Water temp gauge

[spaul]

I have a Yanmar 20gm20 on my cp27/2. It has the idiot light for both water temp and for oil pressure. Has anyone modified your boat to include actual guages? If so I'm looking for part numbers, place to purchase etc. I know I haven't researched it fully but thought someone might have done this already.
Regards,
Steve Paul

[Craig Weis]

This is interesting...a temperature gage for the diesel...hummmmmmm
Well for my money a mechanical one is best. Stewart Warner comes to mind.
Auto Zone, Car Quest, NAPA, many others.
No Taiwan knock-offs...it may fails it could start peeing water all over the boat.
~Somewhere 'tween the engine and engine side of the thermostat. [If there is a thermostat].
~Mechanical requires a capillary tube. No electric wire.
~Do you want to just screw the gage into a removed plug on the motor with any necessary pipe?
~Metric or SAE standard pipe thread [APT.]
~Or do you want to poke a hole through a bulkhead or two to read the guage without lifting a cover?
~Do we cool with free flow sea water or through a heat exchanger?
~Open or closed system for the exchanger?
~Do you really need it? A guage. What to do if the 'churn' becomes too warm?
~What is too warm?
~Diesels ignite on heat of compression so it is important to keep proper temp. Run them too long 'dry' and they will be toast. Too long is just seconds. So a guage may not save the motor. But what do I know?

skip. Just thinking outload.