Oil light warning

[WotEver]

1 minute ago, Wanderer Vagabond said:

Wouldn't the pressure test gauge be put into the hole wot the sender came out of? If so the light would clearly no longer be on and buzzer sounding

He wouldn’t have left it there would he? Just screwed it in to confirm good pressure then took it away with him. 

[Wanderer Vagabond]

Just now, WotEver said:

He wouldn’t have left it there would he? Just screwed it in to confirm good pressure then took it away with him. 

What would he have screwed it into to confirm the pressure?

[WotEver]

39 minutes ago, Wanderer Vagabond said:

What would he have screwed it into to confirm the pressure?

????

 

The oil pressure sensor hole of course. And then he would have replaced the sender in order to keep the oil in the engine...

Edited December 8, 2018 by WotEver

[Tony Brooks]

1 hour ago, Wanderer Vagabond said:

What would he have screwed it into to confirm the pressure?

An adaptor that allows a pressure gauge to clip to the adaptor. It comes as a kit with a number of different adaptors to suit a wide variety of engines.

 

When our fleet had Listers and BMCs we had two gauges, one for each engine make, each connected to suitable threaded nipple for the engines.

[alan_fincher]

1 hour ago, Wanderer Vagabond said:

Wouldn't the pressure test gauge be put into the hole wot the sender came out of? If so the light would clearly no longer be on and buzzer sounding

Which is why I said " in similar to conditions to those where the light is on and the buzzer sounding".

I realised they would not be connected, but assumed OP could judge the kinds of engine speed and temperature at which it is occurring.

I've not heard enough yet that would me make me confident to keep running this engine, particularly if we are now told the light and buzzer are on far more than they were only a short while ago.

[MtB]

51 minutes ago, alan_fincher said:

I've not heard enough yet that would me make me confident to keep running this engine, particularly if we are now told the light and buzzer are on far more than they were only a short while ago.

 

This troubles me too. A worrying trajectory.

 

A pressure switch usually either works or it doesn't. This one seems to be shifting the value at which it switches, if it really is faulty in the first place and not doing its job correctly. 

[ditchcrawler]

Maybe the switch is just getting soggier and soggier until its always on.

[alan_fincher]

It's hard to be able to make useful comment unless we know more about what RCR did and measured.

Presumably the OP must have some idea what pressures they recorded both hot and cold, and at tick-over and at higher revs, but I haven't seen it reported here, or if it has been I've missed it.

Without that information I'd not like to guess whether it is in imminent danger of self destructing at any time, or whether it might continue to run for years with no significant failures.

If is genuinely an 11,000 hours engine, and no previous rebuilding has been done on it, it must be well tired.  If it were mine, I'd consider a swap to a 20W-50 oil to see if that compensates to any degree for what must by now be very worn bearings.

 

[jonathanA]

1 hour ago, Mike the Boilerman said:

 

This troubles me too. A worrying trajectory.

 

A pressure switch usually either works or it doesn't. This one seems to be shifting the value at which it switches, if it really is faulty in the first place and not doing its job correctly. 

Nope I’ve had several that exhibited exactly the symptoms described. I suspect that the diaphragm or whatever keeps the

oil in the engine starts leaking through to the electrical side and buggers the switch. Bearing in mind that oil pressure switches are normally closed and open on pressure increase.

 

if I was the op I’d buy a cheap electrical oil pressure gauge and sender off fleabay from China for a tenner. A lot of them have a contact for the light as well as a connection for the gauge

[magictime]

Without trying to reply to everyone individually... I can't tell you what the readings were, as I didn't look. They'd have meant nothing to me and I'm in a position where I really had to trust the RCR engineer's judgement.

 

As for whether things are getting worse... they did yesterday, over a few hours, but today the alarm/light went on as soon as I ran the engine this morning but not at all when I ran it this evening. Go figure.

 

As for all the ominous comments about the engine hours... fair enough I'm sure but the collective wisdom on here when I queried this at the time I bought the boat was that a well-used engine with a good track record might well be a better bet than an under-used engine in a marina-dwelling boat. 

 

And yes, maybe I should change the oil for 20W 40... the engineer was kind of implying that I think without quite saying 15W is wrong.

[WotEver]

6 minutes ago, magictime said:

And yes, maybe I should change the oil for 20W 40... the engineer was kind of implying that I think without quite saying 15W is wrong.

‘Wrong’ is probably too strong a word. The thinner oil was right when the engine was new with lovely close tolerances but now that it’s a bit worn a thicker oil would seem to be more appropriate. 

[bizzard]

Oil make no further comment.

[magictime]

55 minutes ago, bizzard said:

Oil make no further comment.

Lest you make a fuel of yourself?

[Alan de Enfield]

4 minutes ago, magictime said:

Lest you make a fuel of yourself?

Don't feel pressured.

[MtB]

I'm trying to gauge what you mean....

 

 

[Alan de Enfield]

1 hour ago, Mike the Boilerman said:

I'm trying to gauge what you mean....

 

 

In which case you'll need three of them - AND - ensure one of them is calibrated correctly !!

[Harpur Hill]

 

Many years ago, when I was young I had a 105E Anglia, over a few days the oil warning light started to flicker & then came on full time. Received wisdom from my friends that knew about these things was that it was merely the sender.

I bought & fitted a new sender & all was well for about a week, then one morning on my way to work the oil light came on and shortly after the engine began making the most awful screeching noises. I had to be towed home!

On taking the thing to bits I found the big end bearings hammered flat & the actual bearing metal melted in places. The crankshaft didn't seem too bad so new bearings were fitted, the engine reassembled and all was well.

Some weeks later the oil light came on again whilst on holiday and a long way from home, this time I went direct to a garage where they told me the oil pump had expired.

 

Just sayin' like, be careful!

 

HH

[bizzard]

4 minutes ago, Harpur Hill said:

 

Many years ago, when I was young I had a 105E Anglia, over a few days the oil warning light started to flicker & then came on full time. Received wisdom from my friends that knew about these things was that it was merely the sender.

I bought & fitted a new sender & all was well for about a week, then one morning on my way to work the oil light came on and shortly after the engine began making the most awful screeching noises. I had to be towed home!

On taking the thing to bits I found the big end bearings hammered flat & the actual bearing metal melted in places. The crankshaft didn't seem too bad so new bearings were fitted, the engine reassembled and all was well.

Some weeks later the oil light came on again whilst on holiday and a long way from home, this time I went direct to a garage where they told me the oil pump had expired.

 

Just sayin' like, be careful!

 

HH

Oil pump failure was fairly common on those engines.  Dead easy and quick to replace, external, held on by three bolts, the filter comes off with it.

[Wanderer Vagabond]

21 hours ago, magictime said:

Without trying to reply to everyone individually... I can't tell you what the readings were, as I didn't look. They'd have meant nothing to me and I'm in a position where I really had to trust the RCR engineer's judgement.

 

As for whether things are getting worse... they did yesterday, over a few hours, but today the alarm/light went on as soon as I ran the engine this morning but not at all when I ran it this evening. Go figure.

 

As for all the ominous comments about the engine hours... fair enough I'm sure but the collective wisdom on here when I queried this at the time I bought the boat was that a well-used engine with a good track record might well be a better bet than an under-used engine in a marina-dwelling boat. 

 

And yes, maybe I should change the oil for 20W 40... the engineer was kind of implying that I think without quite saying 15W is wrong.

Just so I'm clear here, when RCR tested the engine has he already replaced the sender unit and the light is still coming on? or are you still with the old sender unit waiting for a replacement? If the former then you do have a serious problem, if the latter, once these things start to fail they tend to operate randomly (mine did) so any indications from the warning light become meaningless and not much to worry about.

[bizzard]

3 minutes ago, Wanderer Vagabond said:

Just so I'm clear here, when RCR tested the engine has he already replaced the sender unit and the light is still coming on? or are you still with the old sender unit waiting for a replacement? If the former then you do have a serious problem, if the latter, once these things start to fail they tend to operate randomly (mine did) so any indications from the warning light become meaningless and not much to worry about.

They can also leak oil from the insulated plastic body when beginning to fail.  

[Tony Brooks]

and get oil on the wrong side of the diaphragm.

 

Until we get an answer to Wandering Vagabond's question OR some specific oil pressure readings I think it is irresponsible to suggest the engine may be wore out. I accept it may be but hours alone do not mean it is worn out. We need decent data to advise with a degree of certainty. If anything the RCR chap was at fault in not recording the oil pressures and explaining them to the OP.

Edited December 9, 2018 by Tony Brooks

[magictime]

3 hours ago, Wanderer Vagabond said:

Just so I'm clear here, when RCR tested the engine has he already replaced the sender unit and the light is still coming on? or are you still with the old sender unit waiting for a replacement? If the former then you do have a serious problem, if the latter, once these things start to fail they tend to operate randomly (mine did) so any indications from the warning light become meaningless and not much to worry about.

Still with the old sender.

[Wanderer Vagabond]

2 hours ago, Tony Brooks said:

and get oil on the wrong side of the diaphragm.

 

Until we get an answer to Wandering Vagabond's question OR some specific oil pressure readings I think it is irresponsible to suggest the engine may be wore out. I accept it may be but hours alone do not mean it is worn out. We need decent data to advise with a degree of certainty. If anything the RCR chap was at fault in not recording the oil pressures and explaining them to the OP.

I would agree, I'd tend to wait until the results of the new sensor/sender are in, mine has been fine since the sensor was replaced but like anyone else, when an unexpected oil warning light comes on it is immediately time to stop until we have some suggestion that all is well. I think that the OP has pretty much got that now, he said himself that the oil pressures wouldn't have meant much to him (I'm not really sure they'd mean much to me either, does the pressure increase with engine speed? remain constant? reduce as the temperature increases? I dunno) so not much point in the RCR guy giving him information that is meaningless to him. If the RCR guy has said it's OK to run the engine (to charge his batteries) whilst they wait for the new sender, then the onus goes onto RCR if the engine then seizes and under those conditions it'd be a replacement engine courtesy of RCR insurance (unlike the sensor which he is going to have to pay for).

36 minutes ago, magictime said:

Still with the old sender.

That's good news then. My money's on a new sender and problem solved (but other views are available).

[Boater Sam]

I suspect from reading all the posts that the OP is charging his batteries on tickover.

If so will someone explain to him why this is wrong with a Beta engine. My patience is exhausted.

[bizzard]