fuel economy

[fisher_i_am]

I have a 2002 F115, the boat and motor are new to me. With a 32gal gas tank and inaccurate gage it's hard to tell what my fuel economy is. My gut feeling is that it is not good, but unable to quantify it.

Has anyone used a Northstar 210 or similar device. Not looking to spend a fortune just trying to understand if I have any issues with the motor.

Thanks

[TomP.]

Do you have GPS? If so easy enough to figure average GM. Just like checking a vehicle.

[Shellback]

Fuel economy on boats suck! But if you think you're getting bad fuel economy with an F115, put a carbed 2 stroke 115 on your boat. Your fuel use will almost double. :angry:

[yarcraft91]

Fill the tank, zero the trip odometer on a GPS and run the boat. Keep track of how much gas you add to the tank. After a few fill-ups, divide the accumulated GPS odometer miles by the amount of gas you've added to the tank. You'll probably find the mileage is somewhere between 3 and 6 mpg, depending on how hard you run the motor. If you're really interested in the best gas mileage, know that most boat/motor rigs get the best on-plane fuel economy between 20 and 25 mph and the best overall mileage at close to idle speed (e.g., trolling). But, it's best not to worry about gas mileage in your boat.

[Bill Krejca]

Another approach is to install a motor run meter (clock). You can figure the hours run vs the gas used and get a "sort of" factor of how much gas you are burning/hour. I use this rather than mpg. It comes in pretty close over several years of figuring.

I believe I am getting 6-7mpg on my F115, not running WOT.

Bill Krejca

[GMC Jon]

How about a fuel flow sensor? The one I installed on my Lowrance gps tells me how much I am burning in gallons per hour. Once you program in your tank capacity, it will show remaining fuel also. Far more accurate than the fuel gauge. I usually am within a gallon of my remaing fuel,when I fill up.

[fisher_i_am]

Thanks guys, I knew you would have good input.

I have an old gps, I'll figure out how to track overall milage and use how much fuel between fill ups to determing mpg.

thanks