fuel capacity 185br 1991

C

chivas

New Member
Nov 10, 2015
31
España
Boat Info
Sea ray 180
Engines
4.3 TKS
Hi Again;
I have a question, my boat have fuel gauge, when the gauge is on reserve but the gauge move a lot, I put gas, I put over 14G the gauge is full but i think that this is a few no?
I bought the boat last year and all is original, gauge included and is all working, do you know any way to see my tank capacity? can it be changed?
Thanks
 
Yes, thanks, I knew it but I don´t understand my fuel gauge or don´t work, how work your fuel gauge? Other thing is that I put gas always on th trailer and when put it the boat is not a level, the car and the boat is a little bit up because the road is going up, can it be that?
Thanks again.
 
So first, boat fuel gauges are not know to be very accurate. There is a thing in the tank called a sender, basically a float in the tank that measures the level and sens a signal to the fuel gauge. Depending on the angle of the boat (in the water vs on a trailer, vs running) the angle of the boat changes and causes fuel to slosh to one side or another of the tank, causing the float to move around and change the fuel gauge reading. It's common for a boat fuel guage to read higher when underway vs sitting or on a trailer. Also, most fuel tanks are "V" shaped, so even though you might read say 1/4 tank, there is really much less fuel. On mine for example, when I get to 1/4 tank, it is almost empty. You just need to be familiar with how yours works. If your gauge is reading empty and it only takes 14gal, then something is not right with the sender, could me a loose connection in the wiring, could be the float is gummed up and not moving smoothly - a number of things can cause this problem, or it could be as you say if the boat is on a hill on the trailer. The sender is easy to check/replace, it's a round thing on top of the fuel tank with two wires coming out. Take it out, clean it up, check the wire connections, depending on the type you might be able to adjust it by bending the float rod (kind of like the float on a toilet bowl). Worst case, you can replace it, they are not expenses - @ $25US. Another thing to do regarding fuel, watch your hour meter and determine how many engine hours you can run on a tank, then figure out how many gal/hour you burn and use that as a backup to the gauge. On my boat, in general I burn on average 4gal/hour, so I know about how much fuel I have burned without watching the gauge.
 
Thanks a lot.
My problem is that can the fuel tank replace and put one smaller. I supose the tank is on back and down, between the back sit and the pilot sit no? I have to up the table and there is the tank? if when the gauge put empty I will can see and see the real capacity, one time I know the capacity, no problem because more or less I know how many spend, so may problem is know how many I have jejeje. The other thing that you said me is dificult, because I always go with donuts, hot dog and skis(and 4-5 person on the boat) so is very dificult. This moonth i went 4 times, one I put full gas and the day finish on up in the gauge, second day don´t put gas and finish the day between middle and empty, the third day full it(put 13G to full it) and finish the day between empty and middle, the last day full it and finished near to empty, but the last day go more strong so is normal that finished on near to empty (I don´t put gas again but I think aboutt 14 G max). Always used it for games, on August I´m going to do a travel by the river aroun 100-150 milles and there are 1 or 2 gas station on the travel, so I wanna know how many spend.
Thanks for all
 
I put a new sensor in the fuel tank on my boat (a 1972 Sea Ray 190 SRV) and it works pretty well but registers low always. Since the fuel fill Is a straight line to the tank I still rely on the oldest method of determining how much is in the tank, a stick. I figured out how many gallons there are per inch and have the stick marked every 5 gallons.

Bill is right though. I depends on a lot of things. If the boat sits at and angle on the trailer, the gauge will give a false reading. Add to that if the tank has its long side running forward to aft it also depends on where the sender is. If it is in the middle of the tank it will give an average reading. If it is at the back end then it will read high and low at the other end.

The best thing to do is fill the tank (assuming you know how much it holds) , run the boat at normal planing speed for a known amount of time, usually 30 minutes or an hour and then measure how much is in the tank. Divide the difference by the time and that will tell you how many gallons per hour you use.
 
I know how many gallons spend for hour but I don´t konw how many gallons are on the tank.
Thanks
 
According to the specification sheet it was built with a 28gal tank, are you saying it was changed at some point? If that's the case, the only options are to look for a tag on the tank or take a guess from a fill up.
 
Hi again;
I have still the problem, but in the last place where I went with the boat, one mecanihc tell me that it is for the flume is short and I need one flume long.
Do anybody something aboout it?
Thanks
 
The old fashioned method is to wait until you are low on fuel, then put a 5 gallon gas can on board. Now run until it runs out, refill with the five gallons and head to the marina, and you will know what 5 gallons left loos like on the guage.
 
Not sure what he means by flume. I am going to assume (??) he meant the fuel fill is too short or the fuel tank vent is too short. Either one can cause problems with fuel pressure in the tank. But I cannot see how that would affect what your fuel gauge shows. The typical fuel gauge has a float on a long arm. The arm is attached to a rheostat. As the arm rises in the tank it changes the output on the rheostat which is electrically connected to the dial on your dashboard. The things that affect this: waves, rocking of the boat, if the boat is on the trailer is it level or not? Also where the gauge is in the tank, front or back, affects readings. But as was said they are notoriously inaccurate. The newer gauges that do not use a float on an arm are much more reliable but even so they often do not show an accurate amount. Mine is the inductive type with no moving parts. Totally electronic. But it consistently reads about 4 to 5 gallons lower than what is in the tank.
 
Sorry, I´m from Spain a flume is the google traslate jejeje. No, I am talking about a float on the fuel deposite which go up and down. The mecanical tell me that if this float was short only can do the moviment on the middle to up because it is short and don´t go to down of the deposite, it stop on the middle, so the gauge say me the moviment of the short float, when the gauge is up the float is up, when the gauge put middle, the float is down, and the float stay in the middle because is not too long to go more.
I don´t know if you understand me,
thanks
 
Bueno. Comprendo sus problema. You speak English better than I speak Spanish.

Most fuel level senders (the device in the tank that sends the data to the instrument) look like this
moe-035722-10_lg.jpg

The black object is the float. Then there is the arm, and finally at the top of the tank is the sending unit. The float rises and lowers with the fluid in the tank. At the sending unit is a rheostat (reostato) , a device that varies the amount of electrical current as it changes position. This sends a signal to the gauge (manometro electrico) that shows the amount of fuel in gallons or liters.

If the arm is short (corto) then it is more sensitive to waves and fuel sloshing, making it move more, showing wild swings in the amount of fuel. A longer arm doesn't move as much and so is more accurate.

Newer senders do not use an arm, they use capacitance (the sensing of an electrical current variations) to measure the fuel. No moving parts. No float or arm. They look like http://www.wemausa.com/sensors/level-Capacitance.shtml#.V8cOS61oBvA
 
Last edited:
muchas gracias jejeje.
Yes, my problem is the second, the arm is short, and like you say when there are wave it move a lot off so may be I have to change it for a longer. Today I see that i can see the deposite from the motor is, so the next day when the gauge will be empty I will see it for to see the real level.
Thanks
 
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