Engine Temp Gauges

[David Martin]

Hey Guys.... showing my temp gage install, I'm new to Jet boats so I have a few questions as well. I have 30 years experience on Merc I/O's. Hear is the gage at Amazon Amazon.com: GlowShift 10 Color Digital 300 F Dual Temperature Gauge Kit - for Water, Oil, Transmission Temp - Includes Electronic Sensors - 2 Multi-Color LED Displays - Tinted Lens - 2-1/16" (52mm): Industrial & Scientific =UTF8&psc=1. the brass is Amazon as well but you can do the same thing at HD or Lowes as well.

I first installed the 1/2 inch brass T 1/2 inch barbed and 1/2 to 3/8 NPT reducer for the 3/8 NPT temp sensors in the pissers lines that exit the boat.

I installed mine in the engine bay. I ran the wires up the tunnel in the gas tank compartment to the storage behind the helm...... the steering cables use this chase.
I did have to add wire extensions to the gage factory harness, I just used bullet connectors and 18GA wire. I tested the gage before I drilled any holes in the dash.

Hears my question what Temp and what thermostat do 1.8 engines run...... I know they can't run as cool as the pisser lines. Hear is my testing so far......82 air temp hear in FL water temp 76 degrees. Engine Start 77 degrees claimed to 87 degrees on the 35min run out to the bay from my lift using no wake speed at 2000rpm setting. Putting her on plane 5000rpm 25 mph she dropped to 84 for 20 min. Dropping off plane to photograph a large pod of Dolphin she shot to 104 at low wake as soon as I went back up to 25mph she dropped to 87 and held steady for the next 20 min to the fuel dock.

We stopped on our way back to test the box anchor that I found on this site and it held great in 1 1/2 ft seas on Charlotte Bay. We spent 1 hour at anchor eating lunch, on start up the heat soak engines recorded the highest temp 122 and fell back to 88 after a few min on plane at 25mph 5000 rpm. I did notice coming back Port engine was 2 degrees hotter than Starboard and Port was running 200rpm out of sync. After 200rpm change the temp came back into sync. Sweet more info the better. At lease I have a good starting point on engine temp with only 60 hours on the meter.

 

[Levi Weatherford]

I have been wanting to do this for a long time now. It frustrates me that they don't have a factory temp gauge. Your install may have motivated me to tackle this again. The reason I haven't done it yet is because I wanted to find the best location for the sensors. I wasn't sure the pissers would be the best place because I thought the water coming out of these kind of bypasses the engine somewhat but I may be way off. I was kind of thinking if I could put a "T" where the ECM temp sensor is now but I wasn't sure if it was an actual water temp sensor or a head temp type sensor like Ford uses. It actually never touches the liquid coolant. It basically reads the temp of the aluminum head. If anyone knows if our 1.8L temp sensors "touch" the water please enlighten me.

 

[FSH 210 Sport]

Hey Guys.... showing my temp gage install, I'm new to Jet boats so I have a few questions as well. I have 30 years experience on Merc I/O's. Hear is the gage at Amazon Amazon.com: GlowShift 10 Color Digital 300 F Dual Temperature Gauge Kit - for Water, Oil, Transmission Temp - Includes Electronic Sensors - 2 Multi-Color LED Displays - Tinted Lens - 2-1/16" (52mm): Industrial & Scientific =UTF8&psc=1. the brass is Amazon as well but you can do the same thing at HD or Lowes as well.

I first installed the 1/2 inch brass T 1/2 inch barbed and 1/2 to 3/8 NPT reducer for the 3/8 NPT temp sensors in the pissers lines that exit the boat.

I installed mine in the engine bay. I ran the wires up the tunnel in the gas tank compartment to the storage behind the helm...... the steering cables use this chase.
I did have to add wire extensions to the gage factory harness, I just used bullet connectors and 18GA wire. I tested the gage before I drilled any holes in the dash.

Hears my question what Temp and what thermostat do 1.8 engines run...... I know they can't run as cool as the pisser lines. Hear is my testing so far......82 air temp hear in FL water temp 76 degrees. Engine Start 77 degrees claimed to 87 degrees on the 35min run out to the bay from my lift using no wake speed at 2000rpm setting. Putting her on plane 5000rpm 25 mph she dropped to 84 for 20 min. Dropping off plane to photograph a large pod of Dolphin she shot to 104 at low wake as soon as I went back up to 25mph she dropped to 87 and held steady for the next 20 min to the fuel dock.

We stopped on our way back to test the box anchor that I found on this site and it held great in 1 1/2 ft seas on Charlotte Bay. We spent 1 hour at anchor eating lunch, on start up the heat soak engines recorded the highest temp 122 and fell back to 88 after a few min on plane at 25mph 5000 rpm. I did notice coming back Port engine was 2 degrees hotter than Starboard and Port was running 200rpm out of sync. After 200rpm change the temp came back into sync. Sweet more info the better. At lease I have a good starting point on engine temp with only 60 hours on the meter.

I do not know exactly what thermostats are in the 1.8L engines but, Id be surprised if they were not close to 190°. The cylinder liner needs right around 185° for the rings to properly seal. If you put your temperature T’s where the cooling water exits the engine you’d have a reading that would be close.

 

[212s]

I do not know exactly what thermostats are in the 1.8L engines but, Id be surprised if they were not close to 190°. The cylinder liner needs right around 185° for the rings to properly seal. If you put your temperature T’s where the cooling water exits the engine you’d have a reading that would be close.

I concur, that sounds about right.

 

[tdonoughue]

(watching to see if a good install spot closer to the engines/cooling path is located, as I have been researching a bit how to do this too...)

 

[David Martin]

I have been wanting to do this for a long time now. It frustrates me that they don't have a factory temp gauge. Your install may have motivated me to tackle this again. The reason I haven't done it yet is because I wanted to find the best location for the sensors. I wasn't sure the pissers would be the best place because I thought the water coming out of these kind of bypasses the engine somewhat but I may be way off. I was kind of thinking if I could put a "T" where the ECM temp sensor is now but I wasn't sure if it was an actual water temp sensor or a head temp type sensor like Ford uses. It actually never touches the liquid coolant. It basically reads the temp of the aluminum head. If anyone knows if our 1.8L temp sensors "touch" the water please enlighten me.

So far I have found 2 water heat sensors one on the exhaust and the one on the block under the intake manifold it is a Ford type no water jacket pentation. My gage on the pissers are still great info knowing the thermostats are around 180 to 190 I just add 100 to my normal reading of 87 degrees at 2000rpm no wake speed on my 40 min trip out of my canals to the bay in FL.......76 water temp 85 air temp. If one engine shot up in temp ect at lease Ill know something a miss and knowing which engine is having trouble a must for me.

Shutting engines down after a long run I see 122 on start up heat soaked engines add my 100, she's around 222..... no over heat alarms at that temp and that is in the same ball park as my Merc 5.7 V8