Small outboard instrumentation

[chris-s]

A question directed at those of us who’s sailing boats use an outboard for ‘ic’ propulsion, mine being a 6hp Tohatsu. After a recent trip which saw us motor for two 12 hour stretches, I was wondering what instrumentation would be nice to have.

So, what, if any, single instrument do you think would be nice to have on a small fourstroke outboard in this use case scenario.

Tachometer? Cylinder head temperature? Coolant temperature? Exhaust gas temperature?

 

[KevinV]

Hour meter - dead simple to do if you have charging from outboard - useful for maintaining service intervals
Fuel/hr meter - much more useful, for calculating range - no idea how to do

 

[William_H]

Well it is a question OP might ponder in his boring o/b motoring journey. However best resist the thought or temptation. You do not need instrumentation and idf you do you will end up with wiring connections to a removable motor. Hour meter no your fuel consumed will be a good guide to need for service (oil change). RPM surely you can hear what it is doing. Temperature ? just look for tell tale and any sign of steam. ol'will

 

[AngusMcDoon]

A question directed at those of us who’s sailing boats use an outboard for ‘ic’ propulsion, mine being a 6hp Tohatsu. After a recent trip which saw us motor for two 12 hour stretches, I was wondering what instrumentation would be nice to have.

So, what, if any, single instrument do you think would be nice to have on a small fourstroke outboard in this use case scenario.

Tachometer? Cylinder head temperature? Coolant temperature? Exhaust gas temperature?

The more gadgets the better . Here you go...

YAPP: DIY outboard rev counter and hour meter

I've got the source code and hardware schematic so somewhere.

 

[Boathook]

The 'control box' for my honda 30 has warning lights for temp and oil. Only the temp has gone off after I mucked up the water pump whilst servicing the engine ashore. I also have an hour meter and rev counter both fed from the engine wiring loom. Rev counter is more useful as over the years I have found that keeping the engine below 3000 rpm makes quite a difference to fuel economy. I have also run the engine for around 20 hours in one stretch with no problem.
I have been told years ago by my honda engineer that the engine will run at full throttle all day, whether I could afford the fuel used is another matter.