How Do I Know How Much Fuel My Boat Is Using at Any Given Time?
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- Опубліковано 27 сер 2024
- We get this question a lot. Steve is planning a trip to Alaska and he wants to know the instantaneous burn rate (gallons per hour), gallons left in the tank and distance remaining. He writes, “I have a 2006 Four Winns Vista 258 with a VP 5.7 GXL-G 320hp. I have a Raymarine ES78 multifunction display that supports fuel management. On the back of the unit, there are unused NMEA 0183 connections. Or do I need NMEA 2000? Can you recommend what hardware I need to make this happen?”
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Hi Jeff, I bought a fuel monitor for my twin outboards from a company called FloScan Instrument Company, Ins. out of Seattle. I own a 22ft Center console boat in Alberta. I wanted to have something reliable to tell me what my fuel burn was for twin outboards on either the ocean which I do not very often but mostly on the big lakes in B.C. ie: Williston Reservoir, which does not have much for ingress and egress points along the lake so you have to be very mindful of the amount of fuel you have. They also have diesel sensing products as well. I installed this over 5 years ago and it works great, the only other thing you would need is a GPS that you can integrate with the system this is all explained in the installation manual and easy enough for me to understand, so I'm sure most people can do this DIY. Also it comes with it's own instrument to display multiple things like GPH or LPH(depending on which model you buy), RPM, Engine Sync, Hour meter, Totalizer( how much fuel you burned). Great product.
Hi S K, thanks for sharing about FloScan, really good company: www.floscan.com/html/blue/index.php
Don't modern common rail electronically controlled diesels have fuel flow data from their ECU? Won't help older engines, but the newer ones should have it out of the box, no?
My Volvo Penta D4s do provide that info through EVC
Hi Mark, yes some engines definitely do provide this info:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAE_J1939
I helped a friend set up fuel monitoring on his 55 Sea Ray after he repowered. The new Cat 12D engines had J1939 output with fuel flow, and he still had the Maretron FFM100's installed in the fuel lines from the old engines. Interestingly the numbers were non-trivially different, and the rate from the FFM100's seemed more reasonable than those from the ECUs.
Fuel consumption on older gasoline engines that have carburettors measuring fuel consumption by measuring flow to the carburettor is accurate and relatively easy to do. Fuel injection creates problem because there is a return from the high pressure fuel rail (all fuel injection systems have a pressurised fuel rail that feeds the injectors...port injection uses high pressure fuel rail; direct injection uses very high pressure fuel rail). Typically fuel consumption is calculated by engine management system based on injector duty cycle (ie how long injectors are open and knowing the injector flow rate, amount of fuel used can be calculated...this is one way how it is done in cars and trucks). The other way is to measure flow out of tank and return flow and subtract one from the other to get fuel consumed.
Thanks for sharing Borys.
If the Vista 258 has Volvo Penta with EVC, fuel consumption should be easy through Volvo Penta display or via Volvo Penta Easy Connect module.
Yep, some modern engines with J1939 data bus will easily provide fuel monitoring to a non-engine display: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAE_J1939
Measuring fuel flow for diesel engines is a little more complex than gasoline, but really not that complicated. Maretron's FFM, coupled with appropriate flow sensors, handles the differential flow and temperature compensation required, and outputs the data over an NMEA 2000 connection to your MFD(s).
Minor nit-pick, you mentioned the Garmin GMI20 display, but the graphic you showed was one of their older generation GMI10's.
Thanks David for sharing and the feedback. Your correct, Maretron has a good solution for diesel fuel flow,
Potential question for a future edition of "Ask PYS" - getting analog engine data onto an NMEA 2000 bus. There are a variety of options, which one works best? Antisense, Noland, AlbaCombi, other?
Big fan of Actisense and Noland engineering.
Hi Jeff, illuminating as always. Could one calculate fuel consumption through fuel tank level monitoring over time? Thanks!
Yes, if only you have really accurate fuel levels.
On the subject of fuel, is it possible to connect two fuel level gauges to one fuel tank level sender? I am using a 240 to 33 ohm sender with a Autometer marine fuel gauge in conjunction with a Blue Sea Systems OLED gauge tank level.
Never seen this done before, you'd need to switch the inputs.
Jeff. I'm redoing a old sailboat and I want updated speed depth sensors.. where do I learn about communication protocols. I would like to put in sensors that will communicate on a standard that's going to be available for at least 10 yrs. Replacing Moor electronics out of business 6 yrs now.
Good question, research NMEA 2000. This protocol should be here for another 10 - 20 years, IMO.
My ground burned up in the plug coming in the boat, will this have effected my galvanic isolator?
Hi Diana, no a burnt AC shorepower outlet should NOT damage your Galvanic Isolator.
Thank you!
Hi Jeff. What do think of the Integrel System developed by Nigel Calder ?
Sounds pretty cool, haven't seen one yet.
You boat people talk a lot without saying anything
Don’t forget about monitoring generator fuel consumption!
Good one.
It is fairly simple for a generator if you know your load and it's more or less constant there is table which will give you this information