fuel??

[Lucky's]

I have a fuel question for you guys and gals? I took my new boat out last night for a 40 mile round trip. It was the first trip out of the channel with it. It has twin 350's with in inboards. When I got back to port, one fuel gauge hadn't moved but the other dropped a quarter tank! Is it possible that one engine could be that less efficient or more likely a gauge being off? If its the engine, what could cause one engine to be so bad? It runs and sounds very smooth. No sputtering or missing. I'm confused?? Thanks!

 

[Captain Crispy]

Does that boat have two separate tanks ? If so, sounds like the gauge, sending unit, or wiring for one tank is defective. A 40 mile run should have burned 35-45 gallons of gas depending on speed and conditions.

 

[Hampton]

Boat fuel tanks and gauges are not calibrated like car tanks. You have to fill them up, run for a while, document the indications, and fill them back up to see what you really burned. From this process, you learn what the indications on the guages mean.

I get the first hour of running on plane for free - both gauges show full. When they both show empty, I still have 30 gallons. The port side comes off "Full" first, and then shows "Empty" first. After hours of running, they are actually using within 1 gallon of eachother.

 

[sbw1]

Was your fuel tank selection valve set to "Both"? Were you running on just one tank?

 

[Lucky's]

Well that was another question I had. There is no switch anywhere to select a tank, so I'm assuming the two tanks are separate for each engine with no crossover. Can anyone with knowledge of this model confirm whether or not the tanks are linked?

 

[1956olds]

My tanks are seperate they each have two fuel water filter seperators and no you shouldnt be able to pick which tank you are useing .My experience so far is simmilar my port tank shows more fuel used even when i first fueled up it showed it had less fuel but upon fillup they were within a couple dollars of each other.Did you fill your tanks up after they sat empty for a while?If so perhaps some scale made the sender stick ,a good bump may cure that if your LUCKY!!!

 

[sbw1]

On my 86 week ender the cross over switch was mounted on a small bulk head between the engines. The choices were Port, Starboard and Both. Selection was as simpler as moving the lever. I ran on both to keep things simple.

 

[Dasch Boat]

My 88 WE did not have cross overs. My port fuel gauge consistantly showed less fuel than the starboard, It used to take 10 to 15 extra gallons on that side when refueling to even out the guages so the port engine was thirstier.

 

[rondds]

I have a fuel crossover - maybe it was an option (?) Check the bilge for the switch that SBW1 mentioned.

My port engine consumes more than the stbd. This is confirmed by Floscans and when filling up. It's about an 8% difference. Not sure why but it's been that way since I've owned the boat (2004).

 

[rondds]

Oh, and my fuel gauges are vastly inaccurate. They'll show 1/8 tank and when I top off, I'll get 75 gallons into a 125 gallon tank. And they don't seem to be proportionately off - ie: I can't say the error margin is a consistent percentage.

Because this boat is a fat pig, I prefer to not schlep around full tanks of gas. For these reasons I keep a written log of fuel consumption. Sort of like a pen and paper checkbook. This way I know with a fair degree of accuracy what's in the tanks at all times. This is still a somewhat flawed system b/c I don't flip on the totalizers until I'm under way and they don't account for generator usage (My generator is used only "as needed" so it's not on all the time).