Vessel View Engine Reading

Spyderweb

YYZRC said:

The non-OEM is cheap but for me it didn't work.  Pretty sure OEM is $100 USD.

Try $141.21 USD at Boats.net.  I'm kinda like @icoultha, like to have working right what I can see.

YYZRC

Gotta pay to play I suppose!

Dream_Inn

I think having the water pressure for me has been probably the best one I have on my vessel view.  Over the last 8 years with this boat I've had 3 different hoses come off.  I noticed them immediately on VV, which helped me shutdown and fix before any issues.  It has also helped me monitor conditions of how well my impeller are pumping.  At the end of 2 seasons it's always lower.  Another time it told me when I put my lift down that I didn't have prime. That was because of too worn out from scarring, so then I switched to the Hardin with plates.  My point is, I find extremely useful. 

 I do have one engine, stbd, for years that has has been 5 or so psi lower than the other.  That motor is also 5-7 degrees warmer.  I need to figure it out at some point.

LaRea

@Dream_Inn my experience mirrors yours.  It's a great diagnostic, and I have one side that's consistently lower than the other.  Based on other measures such as coolant temperature observed over multiple seasons, I think it's probably sensor bias rather than a faulty pump.  

kordo

I had a similar problem and tried everything mentioned above since they are the least expensive and most likely causing the problem.  No luck.  In my case the issue was a twisted water intake hose in the sterndrive.  New hose and works properly.  

oscar1

 water pressure sensor part #8M6000623 Cost $125.50

TonyA

Still having same issue. I installed new oem (147.00) with only a .3 change in pressure. Mechanic told me that under a certain pressure it activates the guardian system to protect the engine. 

Ian

Depends on engine I think, mine doesn't;t seem to care. Wally at Merc told me for mine it’s not used due to the low value at idle being unreliable for alarming. Perhaps in mine (2003) the ECM’s didn’t have any logic for looking at RPM an temps to relate properly.

Did you swap sensors between the engines and see the issue go with the sensor?

TonyA

I didn’t. Mechanic hooked up computer after I got a “water sensor” alarm and shut my engine down to idle. If this doesn’t solve the issue going to install new impeller.

Spyderweb

Followup on my water pressure sensor issues.  I replaced the low reading sensor with the 2nd OEM sensor and still got low readings.  Got thinking that maybe the original and 2 new ones aren't reading low, but rather the higher reading sensor is the bad one and reads too high.  Did some reading on other sites and it seems a typical reading while up on plane is 8-12 or so.  My high reading sensor was getting around 20.  So I reinstalled 2 low reading ones and recorded readings for several rpm levels.  While they don't read identical, on average they were within 7% of each other.  Here's a sample of some readings:
650 - 0.6-0.7
1100 - 2.2-2.5
1470 - 4.0-4.1
3870 - 7.3-8.0
3970 - 8.0-8.5
4100 - 7.8-8.3

Dream_Inn

FWIW, on plane (around 3800-4000rpm) one engine reads 19 and the other 21.  Another boat with same engines has both reading at 20.

Grahamu

@Spyderweb those sample readings are very close to my readings for both engines, Merc 350 MPI

Spyderweb

@Dream_Inn might your engines be big blocks and that accounts for higher psi design?
Mine are Merc 350 MPI, same as @Grahamu.

Dream_Inn

Spyderweb said:

@Dream_Inn might your engines be big blocks and that accounts for higher psi design?
Mine are Merc 350 MPI, same as @Grahamu.

mine are 496.  So that is possible.