Fuel flow gauge

[dutch123]

Looking for some advice on a fuel flow gauge for a carb 80 Yamaha. I see alot of models available and am curious what any of you well informed folk have had good luck with. I've noticed price with most units is generally high and am curious if the more expensive units like the ones made by floscan are worth the money or is there a more reasonably priced unit that is still accurate and reliable? Thanks for your help. Jeff

[tpbrady]

I like the Lowrance LMF 200 or 400 with the fuel flow transducer. It has the advantage of doing other things with NMEA 2000 if that ever comes up, like in a new engine, electronics, and the like.

[Will-C]

Most of the fuel flow systems use an inline paddle wheel which has a couple wires attached to feed the info a display. Most incorporate an inline fuel filter that is installed in front of the paddle wheel so any debris is stopped at the filter before making the paddle wheel inoperable. It's important to have your fuel line rigged in a manner that would let you bypass the inline filter and paddle wheel should the filter get plugged and a spare inline filter is not available. We added an extra bit of fuel line with an extra hose barb or two taped to the fuel line should we have to bypass our paddle wheel setup.
If your engine is new enough there are ways to take fuel data right from your engines computer and have it displayed on a multi function Chartplotter,Garmin, Raymarine, Furuno,etc which is far more accurate than the paddle wheel devices.
A friend and a pilot type also reccommended that we try to establish an idea of what we burn on average per hour. That way if you run the boat in your usual manner for a given number of hours you should end up with an idea of you fuel you have burned. Compare that with a fill up and you can get fairly close. It's a good bit of information to know as most gauges are like politicians, not quite right
D.D.

[Wallkerbay]

My Bayliner had a Flow Scan fuel flow meter. I could keep track of my total fuel used and the total miles traveled and the max speed acording to my GPS.Again I bought a Flow Scan, I did use the directions to instal it. Just at a glance,I can tell how my trim is and figure out my gph and with my GPS total miles per gallon. I also like the totalizer feature. I can keep track track of my total fuel used. I also have a beter idea of how much fuel it will take to refill the tanks.

[dutch123]

Ya, not sure I like the idea of a paddle wheel transducer, just seems prone to failure. Being that my engine is a 2001 carbed 80 I don't think using the engines computer is an option. Looks like I have some reading to do.

[Matt Gurnsey]

With carburated motor, paddle wheel sensor is the only option I'm aware of.

[Captains Cat]

Even with early EFI engines (Captain's Cat with 2001 Suzi 115's for example), if the computer doesn't put out that information, the paddlewheel is the only option too... Thataway, with 2006 Suzi 150s have the flowscans (don't know yet if their computers will work with the digital ones) which seem to work well, not used them much so far though. Much more informative than the fuel senders though...

Charlie

[Yellowstone]

For what it is worth. Having my grumpy old man moment. I used a Flo-scan for a number of years on my first 22'. And what did it tell me that was really important and useful? Hmmmm. Well, it told me that so much gas ran through it and approximate MPG when GPS distance over water was factored in. It also told me that I had one somewhat inefficient motor and hull drag because everyone else with the same motor and hull seemed to get better overall performance (according to their reports) Too humbling for me not to match up. So one day I jerked out the hoses and wiring and apparatus, sold it, and checked the tanks periodically for their level. I figured that it was just something else to go wrong, leak, etc. and I don't miss it all.

But if knowing that current, tide, and wind, plus elevation, load and boat handling are variables that can affect your fuel efficiency, by all means install a Flo-Scan so you can determine which variable it is that makes a difference. Actually, the translucent gas tanks (which show up very nicely at night time with a flashlight) are all I need for checking fuel consumption. End of grumpy old man moment. Yellowstone

[DaveS]

I'm with you on that John (Yellowstone)! I have all of that capability on my gauges, but don't use them at all. All that I do is make sure that I periodically program them to indicate that I've got a multitude number of gallons of fuel indicated in the system (much more than I can dream of carrying) so that the blasted alarm doesn't sound to inform me that I'm low on fuel. I pay attention to how much fuel I have by visually inspecting the actual fuel tanks. (Also normally adhere to the old rule of 1/3 Fuel usage out, 1/3 Fuel usage return and 1/3 Fuel in reserve).
Our engines are what they are for fuel consumption and unless they are operating poorly (which is fairly easy to tell from cruising experience), I know that I have better economy that most vessels on the water so I don't anguish over it.

[Yellowstone]

Dave - Amen - John

[DaveS]

[dutch123]

I agree with the keeping it simple thing, that is one of the reasons I enjoy the c-dory so much but saying that the fact remains that knowing your fuel burn is valuable knowledge especially with the price of fuel being what it is! Being a recreation pilot I have been surprised more than once with the large increase in fuel consumption with a small increase in rpm. I use "feel" to find that sweet spot where I think I am getting the most efficient cruise rpm in the boat now but am probably not spot on without the use of a fuel flow monitor. Of course, there are alot of contributing factors with fuel economy, some we can control, some we cannot. I just think it's good practice to be informed when it comes to things we can control. And hey, last time I checked increasing range and saving money on fuel is a good thing!