No Oil Pressure on 3208T

[tmarshall]

So the winter has been rough here in Norfolk. I have been dealing with Charger/Battery problems and think I have them worked out (mostly). Just when I thought everything was going good I started the engines, twin 3208T. I always watch the oil pressure when I start them. The port started with oil pressure very high, 80 PSI but quickly dropped to the normal range. The Starboard however, twitched and went to zero PSI. My heart sank. I let it run for about 30 seconds thinking that it must just be cold. It never went up and the engine started hunting as it does when its cold. I shut it down. Before I shut it down I noticed that the Voltage was at zero also? I did need to parallel the batteries to start it but the Gage reading zero is not normal it had enough voltage to at least trip the solenoid in the starter not zero. I am thinking it is a gage problem??? I dont know. If there was an engine oil pressure issue wouldnt the engine be tapping and banging? How do I determine if it is a Gage malfunction or a true oil pressure issue? I am back on an active submarine and have been going to sea a lot but the motors are started at least once a week. Last week this issue was non existent. Any help including test measures anyone could provide would be awesome. Thanks guys! -Thom

[franklyprice]

Thom, It sounds like you lost the power feed to the gauge. I would get a test light behind the dash and find out what does and does not have power. If you can't find a problem there, the failsafe way to check your engine is to get a mechanical gauge and screw it right to the sender hole on the engine, then you'll know for sure. Electric gauges are sometimes problematic, I'd be surprised if you did lose oil pressure. Yes , without pressure your engine would make some noise but it may take awhile , like 30 seconds or so but when it makes noise it's doing some damage, so we don't want that to happen. Not sure if it's the best thing for the motors to just have them started once a week, they really need to get run hard to get the temps up or else you can run into condensation issues and possibly fuel fouling in the cylinders. I have found with my Cummins that if I run them for a short amount of time the water jacketed exhaust elbows tend to chill the exhaust gases enough that the water condenses out of the exhaust and I have condensation forming inside the elbow, near the turbo and sometimes inside the turbo. For this reason I'm considering getting rid of the water jacketed elbows and going to a dry tube with a wet shower head type arrangement. Kind of a long response but I hope it helps.

[CB35]

Gauge problem. Check grounds. By all means install mechanical gauges. I have oil, water temp and transmission pressure installed in the engine room. When an electrical gauge acts up I just check the mechanicals in the engine room. The 3208 has several places to connect the mechanical gauges.