender a couple of times over the 8 years I have had Largo and I have also changed the Gauge, which is in the control panel, with a new one from Beta.

None of the changes worked for the alarm going off.

Adjusting that brass screwy bit did!

It adjusts the switch pressure.

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27 minutes ago, Sir Nibble said:

It adjusts the switch pressure.

Thanks, so as I suspected.

 

If nipper's problem was switch fault then its probably OK for a time but if it really was low oil pressure ................................................................?

 

 

Edited to add - its best to do a physical oil pressure check before messing with the adjustment.

Edited by Tony Brooks
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25 minutes ago, Sir Nibble said:

It adjusts the switch pressure.

Thanks Sir Nibble, it seems of have sorted the problem out.

Oil pressure was fine as I knew it always it was, having done oil changes every 250 hours for 8 years!!

25 times by my calculations!

Nipper

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2 minutes ago, nipper said:

Thanks Sir Nibble, it seems of have sorted the problem out.

Oil pressure was fine as I knew it always it was, having done oil changes every 250 hours for 8 years!!

25 times by my calculations!

Nipper

 

I am interested in how you knew the oil pressure was OK if you did not check it with a mechanical gauge. You probably thought it was OK,  hoped it was OK, or felt it was likely to be OK but that is not knowing.

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2 hours ago, Tony Brooks said:

 

I am interested in how you knew the oil pressure was OK if you did not check it with a mechanical gauge. You probably thought it was OK,  hoped it was OK, or felt it was likely to be OK but that is not knowing.

The pressure is not important, the point is that the annoying alarm has stopped ?

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7 hours ago, nipper said:

Over the last few years I have had this irritating problem with my Beta 50.

I have changed the sender and changed the gauge a couple of times and was even convinced that the engine was at too slower tickover.. However, reading through the Beta service manual for the umpteenth time I have been made aware that there is an adjustment that can be done. 

So, I took out the gauge and there seemed to be a brass bit with a hole in it. Having had the problem for so long and that it was really starting to wind me up, I had to have a go!

I managed to get a very small screwdriver to grip the side of this brass thingy. I gave it a turn, it moved, I turned it again to something like halfway around, reinstalled the gauge and during the last two weeks of cruising the oil alarm has not come on again.

Tony will probably know what the brass thingy does, but it seems to have stopped my problem at the moment.

Now if only i could cure the engine not starting when the key is turned, I'd be a happy man!

It sounds as if you are talking about the gauge. On some of the beta panels the gauge has a set of contacts built in. These contacts are adjustable and give a signal to the light and buzzer. If the gauge reading falls below a preset figure the alarm will sound. If it is low oil pressure and you twiddle the screw, you may stop the alarm going off but may still have low oil pressure. As has been previously said the best thing is to check the pressure with a calibrated mechanical gauge and go from there. Also there was mention of the pressure relief valve. From memory this is mounted below the oil filter and is easily accessed once the filter is removed.

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  • 2 months later...

I was that boat behind The Welsh Cruiser with the Beta 50! Whilst waiting for parts we encountered another boat that had cured the same problem by replacing the oil pressure sender. We eventually changed the £25 sender and it cured the problem. The gauge was OK and fortunately it was not the oil relief valve.  

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34 minutes ago, OMRA40 said:

I was that boat behind The Welsh Cruiser with the Beta 50! Whilst waiting for parts we encountered another boat that had cured the same problem by replacing the oil pressure sender. We eventually changed the £25 sender and it cured the problem. The gauge was OK and fortunately it was not the oil relief valve.  

Senders on electrical oil pressure and temperature gauges should, in my view, always be the first thing to substitute UNLESS you have the equipment to confirm the reading.

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