Beta marine 20hp - overheating ideas please

[vyv_cox]

So why was the fresh water return cold? The heat exchanger only cools it by a few degrees so there is no way it should feel cool.

 

[Oldgeezer]

That one -

"The flexible hose that connects to the bottom of the fresh water pump was cold (is that right?)"

I'm assuming that's the return. It is a thick flexible pipe that I felt again today. It was still quite cool (although not cold) today after 1hr running - I guess after running 20 mins previously with the engine bay cover off and access open it would have felt cold. The heat exchanger was certainly cool enough to rest your hand on today after 1hr.

 

[earlybird]

. The heat exchanger was certainly cool enough to rest your hand on today after 1hr.

That's different from my Beta 25, or have you got asbestos hands?. After an hour of running under load, the heat exchanger is uncomfortably hot to the touch, which is what I would expect.
The manual quotes a normal operating temperature of 85 deg. for control panels fitted with temperature gauges.

 

[vyv_cox]

That's different from my Beta 25, or have you got asbestos hands?. After an hour of running under load, the heat exchanger is uncomfortably hot to the touch, which is what I would expect.
The manual quotes a normal operating temperature of 85 deg. for control panels fitted with temperature gauges.

Yes. The outer part of the heat exchanger contains the coolant, with seawater running through the tubes. The coolant temperature, as earlybird says, should be somewhere around 85C. There is almost nowhere on an indirectly cooled engine that should feel cool to the touch except the seawater supply from the pump to the heat exchanger.