www.iFourWinns.com

Hello all, new to the Four Winns and new to the site and am mostly enjoying it so far. We decided on a bigger boat this year and sold our 1996 Sea Ray 210 and bought a 2001 Horizon 230. When we purchased the boat it just came from Water Werks getting a new sending unit for the oil psi and they assured it was getting oil psi from the engine from a mechanical gauge at the engine. So after a couple of trips of running great the alarm came back and the gauge drops to zero. The confusing part is it will come on at all different areas of power, full power, idle, or anywhere in between. I ran the boat all week at Kentucky Lake and if it truly was not getting oil psi I would be doing major work on the engine by now. So I am sure it is the VDO gauges or some faulty sender or switch. I would love to take to a dealer but the only one around is Indianapolis witch is over an hour away. Any help any one could throw my way would be great. I guess I will start with oil change to confirm correct oil, then go into the sending unit and switch, then if I have to the new independent gauges.

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Martin
2001 Horizon 230

There have been a lot of problems with that VDO gauge cluster, and I have seen a kit somewhere to replace that whole cluster with individual gauges like the older (and now newer) boats have. Is the gauge you have reading correct pressure and you are getting alarms, or is it reading low and you are getting an alarm? On my old boat, which has a 4.3 V-6, the pressures vary with engine temp and rpms. Hot idle oil pressure varies from about 20 psi to 40 depending on how hard the engine was run. After a long run on plane it will be around 20 psi, but if it sits and idles for a while and the oil cools off it will go back up to 40. This is with a straight 40 oil. If you have a Volvo they specified a synthetic straight 30 but you could use 20W-50, at least according to Volvo manuals I have seen.

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88 Four Winns 200 Horizon
4.3 OMC Cobra-4bbl
2002 Walker Bay 10/2012 Suzuki 2.5
2008 Walker Bay 8

1998 Jeep Grand Cherokee 4.0/Selectrac
2007 Jeep Grand Cherokee 5.7 Hemi/Quadradrive II

Im sorry the boat does have the 5.7 Volvo with Dual Prop. I have read up on forum here and have seen the replacement gauges and just want to make sure i exhaust all my options before spending the money for that change. Thank you for the input so far. When working the gauge seems to be in line with correct pressure when hot and or cold. When the alarm goes off it seems the needle to the gauge looses power and just drops to the left then the alarm will sound for about 6-8 beeps of the alarm and the light stays on until power is regained and all operates normal for a while.

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Martin
2001 Horizon 230

How about installing an inexpensive mechanical oil pressure gauge to test and be sure.

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2008 210SS 6.2L DTS Bravo 1 Now featuring MercMonitor w/SmartTow

that is what i understand water werks did to confirm the pressure on a temporary basis. Do you think maybe install one permanently? Still would like to get rid of the alarm or as we call it fish finder.

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Martin
2001 Horizon 230

Because the alarm is still there, I would want to confirm for myself. You could certainly leave the gauge connected permanently. Use a tee fitting or find an unused oil gallery plug.

Greg

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2008 210SS 6.2L DTS Bravo 1 Now featuring MercMonitor w/SmartTow

Thanks Greg I do agree I need some reassurance that it is getting pressure all the time. The way it fails it seems more electrical but you can never me to safe.

When the gauges fail do they all seem to fail or do some fail and not the others. the oil and trim is the only ones which seem to be giving me problems. I may have to bight the bullet and take it to the Four Winns dealer in Indy


http://m1119.photobucket.com/albumview/ ... 16do1blsAZ

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Martin
2001 Horizon 230

You must upload a photo to a web hosting server like flickr, photobucket, or something along those lines in order to post photos.

If the oil pressure come on for a bit and then drops total off, then comes back on you probably just have a lose connection. You can get a wiring schematic on the four winns website to try and track down the problem.

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99 Horizon 190 - Volvo 5.7
06 Sea Doo RXP (79 GPS) / 05 Sea Doo GTX Limited (74 GPS)

I found this post as I was researching the exact same thing on my 2001 Horizon 180.

First, the good news: this year has 2 oil pressure sending units; one that sets an alarm on the engine if the pressure drops below 6psi, and a separate one that runs the gauge on the dash. If you're not hearing a really loud beeping from the engine compartment, you're oil pressure is probably OK. I've been battling this gremlin for over 2 years; and my problem is that it only rears it's ugly head after 3-4 hrs or towing skiers, so it's impossible to replicate on the trailer.

Here's what I've done so far:
First, I replaced the sending unit for the gauge. It's a barrel-type single wire unit located on the top of the engine (port side) right between the throttle linkage and the distributor. That seemed to solve it, or so I thought. After several trips, it started up again, so I replaced the sender again. Again, after several trips it failed.

I plumbed a mechanical gauge and confirmed that when the gauge is reading all over the place, it's actually got a steady 30psi at idle.

Since the cluster is 1 unit, it's impossible ot disarm the alarm. However, I did check the 24-pin wiring harness, and there are 3 wires marked GND. On mine, the bare wire, in terminal 4 marked "GND (Power)" on the VDO wiring diagram was not grounded. I found a technical service bulletin that said to run a 16g or larger wire to the engine ground. I did that over the weekend, and ran it in the driveway, which checked out OK. I'll find out in a few weeks when we next take the boat out. But my suggestion is to check to see that the cluster is properly grounded.

Good luck.

Craig-o,Great research and information. Welcome. Stick around.

With the mechanical gauge you are assured and not guessing that you actually have oil pressure. Pretty important in my book.

Greg

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2008 210SS 6.2L DTS Bravo 1 Now featuring MercMonitor w/SmartTow