New Member - Information Sponge

Hello All,

I've enjoyed reading posts over the years as I did research leading up to finally purchasing a little sundeck trawler just a week ago! I'm very excited, but I also have a lot to learn, especially about maintaining my machinery, learning what is normal, what are warning signs, tips, tricks and so on.

I already have a new thread in mind. I have done a forum search and there isn't anything quite right regarding normal operating engine temperature and were to measure it with a pyrometer.

See you deep down, way way down, in the forums...

tegdesign

Greetings,
Welcome aboard. "...learning what is normal..."

Welcome! Lots to learn, but most of all have fun

By pyrometer, do you mean a hand-held, infra-red temperature "gun" or an actual pyrometer, which is a probe mounted in the exhaust flow to measure and display the temperature of the exhaust on a gauge, and thus get an idea of what's happening in the combustion chambers?

If you mean the former, I don't know anything about them other than they exist. There have been discussions about using these from time to time over the years so an archives search using infra-red thermometer should get you the posts in which they were talked about.

If you mean an actual pyrometer, the ideal setup is to have a probe in the exhaust manifold outside every cylinder and a selector to switch the display from one cylinder to another.

The more typical setup in boats like ours is to have a single probe mounted at or near the end of the exhaust manifold which will give you an average reading of the temperatures coming out of each cylinder. This is what we have in our boat for each engine. In the photo the pyrometer probe is the fitting in the side of the exhaust elbow with the wire attached to it.

For our engines (FL120s) at our cruising rpm of 1650, the exhaust temperature at the probe is about 550-600 degrees. If we work the engine harder, the temperature immediatly goes up, if we back the power off, the temperature immediatly goes down. The value of the EGT (Exhaust Gas Temperature) display is that it shows you how hard your engine is working because its reading is a direct reading of the exhaust.

Marin, thank you. I guess what I mean is an infrared gun. I bought the boat with unreliable temperature guages. I won't be able to remedy that for a while so I bought one of the hand held guages my surveyor used. So I'm trying to figure out what temperature my volvo tmd41a raisers should be at 2500 rpm. And what red flag temp I should shut down at before I would cause damage should something go wrong. I will search infrared thermometer.

You should have:

Exhaust elbow
Coolant elbow above thermostat
Coolant connection below thermostat
Somewhere on the oil line/pan

Doesn't matter what these are the first time, important is to establish a baseline.

We bought our 1986 Nova Sundeck in December, 1999, and have found it a good boat for the money, but it has a tender hull due to too much top hamper. Not fun in a beam sea.
The twin Volvo TMD40s have been good engines but Volvo does not support legacy engines, thus replacement parts are hard to come by.

Sundecks Rule!

Welcme Aboard!

BAFX Products Non Contact Infrared (IR) Thermometer Range of -58F to 1, 022F Includes Battery: Science Lab Digital Thermometers: Amazon.com: Industrial & Scientific

i use one of these.

Mainship 34

Hello Gang,
Just wanted to say I enjoy all of the responses to the questions. I especially like the humor side of things because without laughter, what would we have. Purchased the Mainship 34 circa 1982 and have begun the transformation. Will be on the forum pretty much everyday. Thanks again in advance for the help.
Best

ancora said:

We bought our 1986 Nova Sundeck in December, 1999, and have found it a good boat for the money, but it has a tender hull due to too much top hamper. Not fun in a beam sea.
The twin Volvo TMD40s have been good engines but Volvo does not support legacy engines, thus replacement parts are hard to come by.

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Thanks for the introduction. I have a 36. Is that the same model you have? For some reason it looks bigger in your photo. Where is your home port?

We are in Greenwich, CT. I finally made the break from center console fishing boats to a larger, which seems to me much larger, cruiser. Got a great deal and she is squeaky clean. Funny what 3 boys and my wife will do to your perspective when looking at boats. How have things been with the Nova? I see that it rocks a lot, the Mainship does the same. Wife getting used to it. Boys think it's great.

KenPond said:

We are in Greenwich, CT. I finally made the break from center console fishing boats to a larger, which seems to me much larger, cruiser. Got a great deal and she is squeaky clean. Funny what 3 boys and my wife will do to your perspective when looking at boats. How have things been with the Nova? I see that it rocks a lot, the Mainship does the same. Wife getting used to it. Boys think it's great.

Click to expand...

We are loving it so far! So much to learn about systems. I think the boat handles very well so far. The owner said to load it up as it was light without all the personal gear, and that it would be much more comfortable. We have only been out a few times. The first trips were light, and since then we have topped off the water tanks and moved some personal stuff aboard. Noticeable difference. Feels more solid and tracks better. We have a huge deep keel for a hard chined boat. But we are used to a 31 Cal sailboat. Rolly Polly.