I recently did a delivery, where the diesel gen set was shut down by an exhaust temperature sensor, when the impeller failed. This prevented any damage to the gen set's engine and it's systems. I was impressed by this, and started to research a system for my Beta 50. I found a suitable temperarure sensor from Borel Manufacturing. They also make an alarm, but it requires a 2" cut out that I was not willing to make, so I built a system into the Beta instrument panel. I had long ago disconnected the anoying green lamp, so I replaced that with a very bright red LED, and added a loud, continious alarm buzzer. This gives visual and audible warning when the exhaust temperature rises to 75 degrees C. There are unused wires in the harness, so the modification was simple, and cost less than $ 60.00 . This backs up the cooling water over temperature alarm inbuilt into the Murphy gauge. Cheap insurance for an expensive and vital bit of equipment!
-- Edited by Jenain on Wednesday 19th of August 2015 04:53:55 AM
One point to note for others is that it is ok to have an auto shut down on a generator but not on a propulsion engine. The reason is that if your air conditioning or refrigeration stop working it is not the end of the world but if your propulsion engine shuts down while you trying to dock with a cross wind, someone could lose a leg (or worse) trying to fend off the boat from the dock. The alarm warning is perfect for a propulsion engine as then the skipper can use his judgment as to when to shut down the engine.
Hi Stanley,
Unfortunately, with the amount of junk in oceans lately, especially here in S.E. Asia, it is not a question of if your raw water intake will be blocked, but when it will happen. After my last haul out, I had done less than 1 nm, when my engine was stopped by a length of rope about 2 inches diameter. The seas are full of plastic bags, netting, polystyrene etc, and the locals just do not care.
Perhaps Beta Marine could offer an exhaust temperature alarm as a option.? If it cost me $ 60.00, buying the parts at retail cost, Beta could do it for much less money.
We have had an exhaust temperature gauge and alarm for years, and kept it when we replaced our untrusty Volvo with a Beta 60 a couple of years ago
It will see loss of seawater to the cooling system much earlier than the standard cooling water temperature gauge.
Our gauge reads consistently about 15 deg C above seawater temperature.
A gauge (as opposed to a simple on/off alarm) will also indicate slow/partial plugging of seawater intake well before the danger zone.
