Effective Fuel

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Nick
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Re: Effective Fuel

Post by Nick »

Duane,

I know I need to switch my thinking to GPH, but o,d habits die hard. I had pretty much settled on 2 miles/gallon as our conservative best running “Bahamas loaded” at about 3,000 rpms. I say conservative insofar as our actual experience has generally been better and we can get over 3 if we tone down the pace! Sea state is the wild card and often the pace moderator as well.

Our aft gauge never gets to “E”. Indeed, we’ve run out of fuel with the aft showing 1/4. Ironically, everyone’s comments here about available fuel suggests I should be running out at about 1/4 so maybe the gauge isn’t as inaccurate as I thought. Our full is well beyond the “F”.

Trip you describe sounds cool. Let us know if you ever try to do it.
Nick & Barb
Catsaway
2005 PDQ34 #66
deising
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Re: Effective Fuel

Post by deising »

Nick,

I have never messed around with a fuel gauge sender, but if you run out of fuel at 1/4, you either have a mis-located fuel pickup tube (way too high in the tank) or the sending unit is way off. Maybe somebody else here has more advice on that.
Duane Ising
m/v Diva Di
Punta Gorda, FL
2006 PDQ MV 34 - hull 91, 75HP, 3-blade
AlanH
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Re: Effective Fuel

Post by AlanH »

Nick,

Perhaps James Power can add something to this conversation.

We have not experienced the problems described, possibly because I have never let the fuel get below a 1/4 of a tank.

I am thinking you may have one of a couple possible problems. Could be the sending unit, the gauge or the fuel pickup tube. Seems likely that it is the pickup tube but I think I would try tackling it this way if I was troubleshooting it.

The fuel sending unit should be fairly easy to remove if your boat is the same as mine. 6 or 8 screws on top of the tank and it should come out. If you lift the sending unit with the gauges on as the sending unit rises the fuel gauge should go down. When the float hits its lowest point the fuel gauge should read empty. If it does, then you know the gauge and sending unit are good and can put it back together.

I would focus next on the starboard fuel pickup tube as that engine quits first. I have not done this and my boat is not here to look at. I would take apart the fuel line and screw the elbow off the top. The pickup tube should come out with the elbow. Measure it and measure the tank. If the tube is the problem you can replace it with a longer one. I am not sure how low in the tank would be to low and pick up crud if there is any in there.

Good luck.

Alan
Alan Hendry
Catbo
2006 34' Hull #81
75hp engines
Nick
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Re: Effective Fuel

Post by Nick »

Thanks Alan, I was going to take the approach you describe. I have had the fuel pick up out once before while troubleshooting another issue and i thought it looked remarkably short, but didn’t think to measure. I guess one does need to be careful about picking up crud, but getting the incremental range is worth pursuing for me. Will report back with info as I work through this.
Nick & Barb
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2005 PDQ34 #66
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