Fuel Flow Meter

[Madehn]

i was thinking it would be nice to know the fuel flow on my diesel- looked online for gauges to do this without spending a mint ( it would be Nice to Know not essential ) does anyone have a lead on an economical way to do this? Anyone have a fuel flow meter installed?

[Mike OReilly]

I installed a flow meter for my potable water system. The same flow meters claim they can manage fuel.

I use something like this. It's pretty inexpensive.

[Discovery 15797]

I thought about adding a fuel flow meter, but the cost/value equation just didn't make sense to me. (I was looking at Maretron's system...2 meters and 1 monitor, and then I could view the data on my chart plotter via NMEA 2K but the cost was $1k).

Basically, what I wanted to know from the flow meter is how much fuel I burn per hour at cruising rpm, and at about 400 rpms above and below that in order to calculate cruising range based on available fuel.

I borrowed a friend's 25gal. bladder, filled it, motored around for 1 hour, refilled the bladder and calculated how much fuel I burn at those 3 settings. Repeated twice more to get an average. It's not spot on accurate, but gets me in the ball-park to determine approx. cruising range and available supply.

[markcouz]

Problem is that you would need to measure the flow in the fuel supply line and then subtract the flow in the fuel return line.

It could be done with an arduino, 2 sensitive flow sensors and some electrickery- contact your local electronics propellerhead!

[mvweebles]

Originally Posted by Mike OReilly

I installed a flow meter for my potable water system. The same flow meters claim they can manage fuel.

I use something like this. It's pretty inexpensive.

Can't speak to this one, but two issues are common. First, low flow is tough to measure. Second, for diesel, you need a second meter on the return line. Gas engines of course don't return any fuel to the tanks.

Peter