Floscan fuel flow meters - how to fix ?

[superheat6k]

My boat has Floscan 6000 series flow meters. Likely due too lack of boat use one of these is not reading any flow, the other is not very constant.

Is any one on here familiar with these systems ?

I suspect the turbine flow sensors may have become a bit stuck with some sludge. My plan is to remove the supply & return sensors and flush these out with either white spirit or kerosene.

Any tips on how to do this would be appreciated, as I understand these are high precision sensors, so I won't be poking anything in to try to free them off.

I wonder if an ultrasound cleaner might be useful.

Thanks

 

[skedaddle]

My boat has Floscan 6000 series flow meters. Likely due too lack of boat use one of these is not reading any flow, the other is not very constant.

Is any one on here familiar with these systems ?

I suspect the turbine flow sensors may have become a bit stuck with some sludge. My plan is to remove the supply & return sensors and flush these out with either white spirit or kerosene.

Any tips on how to do this would be appreciated, as I understand these are high precision sensors, so I won't be poking anything in to try to free them off.

I wonder if an ultrasound cleaner might be useful.

Thanks

A bit late to the party however

If you have the manual it outlines a method of testing to confirm the control head is seeing the flowsensors pulses. I think the manual is still available on the old Floscan site.
The other point is that.
If this is a Diesel application with both a forward flow and return flow sensor. You would expect at least some reading. No reading seems a bit curious, it could mean both sensors are not registering.
As for cleaning. If I had to. I would first try a aerosol type circuit board cleaner before getting more agressive with a aerosol Solvent type degreaser. Then run fuel thru the sensor to flush it. Would not be inclined to use the now more common Alkali types of Aerosol degreaser

As an aside:- The PO had wired my unit to have the Display back light permanently on. This lead to the premature failure of the Polarising Film on the displays ie they went dark. That was a PITA to get fixed. Highly recommend only using the back light when required

 

[rogerthebodger]

I would use a diesel pump to pump clean diesel through the sensor through the sensor while its still connected and compare the reading with the pump flow rate to tell if the sensor is working correctly.

This will also confirm that the display is working correctly

I di have a flowscan meter but never fitted it as it will not measure a low enough flow rate for my engine

 

[thinwater]

Having made thousands of connections over the years, on boats, at home, and mostly in industry, I marvel over the small number of failures. And I am not going to say I have always used best practices; I've taken a lot of short cuts when I was young and on low-voltage stuff. Much of the wiring was in high vibration and wet environments. The failures that I remember:

• Squeeze-on tap splices. High failure rate, particularly if wet. Trash.
• Cheap solder/shrink in one. Often the cover is compromised when enough heat is used. Good ones are fine, but test a few. Personally, I would rather solder and wrap, but they can be darn handy in tight spaces.
• Small wire joints that snapped due to corrosion and poor wire support. Mostly on boats. Pretty common on old instruments, boats and industry. Both crimps and solder, equal frequency. Very rare (none?) if heat shrinked for support and not crammed in the box.
• Crimps with cheap, low pressure crimpers. The best cure is to throw the cheap crimper in the bin. Don't even donate it.
• Virtually no failures with ratchet crimpers or high quality plier crimpers. A few failures either learning or when I failed to adjust it to the wire and crimps I was using. I soldered a few poor joints when I was a child, but not since about 12. I had a teacher.
• I've seen crimped-on ferrules come off. I see no statistical advantage over using a screw terminal with a pressure plate. NEVER solder the ends before clamping (I've seen those come loose when the solder softened under high load).
• Various push-on quick connects (spade, bullet, SAE 2- and 4-pin, etc.). Very good if greased and re-greased as needed, many failures if not greased.
• Always leave enough wire so that you can trim the ends if needed when replacing equipment. So simple. Neat freaks that trim all the wire drive me nuts. Leave a little somewhere, even if it is a short distance away for neatness sake.
• Battery cables on cars back in the day. Generally a corroded mess. Far less common now that batteries are sealed and off-gas less. Clean them up GOOD everytime you change batteries or have cause to remove a cable.

But overall, except for the squeeze-taps and unsupported small wire, very, very few failures. As long as it is tight and clean, many things work.