I recently purchased a boat that has a new (50 engine hours) Beta 38. 8-) The controls are via an ABVW Keyless four lamp panel. There is not a gauge for oil pressure or cooling water temperature. I would like to add these. They do not need to be placed at the control panel, I'm happy to have them in the cabin or even mounted on the engine if that is easier. Is there an option to do this? Are there instructions somewhere on how to do this? Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks very much!
If there is no hot water heater connected to the engine it is easy to fit a temp gauge as the fitting that would be used for the supply side of the hot water heater at the back of the cylinder head can have the temp sender for the gauge fitted.
If you do have hot water heater fittings on use on the engine it may be more economical lose the alarm sender for the panel that you have and use that position for the gauge sender and then fit the temp gauge in a prominent position so that you can monitor it.
Beta Marine gets by this problem by fitting Murphy Swichgages which use the gauge to trigger the alarm. You can read about these here http://www.dieselpartsdirect.com/Documents/murphy-specs/murphy-EGS-specs.pdf
As far as the oil pressure gauge is concerned, there is no other position to fit an oil sender. The solution here is to run a high pressure line from the block fitting where the oil switch is currently fitted to a T piece and then fit the oil sender and oil switch to this T piece. This T Piece will have to be grounded to the engine for the electrical connections to work.
Here you must be very careful as the engine has BSP thread on the ports for oil and temp switches and this is not the same as American BSP. If you are not sure how to proceed, I suggest enlisting the help from a competant mechanic.
Regards, Stanley
-- Edited by Stanley on Friday 10th of November 2017 01:03:37 PM
Thank you, this is very helpful. However, is there somewhere where I can download technical information about my Beta 38 engine? For example, when you suggest that I use the "supply side of the hot water heater at the back of the cylinder head " I don't know exactly what fitting I need to locate (there is no hot water connected to the engine). Is there a shop manual or other technical info I can purchase or download that will show where this is located and what it looks like? I am interested in locating and obtaining any technical information on the engine.
I have a similar question when it comes to the alternator. I am doing some troubleshooting of the electrical system and I cannot find any information about the alternator, the manufacturer's name or any other info. There is no label on the alternator (or if there is, it is in a place that is impossible to see without removing the alternator). Is there a way I can identify information about the alternator?
The information about hot water heater connections (called a calorifier in the UK) is in the engine owners / operators manual. If you don't have one, I suggest that you contact your nearest dealer or the west coast distributor for a replacement copy. You can also download this publication from the factory website. Go to this page and click on "literature" http://betamarine.co.uk/portfolio-item/beta-38/
There are different alternators supplied and I do not know which one is fitted to your particular engine. Again, please contact the west coast distributor and have the engine WOC number ready (this begins with K) and they can then let you know what the engine was supplied with. Here is their website https://www.betamarinewest.com/
