Fuel Flow

I have a FloScan meter in my 1988 Mainship that has died. I curious as to what you use to measure your fuel use. Also the fuel level gauge has been not worked since I owned the boat in in 2005. I have always relied on the FloScan for fuel consumption. I burn gasoline.

The last gasoline boat I moved any significant distance and needed fuel usage data for had dipsticks marked in ten-gallon increments. I found them very accurate for the fixed RPM runs I made. I have sight tubes on my diesel boat marked in 10-gallon increments, but I would not be installing anything like that in a gas boat.

I just go by the gauges on my gas boat (fill tubes aren't straight enough to use dipsticks). After getting used to how the gauges react, my estimate of how much we'll take at fueling time is almost always within a few gallons.

rslifkin said:

I just go by the gauges on my gas boat (fill tubes aren't straight enough to use dipsticks). After getting used to how the gauges react, my estimate of how much we'll take at fueling time is almost always within a few gallons.

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But his gauge doesn't work.

rgano said:

But his gauge doesn't work.

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That shouldn't be hard to fix. Even if it required all new everything, a new sender and gauge should be about $100 plus a little time to run wiring for it.

I think Floscan has gone out of business so your best bet may to be repair the fuel gauge. It won’t be as accurate as the Floscan but it will be better than nothing.

rslifkin said:

That shouldn't be hard to fix. Even if it required all new everything, a new sender and gauge should be about $100 plus a little time to run wiring for it.

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I thinks its a little more than $100, but point well taken. My last boat was gas and I installed a NMEA2k flow sensor in under 30 minutes. Cut the fuel line, 4 clamps and run the wire to the helm.

Part of the reason FloScan has gone out of business has to do with many tier 2 through 4 engines have fuel consumption calculations built into the computer package. My John Deere 4045 has real time fuel consumption to a tenth of a gallon as part of the display.

Ted

Most of us use calibrated fuel site gauges, but that could be a major problem with gasoline.

fgarriso said:

Most of us use calibrated fuel site gauges, but that could be a major problem with gasoline.

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Yup, site gauges are off limits with gas. No openings below the top of the tank.

Replace the fuel sender, and clean/replace the connectors. That is usually the problem with fuel gauges. I personally wouldn't worry about fuel flow. But if that is important to you, then replace the fuel flow meter.

It's a boat. There are only three states of any device in a boat

• Just replaced
  
• About to fail
  
• Broken

Fill the tanks. Take the boat out. Run it for a couple to 3 to 4 hours. Fill the tanks again. Figure the fuel burn per hour of running and use that for planning.

But really if cleaning the wire ends doesn't help the gauge, replacing the sender and gauge isn't a big deal.