Is my boat overheating or is this normal ?

[Jacobyte]

I bought a Seamaster 23 river cruiser recently, and on Tuesday went for cruise on the Trent, Sawley Marina to Trent lock and back this being my first time experiencing river cruising on a cruiser, while doing it noticed the temperature water gauge read 250 and couldn't get any higher on the gauge, is this the normal operating temperature or dose it mean it's overheating as the engine seemed to be working ok, It's a Perkin's 4108 diesel engine and I'm a newbie at this, any help would be appreciated thanks.

[Alan de Enfield]

It is either overheating by a huge amount, or the gauge is faulty.

If it is a correct reading your engine will soon seize as the water boils away.

 

Aldi have infrared thermometer for sale this week for about £12.

 

Point it at your engine and you will get an 'actual' temperature.

[Scholar Gypsy]

What sort of cooling system do you have? Some photos would help.

 

Do you suck in river water (though a filter, that can get clogged) and it then gets spat out through the exhaust? In which case you probably have two water pumps.

 

Or do you have a sealed system with keel cooling of some sort? Or something else?

Edited October 6, 2016 by Scholar Gypsy

[Jacobyte]

It is either overheating by a huge amount, or the gauge is faulty.

If it is a correct reading your engine will soon seize as the water boils away.

 

Aldi have infrared thermometer for sale this week for about £12.

 

Point it at your engine and you will get an 'actual' temperature.

Thanks for info, what is the correct normal operating temperature it should read on the thermometer ? sorry but I did mention I'm a newbie at this lol.

What sort of cooling system do you have? Some photos would help.

 

Do you suck in river water (though a filter, that can get clogged) and it then gets spat out through the exhaust? In which case you probably have two water pumps.

 

Or do you have a sealed system with keel cooling of some sort? Or something else?

This one -

 

sucks in river water (though a filter, that can get clogged) and it then gets spat out through the exhaust

[rusty69]

Check the pump impeller

[cereal tiller]

What sort of cooling system do you have? Some photos would help.

 

Do you suck in river water (though a filter, that can get clogged) and it then gets spat out through the exhaust? In which case you probably have two water pumps.

 

Or do you have a sealed system with keel cooling of some sort? Or something else?

The Seamaster 23 used Perkins 4/107 or 4/108,usually with a Jabsco engine driven pump for direct cooling on early Boats but the later ones were indirectly cooled Via a tubestack heat exchanger.

 

The O.P.'s boat could be either

 

First question,does the Engine have a Water filler cap?

 

CT

[Alan de Enfield]

Thanks for info, what is the correct normal operating temperature it should read on the thermometer ? sorry but I did mention I'm a newbie at this lol.

 

 

You need to be below 100⁰C - my boat runs around 85 - 90

 

If you are running much above 100 then you have a problem which needs resolving :

 

Do you have a sea-cock to turn on to allow water to the pump / engine ?

Do you have a header tank ? - is there water in it ?

Do you have 'belt driven' water pump ? Is the belt OK ? You may need to check / replace the impellor ?

 

Without some pictures of your installation its going t be guesswork as there are a number of ways a boat engine can be cooled.

[Paul C]

The only way to be sure, is to know that the water temperature sensor matches the water temperature gauge. The problem is its an unfamiliar boat (/engine) to you, so you don't have a sense of what's normal and what's not. But obviously 250 deg F is way too high for a normal water temp (80-90 deg C, (176-194 deg F) is a normal value). One way which might help is to observe it during warm up, obviously if its reading (much) higher than ambient when the engine is cold then its not right to start with. But if its reading "high" when the engine is barely warm.....you get the idea.

[David Mack]

250F is way above boiling point. So I would suggest the gauge is not reading correctly. What does it show when the engine is stone cold?

Edited October 6, 2016 by David Mack

[alan_fincher]

212F is way above boiling point.

 

 

Errm....... No!

[Chewbacka]

Is plenty of water being spat out with the exhaust? If not and assuming it is river water cooled is there a sea cock that has been turned off where the river water is drawn into the boat? Have you checked the mud/filter box - assuming it has one.

[David Mack]

 

 

Errm....... No!

Post corrected. Brain was ahead of fingers!

[bizzard]

 

 

Errm....... No!

At 212f It might be over boiling point if the boat is at a considerable altitude above sea level, (Flying boat?) like 10,000 ft.or so where the boiling point would be somewhere below 200f.

[MtB]

It is either overheating by a huge amount, or the gauge is faulty.

If it is a correct reading your engine will soon seize as the water boils away.

 

Aldi have infrared thermometer for sale this week for about £12.

 

Point it at your engine and you will get an 'actual' temperature.

 

 

Lol very amusing. These things are notoriously inaccurate unless you buy once costing hundreds.

 

Does it come with a calibration certificate? I very much doubt it.

[ditchcrawler]

 

 

Lol very amusing. These things are notoriously inaccurate unless you buy once costing hundreds.

 

Does it come with a calibration certificate? I very much doubt it.

But you can compare it with a kettle boiling while you make a cup of tea

[MtB]

But you can compare it with a kettle boiling while you make a cup of tea

 

 

Differing surface finishes at the same temperature result in widely varying results, so even if the shiny kettle says 100 C I doubt an engine block at the same temp would give the same 100 C result.

[ditchcrawler]

 

 

Differing surface finishes at the same temperature result in widely varying results, so even if the shiny kettle says 100 C I doubt an engine block at the same temp would give the same 100 C result.

I could lend him my kettle that's not shiny

[Bekaybe]

I have a Perkins P6 that was originally river water cooled. About every 5 years the head had to come off to break up and flush out the baked sediment from the water galleries. At times there was only a couple of inches of water at the top of the block galleries. The filter had a very fine mesh, but not fine enough for river sediment apparently.

[The Bagdad Boatman (waits)]

212f is boiling point at sea level but with a pressure cap that can be increased. Heat exchange with the Perkins 108 can be with a Bowman's type sealed pressure system similar to a car. This is cooled by fresh water sucked in from the keel area passed through a weed filter or mud box pumped through the heat exchanger and spat out via the exhaust. Points to check clean the weed trap every trip. check the header tank pressure system and fill with antifreeze as required. check oil level and cleanliness.

[Tony Brooks]

I have a Perkins P6 that was originally river water cooled. About every 5 years the head had to come off to break up and flush out the baked sediment from the water galleries. At times there was only a couple of inches of water at the top of the block galleries. The filter had a very fine mesh, but not fine enough for river sediment apparently.

 

If it was operating much above 70c that baked sediment was probably lime scale. This is why direct raw water cooled engines normally have no thermostat or one that opens a bit over 60C.

[Iain_S]

If it pulls in river water and spits it out the back, how is it coming out? If it comes out as steam (or water vapour), it points to the engine overheating. If a reasonable flow, and only lukewarm, engine temperature is probably OK.

 

If the gauge is full scale deflection, I'd be checking for a short to earth on the sender wire.

 

Has the engine been started since the Trent trip, and, if so, how is the gauge behaving?