Arona diesel - a question

[NevisDog]

My Arona AD 290 (marinized Lombardini) on our recently acquired sailboat still runs well despite showing its age with rust and grime.

My question - where can I attach a sensor to fit a new oil pressure gauge?

I've looked everywhere (though the port side of the engine is quite difficult to access) and can find nothing resembling a possible attachment point for an oil pressure sensor. Unfortunately some of the pages of the manual have become stuck together due to an obvious soaking (probably when she had a close encounter with a reef some years back) and the lubricating system page is one of them. Anyone familiar with these engines?

[gjordan]

I am not familiar with that engine, but I would assume that there is some kind of oil pressure gauge or idiot light on the engine panel now. See if you can trace wiring back to the engine and you should find some kind of sending unit unless it has a mechanical gauge and there is a flex pipe screwed into the block. If you have a gauge that isnt working, you are likely to find it to be just a wire corroded off, or loose. If the problem isnt a wire loose, and you need to replace the sender and gauge, it might be a good time to put a dual sender that gives a reading to the gauge and a second wire for an audible alarm. When motoring for any length of time it is easy to not pay attention to a gauge, but if an alarm starts going off you quickly start checking everything. I hope this helps. _____Grant.

[NevisDog]

Originally Posted by gjordan

... See if you can trace wiring back to the engine...

Thanks Grant,
Yes that was my hope, remove old pressure gauge where the needle never moved, follow wire back to engine, remove sender unit and replace. Great! So I followed the wire, which ran for three feet behind the under-deck, then was chopped off, the end covered with electrical tape - not good. Next I searched the engine around the oil filter, port side, crammed up against a bulkhead, difficult to see (and near impossible to get the dip-stick back in its hole) - not good. So I removed part of the f&a bulkhead (a sort of hatch area screwed in place), removed said oil filter and ran a bright torch all over the dark side of the engine - nothing, no sender, no removal plug that I can see, just bolts (and rust, and grime - not good).

I can only guess the original engine was replaced at some point and the old gauge was left there, unattached to anything. I've just about abandoned the idea, will instead replace the water temperature warning light and switch (which doesn't seem to work) with a temp gauge and sender. The temp gauge can slot in where the old oil pressure gauge was located. I'll try to fit an over-temperatue alarm also, as an alarm seems a great idea, and any alarm must be better than none?

Apologies for such a long story about not much.

[gjordan]

Lambardini made tractors before they made high end race cars. They still make tractors and I believe are sold world wide. See if you can locate a tractor dealer and get information from them on the oil sender location. What you have is a marinized tractor/industrial engine and there might be manuals available online. Good Luck with it. _____Grant.

[NevisDog]

The mechanical shop at the port here is a Lombardini agent. I talked to him yesterday and he said (as far as he knew anyway) there was no location for an oil sender on these old engines. That's when his electrical guy (really helpful) suggested fitting a temperature gauge instead, plus an alarm as you suggested. Since there is a location (and wiring) for a temp light, should be really simple to fit a temp sender and gauge, and not too hard to fit a temp alarm.

I think there are adapters around that fit between the oil filter and the mount that allow sensors to be attached there but from what they were saying, oil pressure gauge is less important than an over-temp alarm on this ancient relic, so don't worry about it. I guess if anything major went wrong to cause a loss of oil pressure then it will never be repaired, just tossed and replaced. My thoughts now are that a simple replacement of the old gauge was a good idea at the time, but not if it involves adapters, modifications or expense.