MAN 1200hp engines

I'm trying to tell you WHY the gauge is in there in the first place. Quite honestly they are very common and I've managed or run 100 different boats that have them or more. Usually Sportfish for the reason I mentioned. Yeah if the engine is cold, the finger thing is fine if it's touching the first digit of my forefinger cold it's at the correct height, when the motor is hot and you have half your arm on the hot expansion tank to remove the cap it is not fine, but why have to remove the cap all of the time in the first place.......boats with overflow tanks you don't have to, you just look at the overflow tank. Not sure why MAN is allergic to using overflow tanks when Cat, Cummins, MTU and others use them. And not sure why you live on argueing symantics like you're in high school.

And with an overflow bottle, you can check coolant level underway with a quick glance. It’s a no brainer.

Because I am (often, I must say!) annoyed by your I-know-it-all comments, that's why.

Leaving aside the fact that your spelling is wrong, I wasn't arguing on semantics by any stretch of imagination.
And yes, in this particular instance I'm doing precisely that - can you spot the difference?

You keep talking nonsense, and when I try to explain why, you pretend you meant something else.
I can't be arsed to make a list of all your previous points, so let's just stick to the last one:
there's absolutely no need to "have half your arm on the hot expansion tank to remove the cap", and I wonder which boats you actually "managed", if you think you have to.
There are two filling necks on those HE boxes, on either sides of them, and they are specifically meant to have the opening cap always on the inner sides of both engines.
So, you can grab the cap with your hand without even touching the HE box, let alone stick your arm above it.
And this is true irrespective of how restricted the e/r ceiling clearance is.

The fact that the gauge and/or an overflow bottle could provide a better way to check the level is another matter altogether, and it's so obviously true that it's pointless to discuss it - in fact, I never did.
Quite the opposite, in fact: I wrote literally "I appreciate the convenience".
Which part of this sentence is so hard to understand?

If you only have 2 INCHES of clearance you need both hands to remove the cap, 1 to push it down and the other to grip the sides and twist it at the same time because you have no leverage to do it with one hand. Obviously you've never removed a cap off of one when your body is lower than the cap itself due to the ceiling height because either your right or left arm is going to be touching the heat exchanger while doing this. Yes MAN's have 2 caps, 1 50% larger than the other one and the larger one is much easier to drip due to it's shape. Also if the motor is still somewhat hot more than likely you're going to get hot coolant all over you and impossible to get an accurate reading. The gauges are great and work great and why they are there. Obviously you have never done this on a boat with low ceiling height.