New Raw Water Flow Sensor From MMI

[ndutton]

1. You are correct on all counts. Enhancing the existing alarm system with a flow sensor (or two for the FWC guys) gives you more triggers for an alarm event. When the alarm sounds you must shut the engine down regardless of the cause and start the search. This is the same as the basic alarm system not differentiating between over temp and dangerously low oil pressure.

2. The electric FWC system gives us another way to achieve the same goal. It's particularly useful for us Catalina 30 guys and others who have zero room on the front of the flywheel and zero clearance higher than the #1 spark plug. We can mount the pump remotely.

3. I added the flow sensor and replaced the cam shoe at the same time. Going against good engineering and troubleshooting practice (I had no trouble though) I changed two things simultaneously. It was a given the sensor would add a slight restriction and I was thinking of the M7 shoe even before adding the sensor so what better time? Without measurement to prove it I'm confident the flow benefit of the M7 cam shoe trumped the minor restriction of the sensor resulting in a net increase in raw water flow and a corresponding net reduction in engine operating temperature.

[ndutton]

I received a PM from a member saying he'd found the source for MMI's flow sensor. He found it on ebay for $6 but he wasn't going to disclose this information on the forum. I'm posting it publicly in case anyone else is thinking the same thing.

Problem #1
Does anyone really think MMI would take an off the shelf $6 item and resell it for over $40? Really?

Problem #2 or go ahead, make my day
Without disclosing the details except for a promise that it won't work, go ahead and buy a $6 ebay sensor and hook it up to your existing engine alarm system. Your only penance will be to honestly report back with the result.

[BunnyPlanet169]

#1 - from the other items on the website, the answer is not likely. Markup seems to be a modest handling and overhead. They have to buy it, stock it, count it, and ship it for me to get it in 2 business days. It costs money to hold inventory. MMO, pump impellers, etc. Gaskets are market or better (better being very reasonable and/or difficult to unobtainable elsewhere.)

#2 - From another perspective - I have called MMI to order parts, only to have Ken talk me out of them until I '...tried something first...' Sometimes it worked, sometimes not, BUT THE INTEGRITY of the operation is OUTSTANDING. That resource, this forum, will keep me within the MMI family of parts wherever possible.

[ndutton]

Because of the simple fact of distance and shipping time, I've sourced many A-4 parts locally and found MMI pricing to be at least comparable and often times better.

My confidence is when buying from Moyer I know the product has been researched, scrutinized and successfully tested in advance. There's value in that. Besides, this forum they host is my drug of choice.

[joe_db]

One thing that might be an issue is the flow switch is a catch point for debris. Not that debris won't cause issues someplace else, but I would suggest a strainer go along with this.

Another thought: Long ago airplanes got so many warnings and alarms that they will drive you nuts. A great invention is the "master caution light/alarn". You can wire up a system where all the various sensors set off their own warning light and trigger the one master light/buzzer that gets your attention.

[tenders]

Anybody who puts a piece of mystery Chinese equipment below their waterline deserves whatever they get. Even if the Moyer piece only costs him $5 it's worth a lot more than $40 to me to have found a component from the hundreds floating around on eBay that doesn't have one key piece made from mild steel or cheap plastic that's going to fall apart after three weeks in salt water.