volvo penta engine panel change out

[Silver_Surfer]

looking for any fellow members that have changed out the standard engine instrument panel (with tach and idiot lights) to the deluxe model with tach and gauges for oil, water and alt.
i have bought a used model off ebay and trying to see if the problems I’m experiencing are the panel or compatibility issues.
using the deluxe harness supplied with the panel the engine starts and the alt gauge works and that’s about it.
i've asked two different vp suppliers and one says its plug and play and the other says i have to swap out sending units for oil and water.
tach is another question: no read out from VDO with hour meter.
so if you accomplished one of these swap outs let me know
thanks
john

engine 3cyl 2003 diesel
1981 37 baltic

[colemj]

Yes, the senders supplied with the basic panel are only on/off idiot light senders. You need to replace them with proper ones. The tach needs to be set for your engine/alt - VDO has instructions for this on their website. This assumes the tach has power to it, though.

Mark

[Silver_Surfer]

thanks, i thought that was the case since volvo penta site has sending units marked as deluxe.
the VDO gauge i set up using their downloaded instructions. its set for 4 stroke 3cyl engine. the tach does its test, maxs out and back to zero then nothing. i see you can set up rpms figuring the "pulse" of the alt by a formula crankshaft pulley dia and alt dia, number of poles but it just a alternative to doing type engine input from what i understand. so i feel its something more thanthe set up.
i removed the wire to the oil sending unit to see if it would make a difference but no it still pegs to the right when keyed on and also with engine running.
one question i'm haven't figured out is the electrical junction box that is on the engine where the harness connects to, it has 7 pins i wonder if there are more pins, inputs, for a deluxe set up? or in different positions? i added pics for example.

going to order sending units, and a new fuse box that resides on top of juction box along with the relay unit since its kinda coroaded.
boat sat for sometime before i got her.
i guess i'm going to isolate the oil pressure gauge to make sure its not a short or cross up on the wiring on the panel. most of the time my ebay buys are wins, sometimes not so much.
thanks
john

[colemj]

On ours, with the basic panel, the existing wire harness had all the wires and pins as the deluxe harness. The only difference was that the wires not used in the basic panel were folded back into the harness sheath on both ends. To add oil pressure and temperature, all I did was buy and install standard VDO senders and gauges, pull out the unused wires and hook them up to the new senders and gauges.

Mark

[Cuttyhunk]

Originally Posted by colemj

On ours, with the basic panel, the existing wire harness had all the wires and pins as the deluxe harness. The only difference was that the wires not used in the basic panel were folded back into the harness sheath on both ends. To add oil pressure and temperature, all I did was buy and install standard VDO senders and gauges, pull out the unused wires and hook them up to the new senders and gauges.

Mark

Thanks for that info. That's what I want to do, and it's great to hear that someone else has done so with success. I hate not having a water temp reading. How else can I tell that my thermostat is functioning properly? Especially up here in New England, I want some verification that the engines are getting hot enough. The idiot light will just tell me when they are too hot.

[Cheechako]

Do you have an external regualtor on your alternator? If so, sometimes the tach will not read at times, epecially if your batteries are full....

[Silver_Surfer]

ok, so just get the vdo senders and not the volvo penta? probably the same i assume. the other factor is the deluxe panel came with a harness so i can use either i suppose.
will try to diagnose the tach and oil gauges issues and see what happens when i install the correct sending units.
just one more thing, colemj, did your deluxe panel have the VDO tach with lcd hour window? reason i ask because when i talked to the volvo penta reps they say you have to input the correct engine "code" for my engine, a 3cyl 2003 diesel, which they said is "6". when i go to the downloaded VDO instructions it says to input the type of engine, 4 for 4 stroke and then code for how many cyl.'s which is 3.
maybe there was a volvo penta branded tach gauge that has a different way to set up? i understand an earlier model had a lower rev limit, perhaps that is what they are referring to. in the deluxe panel i have my tach is branded VDO, 4k limit(like the pic), and the oil, alt, water temp are volvo penta.
thanks for your quick reply. i too am concerned having just a idiot light to go by. i have a infra red gun but hate to have to ckd periodically and leave the helm to do so.

[Silver_Surfer]

have alternator and the pick up is on the W terminal tach on standard panel works but a no go on the deluxe.
there is a few calibration mods i can do on the VDO one is to raise/lower the value/needle? supposed to have a external tach to verify this adjustment. just thinking maybe its set really low where it doesn't display correctly. or attach current tach inputs and jumper to deluxe tach and see if its the tach or the wiring.

[colemj]

To clarify, we do not have a deluxe panel - I installed separate gauges for oil and temp to complement our existing basic panel. The tach on our basic panel has the lcd hour meter like the one in your picture and is definitely a VDO product. I don't have the Volvo tach instructions in reach right now, but I remember them being the same as those on the VDO site. Did you try putting a "6" in? The Volvo panels are used across large swaths of their entire model range, so I don't think there is anything Volvo specific about setting it up.

But I haven't had to do it, so I don't have much good info for you there.

Mark

[Silver_Surfer]

i'm going to ask the mechanic and supplier where and what value do you enter a code "6"
on the VDO tach its a 2 part input under the "select" mode like i mentioned
how many cycles/strokes? its 4
how many cylinders? 3

you have a paperclip or whatever in hole in rear of tach, hold down detent and turn on key release when on select and then enter values

talked to helmuts marine here in bay area, they say volvo penta made they're own tachs and set up using the simplified eng code method.
will have to sort out if my tach/wiring is correct.
thanks for the help. will post a when complete.

[Silver_Surfer]

hey all, just a late follow up. finally have deluxe panel gauges working properly. tach was off due to pulses sensed, took reading with multi-meter that measured them off alt. found original NOS harness pin/socket receptacles at local electronics store in San Mateo,ca. to redo harness off engine as it was not prewired for deluxe panel. some issue on connecting D+ for indication light/idiot sensor, as alarm kept going off. the next challenge was finding a new control panel box to house deluxe panel. bought one online, from moyer marine, the large size, and since it wasnt exactly the dimensions i needed, not deep enough, i was going to use it as a base and modify. was made rather flimsy and acutually could poke my finger through the plastic at the corners.
so my friend has a new shop and said he could fabricate a new one out of fiberglass, i think he did a great job and is just needing to attach glassed boxed back section.
also i have a older volvo-penta diesel, as i said, and new B&G Zeus system, which can monitor just about any engine info on the MFD but was told by local dealer that the old engines cant be added via nmea backbone.
not true, Actisense EMU-1 will do it. next project!
thanks for the response from all
john


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[yobird]

Looking at doing the exact swap and part from mdi for ever...
How do I start, I have a list of guages, no part numbers. Any info appreciated.