Engine Gauges

[stuart]

Hi guys.

 

As you may know I've got an Isuzu engine on my boat and would like to add some better indicators of whats happening inside the engine. I'd like to start with water temperature and oil pressure.

 

Isuzu can supply me with a "deluxe" control panel and some sensors for a silly price of £450 !!

 

So ignoring that, what are my options and how do i go about installing these? I'm not sure if the sensors are already fitted onto the engine (but not connected) - any ideas where they would be?

[bottle]

I doubt the sensors are already fitted, I have no experience of fitting such guages except in the late sixtys when it was the in thing to fit them to a car 'to make it go faster' a bit like the go faster stripes.

 

Perhaps you can go down that line ie. fitting car type accessories into your own 'dashboard'

[Moley]

and while we're on, if Stuart doesn't mind, sometime, somewhere, someone mentioned a magnet-on-the-propshaft rev. counter. Where d'ya get them?

 

(and yes, I realise that's shaft revs not engine revs)

[Sir Nibble]

Guages and senders need to be matched to one another to get any kind of useful reading, unless you are running capilliary tubes. I will take a look and see what I can find.

 

That didn't take long, one for automerge I think.

Voltmeter 8-16V £11

Water temp (with sender) £15

Oil pressure (with sender) £19

Senders have 1/8" NPTF thread, prices are retail ex VAT (though I will try to discount them) and all instruments have matching 52mm diameter.

[John Orentas]

Hi Stuart.

 

Find a good car spares shop, you will be able to get both oil pressure and temp gauges. I wouldn't bother with the sensor type ones I am sure you can still get the direct reading types they should fit directly onto the existing threaded unions on the engine.

[Bullfrog]

and while we're on, if Stuart doesn't mind, sometime, somewhere, someone mentioned a magnet-on-the-propshaft rev. counter. Where d'ya get them?

 

(and yes, I realise that's shaft revs not engine revs)

 

 

Ade, my son's mountain bike has a "trip computer" driven from a sensor on the front wheel I don't know if this could be calibrated to do whatever it is you want, but it's not expensive from most bike shops.

 

Regards

 

David B

[Moley]

We've got a couple of these, but they ‘mentally’ count revs and multiply that by wheel circumferance to give a distance or speed readout. They don't display revolutions counted.

[Bullfrog]

We've got a couple of these, but they ‘mentally’ count revs and multiply that by wheel circumferance to give a distance or speed readout. They don't display revolutions counted.

Is there not a wheel circumf = 1 (of anything)?

[stuart]

Guages and senders need to be matched to one another to get any kind of useful reading, unless you are running capilliary tubes. I will take a look and see what I can find.

 

That didn't take long, one for automerge I think.

Voltmeter 8-16V £11

Water temp (with sender) £15

Oil pressure (with sender) £19

Senders have 1/8" NPTF thread, prices are retail ex VAT (though I will try to discount them) and all instruments have matching 52mm diameter.

 

Are these senders a standard fitment to most engines? Do you have to buy a particular sender for each type of engine?

 

Hi Stuart.

 

Find a good car spares shop, you will be able to get both oil pressure and temp gauges. I wouldn't bother with the sensor type ones I am sure you can still get the direct reading types they should fit directly onto the existing threaded unions on the engine.

 

Sorry John, what do these look like (unions?)

[John Orentas]

I have just turned the house upside down trying to find one of those freebie chandlery catalogues that comes in the magazines or by post.

 

In one of them is a rev-counter that needs a 12v supply and no other connection, I even remember it comes comes in 2 ranges 3,000 & 6,000 rpm for diesel or petrol engines. Must ring a bell with someone.

[alan_fincher]

In one of them is a rev-counter that needs a 12v supply and no other connection....

How does that work, then John ?

[John Orentas]

How does that work, then John ?

 

 

God knows. I suppose there must be a sensor of some kind but it says 'no further connections required'. I found the catalogue once after the topic came up last time, I'll keep looking.

[bottle]

Gauges all types with sender units or cappillary connections.

[DHutch]

We've got a couple of these, but they ‘mentally’ count revs and multiply that by wheel circumferance to give a distance or speed readout. They don't display revolutions counted.

Just tap in a wheel circuference of 1667mm, set it to Km/h, and bob's you uncal.

- A reading of 28.5Km/h is now 285rpm.

 

 

 

Daniel

[lymmranger]

Got mine from vehicle wiring products.

 

they sell guages that are generic and work on most engines.

 

I think they have a web site

 

[bottle]

Got mine from vehicle wiring products.

 

they sell guages that are generic and work on most engines.

 

I think they have a web site

 

 

See post 13 link

[David Schweizer]

God knows. I suppose there must be a sensor of some kind but it says 'no further connections required'. I found the catalogue once after the topic came up last time, I'll keep looking.

 

I am planning to fit a tachometer to my boat and have been researching them for a while. There appear to be three basic types but they all need a power supply and a sensing supply. I have not come across one that requires only a power supply. Are you sure it was not an Hourmeter you recalled, there is one type of those which is activated by the engine's vibration, but has to be physicly attatched to the engine to work.

Edited May 4, 2006 by David Schweizer

[John Orentas]

I am planning to fit a tachometer to my boat and have been researching them for a while. There appear to be three basic types but they all need a power supply and a sensing supply. I have not come across one that requires only a power supply. Are you sure it was not an Hourmeter you recalled, there is one type of those which is activated by the engine's vibration, but has to be physicly attatched to the engine to work.

 

 

Hi David.

 

It is really bugging me this, it was one of those slightly posh mainly seaboat catalogues, not Marine Mart or Force 4 I have checked them. I even remember putting it to one side as I knew one day the subject would come up on here.

[Cafnod]

Hi Stuart

VWP are a bit dear for gauges, snibble's prices seemed more realistic. If you wish to keep your existing warning lights as well as adding gauges you can take out your sender units, go to a hydraulic specialist and buy a couple of tee pieces. You then screw the tee piece into where the sender went and then screw the original sender into one side of the tee, the new gauge sender into the other. Should you have trouble with thread compatability with the new sender the hydraulic specialist can also supply adaptors.

To fit the gauges to your instrument panel you will need a 52mm hole cutter and a slow electric drill to cut the hole.

Hope this helps.

[AndyM]

How does that work, then John ?

 

I fitted a rev counter to my diesel TDi Land Rover a few years ago, I cannot remember the exact connections but it connects to the alternator and 12v supply and is quite accurate, I was supprised how accurate. Very easy to fit. I would imagine that the Isuzu is not that much different. Or is it?

 

Andy

[Cafnod]

 

I fitted a rev counter to my diesel TDi Land Rover a few years ago, I cannot remember the exact connections but it connects to the alternator and 12v supply and is quite accurate, I was supprised how accurate. Very easy to fit. I would imagine that the Isuzu is not that much different. Or is it?

 

Andy

 

 

Pulse type tachometers are all very similar, the engine does not really matter, the same type of tacho can be fitted to land Rvers, canal boats or trucks. some of them also incorporate hour meters.

[Moley]

Just tap in a wheel circuference of 1667mm, set it to Km/h, and bob's you uncle.

- A reading of 28.5Km/h is now 285rpm.

Thanks Daniel,

 

I was starting to think that there must be some way of doing this, but my posting was at 16:27, 3 minutes from home-time, so I didn't get as far as getting my calculator out.

 

Of course, this is merely theoretical at the moment, as the boat's going nowhere, but give me a couple more weeks and I hope we can go off for a chug

[Sir Nibble]

Are these senders a standard fitment to most engines? Do you have to buy a particular sender for each type of engine?

The sender needs to match the gauge, not the engine. The nfpt thread may need an adaptor to fit to a Japanese engine which will presumably be metric. The prices I quoted are full retail, I could probably cut that by up to 50%. I am intrigued by the idea of a rev counter with no more than a 12V connection.

 

For a shaft speed counter, how about sticking two magnets to the shaft and use a 4 cyl car rev counter connected to a reed switch.

[DHutch]

For a shaft speed counter, how about sticking two magnets to the shaft and use a 4 cyl car rev counter connected to a reed switch.

Yeah, that could work.

- One the karts with had revcounters that picked up the signal from the HT leads.

- The was just a wire pushed thought a hole in the end of the display (no electrical conection) and the cliped along the lenght of the HT lead (again no conection)

- Then you just set it on 2stroke or 4stroke mode, and bobs your uncal. Took us about half a day to work out for the Cub90 engines you need it on 2-stroke mode not 4, as they have a 'lost spark' which kepted geting counted!!

 

 

 

Daniel

[David Schweizer]

Hi Stuart

VWP are a bit dear for gauges, snibble's prices seemed more realistic......

 

When I started to re-design my Instrument panel, I looked at all sorts of guages from various manufacturers, I even fitted a Durite Ammeter bought from VWP - it was rubbish, poorly constructed and poor performance. Not only did it need about 5amps to activate the needle which never settled at zero when there was no charge present, it was also wildly innaccurate when tested against a multi meter. It went back and I got a refund. The Cheapo car types from Car accessory shops were even worse.

 

I finally came to the (logical?) conclusion that you get what you pay for and the best two makes easily available are VDO and Faria. Because I eventually decided that I wanted polished Chrome (or S/S) bezels, I settled on Faria from ASAP Supplies (They are also cheaper than VDO with the generous Discount I get from ASAP). I have also found that the old Smiths and Lucas Ammeters are accurate, and whilst modern (expensive) reproduction ones are now available with Chrome bezels, I have found that with patience you can get good S/H ones, for a reasonable price, through eBay.

 

An important point to note is that most panel gauges are not suitable for installation outside the cabin and will eventually fail if moisture can enter the gauge. Both VDO and Faria produce several ranges specificly designed for boats and other outdoor applications.

Edited May 5, 2006 by David Schweizer