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3208 ta temp question

realcaptron

Regular Contributor
I am helping a friend who just bought a 44' Veneti with the twin 3208's. Hours on the motors say about 2000. We did oil sample which came back good on port side, but elevated aluminum on starboard which "could" indicate cylinder wear. He decided to proceed with purchase without retest.
Both engines emit a little white smoke on start up and at cruise of about 2100 rpms. Not unlike that from my son's Detroits on a bigger boat. Temp gage on port climbed to about 175ish at cruise and up to 2800. Starboard side temp gage had to be tapped to work, but it climbed to 210 at either speed. I shot both motors all over the place with ir gun and could not find a 200* reading. Highest I think I saw was 180ish. Again, since I have experienced the phenomena of temp gage inaccuracy vs a temp gun, not sure if he should be overly concerned. No black smoke from either side.
I think I will advise him to get a good cat guy to give the motors a once over, but I appreciate any feedback as to any red flags I should be looking for as I help him, as well as to opinions on the 3208 ta's.
Also, on this boat, this is strange to me.. the starboard side is using the house bank of 6v batts AND paralleled to the 8d for cranking, while the port side cranks off the 8d alone. Not sure why it would be configured like that.
 
You could quite easily swap the temp senders between the two engines to see if that 'cures' the overheat problem. If these are the 375 hp engines then the air filters can be prone to oiling up due to the way the breather is set up. It can also mean the aftercoolers getting oiled up on the air side and losing some efficiency. Some people like to fit air/oil separators on the breather to improve this setup. There are both Cat and aftermarket products for this.
Are the batteries for the stbd engine permanently paralleled or is there a solenoid that parallels them for starting? If they are permanently paralleled the most likely reason is for charging and may have been done like that when the original VSR or whatever as there failed. If there is a parallel solenoid just for starting then I am guessing that the stbd wire run length to the batteries is longer than the port one or the cables are just too small in diameter and the batteries are being paralleled to help compensate.
 
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