I just installed a Vessel View mobile unit on my new to me 2010 Mercury 50 HP EFI mounted on a old 15' Boston Whaler.
The previous owner seemed like a reasonably diligent guy in terms of maintenance, but who knows about the guy before him, so this seemed like an inexpensive way to get some insight into the beast. Plus, I like to know what's going on in my motor. Being stranded may be fun for me, but rarely for any passengers along. And, if the truth be told, I'm a geek, I admit it, and this thing seemed neat.
Install was easy, config was easy, adding "gauges" was also not too bad. But there were a couple of things that caused me to go "huh"?
The first was that it complained that there was no horn on the Starboard engine. I only have one engine, and I told it I only have one engine, so I told it to not bug me again about this again.
More importantly though, I noticed a couple of weird gauge readings once out on the water.
The oil temperature read 32 degrees F for the whole trip, which is unexpected for a black motor sitting out in the sun on an 80 degree day.
Oil pressure was OK, kinda. It read 5 PSI at idle, but ran up to 60 PSI at 1500 RPM. These numbers seem a little low and a little high to me, but I admit to knowing nothing about outboards; small block Chevys are more my thing.)
The other thing it showed was a water pressure of 0. This is disconcerting, as reading water pressure is one of the things I'm very interested in monitoring. I've had an impeller failure on my sailboat's diesel which caused it to overheat, and so am pretty conscious of engine cooling systems.
(Thankfully, I was able to sail all the way back home to the inner harbour of Vancouver, under a couple of bridges, and eventually dock. The wind was enough to move me but light enough to not cause a problem, and coming from just the right direction; I got lucky. The only problem was the Coast Guard, who followed along very close by. They were pretty sure I was doing something wrong, sailing in such a confined space, but weren't quite sure what. I acted like this is how I got home every day, no biggie, even though my heart was POUNDING.)
Anyway, there's no sails on my Whaler, so best to not have this happen.
Can anyone shed any light on my funny readings?
Thanks in advance.
The previous owner seemed like a reasonably diligent guy in terms of maintenance, but who knows about the guy before him, so this seemed like an inexpensive way to get some insight into the beast. Plus, I like to know what's going on in my motor. Being stranded may be fun for me, but rarely for any passengers along. And, if the truth be told, I'm a geek, I admit it, and this thing seemed neat.
Install was easy, config was easy, adding "gauges" was also not too bad. But there were a couple of things that caused me to go "huh"?
The first was that it complained that there was no horn on the Starboard engine. I only have one engine, and I told it I only have one engine, so I told it to not bug me again about this again.
More importantly though, I noticed a couple of weird gauge readings once out on the water.
The oil temperature read 32 degrees F for the whole trip, which is unexpected for a black motor sitting out in the sun on an 80 degree day.
Oil pressure was OK, kinda. It read 5 PSI at idle, but ran up to 60 PSI at 1500 RPM. These numbers seem a little low and a little high to me, but I admit to knowing nothing about outboards; small block Chevys are more my thing.)
The other thing it showed was a water pressure of 0. This is disconcerting, as reading water pressure is one of the things I'm very interested in monitoring. I've had an impeller failure on my sailboat's diesel which caused it to overheat, and so am pretty conscious of engine cooling systems.
(Thankfully, I was able to sail all the way back home to the inner harbour of Vancouver, under a couple of bridges, and eventually dock. The wind was enough to move me but light enough to not cause a problem, and coming from just the right direction; I got lucky. The only problem was the Coast Guard, who followed along very close by. They were pretty sure I was doing something wrong, sailing in such a confined space, but weren't quite sure what. I acted like this is how I got home every day, no biggie, even though my heart was POUNDING.)
Anyway, there's no sails on my Whaler, so best to not have this happen.
Can anyone shed any light on my funny readings?
Thanks in advance.