Measuring Fuel usage...

I think those are only for petrol engines the equivalent for diesel need to measure the flow and reurn lines and are therefore more costly .

For diesel look at Floscan.
 
Need more info on your engines...

1. There are lots for petrol engines, where the fuel goes one way only
2. Diesel is more complex becuase you have to measure flow and return (the only answer for non electronic diesels) or else compute fuel burn from the engine injection curves (sometimes done on electronic engines)
3. Floscan (or some name like that. Flowscan maybe) make kits to measure flow and return. Not cheap though. Pretty much the only solution for non electronic diesels
4. If your engines are volvo EVC or EDC you can buy a plug and play display for about £1000
5. Other electronic diesels (MTU, MAN, CAT, Cummins, etc) offer digital displays as accessories

I've used the Volvo one for years and like it. It's best to feed in speed from GPS then you can get instantaneous mpg on the display
 
Hi,

Thanks for the suggestions so far.

The engine is petrol, mercruiser V8 5.7ltr.

Looking for a relatively simple solution to measure fuel used on a trip.
 
I used a Navman colour plotter with its fuel flow meter on a 150HP RIB a few years ago, found it very effective and accurate. It raised my average speed, and reduced fuel consumption as it displayed optimum mpg- I went from cruising at 28 knots to 33 and reduced consumption to about 1 mile a litre from 0.9 miles/litre, from memory. The boat was a 6 metre RIB.
I now burn about 10 litres of diesel a month- went to the dark side and turned raggie!
 
Yep and if you have a recent Garmin (series 5 upwards) you can get their fuel monitor and integrate it into your plotter. I didn't do this because I wanted to see the dial all the time and not press buttons to get to it.
 
You can do what my mate did, fill up and go as far as you can, ideally water ski all day and when you run out of fuel you know what your range was !!

Then call the lifeboat and give a very very large cheque.also look sheepish when they come to rescue you and tow you back in.


Tom
 
my recommendation is, know it as a once off estimate for passage planing, and find that out as HLB says.
After all, what does it matter if you now are doing X and now doing Y ? What are you going to do with the information ?
Bit like car computers.. so what if I m now getting,say, 30 mpg ? Who cares /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
Save the money, and use it on fuel!
 
[ QUOTE ]
What are you going to do with the information ?
Bit like car computers.. so what if I m now getting,say, 30 mpg ? Who cares /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif


[/ QUOTE ]

Kinda depends on how you use the boat. If you are doing long passages where running out is a pssibility then it matters. See Hurric's Malta post today - a fuel comouter/metering system would be very useful on the 308nm leg to Tunisia. Also, knowing the mpg you get a various speeds can save you money, and can give you early warning of problems (or more confidence of no problems).

Ref the Mercruiser, is it recent enough that you can just fit a Smartcraft display which will give you everything you need?
 
yes, sure, but I dont think the OP was intending to try to reach Tunisia!
He has a petrol boat in Torbay. The old 25pct reserve adage would probably serve him adequately, and maybe seeing all theat gas disappearing out the back end of the boat might take the fun out of it!
 
For a single petrol engine boat a Navman fuel flow meter will be great (the tricky part is if you have twin diesels it seems) I fitted one to my boat, although as I had a Navman Chartplotter it just plugged into the back of that and that was it. If you don't have Navman equipment then they do a simple stand alone readout. To fit my fuel flow meter took about 30 minutes and cost £67. and yes, I actually believe it has paid for itself already... /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
 
I had one on my old boat because I was concerned about fuel consumption. It was that very sender but attaced to a Lowrance plotter / sounder.

I sold the boat as the consumption was so horrific!

I will eventually fit it to my current boat as it will not only tell the consumption but also fuel used / remaining and expected range etc. All of which I like to have a reasonable idea of.

It also is a good indication of the best cruising speed to maximise range which is pretty important on a smaller boat with limited fuel capacity.
 
I had the Navman on my last boat, single petrol, never managed to calibrate the thing correctly.
I had visions of adjusting the trim a bit, move a tab a bit and watching the fuel saving ............ never happend.
It hardly changed, as gjgm says, save the money and spend it on fuel!
 
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