Aetna digital or Faria Chesapeake gauges?

I went ahead with this little project tonight but ended up doing something a little different. I lucked out and had a 3”x3” Home Depot rubber plumbing pipe joint that also had 3-5” hose clamps on it. I cut that to height with a razor blade and if turns out it perfectly fits around the Aetna inside the housing and keeps it extremely secure. I did use the Aetna bracket to hold it in place as well. The only thing is I wish I did the black bezels now but otherwise they look nice, and easy to disassemble.
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Oh, and anyone who is adding aetnas and wants wood trim rings I’m happy to pay it forward and send these your way like @dtfeld did for us last year
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I finally just placed my order. One of my gauges jumps all over and once it does settle down, its consistently 150 rpm higher than the other. I'll be very curious to see how off both of my gauges likely were. Also i found that Commongroundmarine carries these and they're about 20% cheaper than ordering from Aetna direct.
 
Ok,
So I got the new ones. Doing the swap Saturday. Doesn't look like just a quick change over and they are far from plug and play.

Pulled out the old ones. In the process of getting the bezel off of one to get the old tach out I cracked the glass. How did you get it off without cracking the glass?

Then as others have done I cut a hole in the back of the old housing to run wires. I went with the home depot rubber pipe joint idea to fill the circumference of the smaller new tach.

Here is where I loss interest in changing them out. On a 460 the wires are pretty short so it looks like I would have to lengthen them to reach the terminals of the new tach, also the fit of the old housing with the rubber joint seamed pretty loose still. Oh and just for the hell of it I hooked one up with out the housing and it read zero.

The bummer part is flounder pounder only sells the tach as a complete unit. You just cant order the glass... " do any of you know where I can"

So what I am asking. Those of you that have done the swap out. Could you maybe add to your pictures a brief explanation to your whole process.

Thanks for the help.
 
Another question about the Aetna gauges. Are the RPMs absolutely accurate or for WOT purposes should the engines still be looked at with a magnetic tape and gun? Just wondering if the Aetna gauge at WOT is accurate. If so, I should confirm my linkage is allowing WOT and then look at the props. Starboard shows 2835 at WOT while port was 2675.
 
Aetna uses a tooth counter in the bell housing which was supplied by Sea Ray on both Cummins and Caterpillar engines. Aetna then manipulates the tooth count based on how you set the dip switches in the tach but none of that is affected by the throttle linkage unless it was always set incorrectly. Everyone I know just installs the Aetnas and runs them with no problems.
 
Aetna uses a tooth counter in the bell housing which was supplied by Sea Ray on both Cummins and Caterpillar engines. Aetna then manipulates the tooth count based on how you set the dip switches in the tach but none of that is affected by the throttle linkage unless it was always set incorrectly. Everyone I know just installs the Aetnas and runs them with no problems.


Thats what I thought. Just wanted to make sure the readings were accurate and if so my port engine at WOT is a little low. I'll confirm the linkage is allowing WOT and if is then I'll have the props sent out.
 
Thats what I thought. Just wanted to make sure the readings were accurate and if so my port engine at WOT is a little low. I'll confirm the linkage is allowing WOT and if is then I'll have the props sent out.

I’d shoot them at the dock in neutral (warm the engine up to operating temp!) just to be sure they’re accurate. For what it’s worth, mine are accurate all the way up and down with no variation.

not a bad idea to get the props scanned and I don’t want to sidetrack the thread but we had something similar that turned out to be a few issues. I’d change your racors/fuel filters and clean the airsep filter before you pull the boat just to be sure they’re breathing properly.
 
Caterpillar uses a laser tach to verify rpms.

If you had OEM Telelflex tachs, then the chances are the tach is your problem and the chance to Aetnas will solve the problem.

A boat owned by a savy owner (and as I recall, your boat did have a good previous owner) is not likely to have one prop with the wrong pitch.

Since you are going to change to Aetnas anyway, it isn't going to cost you anything but an hour of your time to install them and t hen you can eliminate the tach as the problem.

And, here is a final test......from an owner who has run a 450DA with Cat engines for 24 years and a lot of engine hours......take the boat out and run it at WOT....if there is truly 160 rpm difference, then the bow rails will shake and vibrate like the dickens. If they do, turn on the synchronizer and let the engines sync themselves at 2675rpm. If the vibration in the bow rails persists, then the props are the problem.
 
I already swapped the old teleflex gauges for the Aetna gauges. Also replaced the 3 faded dash sections, put in all new faria Chesapeake gauges, swapped out the e80 for an Axiom 12 Pro, put in 2 new salon refrigerators, had Aquamarine traction flooring installed and am half way complete with the JL Audio stereo install.

Still getting a feel for all of the systems and performance and decided to run them to WOT with the new Aenta gauges this weekend. Thats when I noticed the RPMs being a little low on the port engine. I'll have to read the manual to see how to turn on/activate the engine synchronizer.

Love the boat so far, I'll figure out the WOT issue and wish the salon ac was a little cooler. Was 92 this weekend and the cabin was cool (thermostats set to 65) but was never really cold.

Also ordered the new swim platform today which I knew had to be done when I bought the boat.
 
Ok,
So I got the new ones. Doing the swap Saturday. Doesn't look like just a quick change over and they are far from plug and play.

bump:
Pulled out the old ones. In the process of getting the bezel off of one to get the old tach out I cracked the glass. How did you get it off without cracking the glass?

Then as others have done I cut a hole in the back of the old housing to run wires. I went with the home depot rubber pipe joint idea to fill the circumference of the smaller new tach.

Here is where I loss interest in changing them out. On a 460 the wires are pretty short so it looks like I would have to lengthen them to reach the terminals of the new tach, also the fit of the old housing with the rubber joint seamed pretty loose still. Oh and just for the hell of it I hooked one up with out the housing and it read zero.

The bummer part is flounder pounder only sells the tach as a complete unit. You just cant order the glass... " do any of you know where I can"

So what I am asking. Those of you that have done the swap out. Could you maybe add to your pictures a brief explanation to your whole process.

Thanks for the help.
 

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