First trip of the Season in the books

[jmeirhofer]

Yesterday I made the 5 hour run up the Chesapeake to Baltimore. Although a little chilly, the weather was really good. Then entire bay was smooth all the way until Baltimore Harbor.

For those wondering, the new port motor ran flawlessly then entire trip as well. I ran at the recommended cruise RPM nearly the entire 106 miles. From the point where I turned into the Potomac until the Ft. McHenry 6mph sign.

And the best part.... Instead of taking 3+ hours to get home from the marina it only took 45min.

 

[Audrey II]

Glad to hear things went well. Do you have any fuel burn numbers from this trip just wondering if you numbers are in line with mine being you have the same motors.

 

[jmeirhofer]

Dave - I did not fill up when I got up there. Based on the gauges though I would say I burned roughly 70 or 80 gallons. Or 1.2-1.3 MPG or just under 20 gph which is about what I averaged coming up from FL. I can make another trip or two before needing to refill. I want to get down to a 1/4 tank on each side so I can pump all into one tank at a time and clean out the tanks.

 

[Audrey II]

20 GPH is about what I burn as well (total running average) and my math has been just about the same just over a MPG glad to see this confirmed by another. I was starting to think there was something wrong with my boat because I wasn't burning enough fuel

 

[Silver Lining]

What marina are you staying at? We are at anchorage marina in the innner harbor for another couple of months before heading south.

 

[jmeirhofer]

Rick - I am next door at the Baltimore Lighthouse Marina.

 

[HOGAN]

According to Cummins, my 450's burn 13.4 gph at 2100 RPMS, and 17.4 gph at 2300 RPM's. Double that for my total fuel burn.

 

[jmeirhofer]

That is significantly more fuel burn than I get with the Cats. I was running for about 4 hours at 2350. Cruise is supposed to be 2380 but until I have digital tachs that will have to be close enough. I also did another hour at idle speed going out to the potomac and coming into the harbor and marina. Deviding 417 gallons by 4 equals 104 gallons and my tanks are just over 3/4 full. Even if the gauges are off by a bit I don't think I could have burned more than 90 gallons on the trip. I can also say, the holding tank was empty as was the water tank so I wasn't carting an extra 100-200gallons of water and waste either. Not that I think that would make much difference.

I would fill up and tell you exactly what it was as I had topped off last year before winterizing. But I want to run down to under a 1/4 a tank in each so I can pump the fuel from one to the other to clean the tanks and polish what fuel is left. Another trip or two up here should do it and then I can tell you for sure. However, based on the gauges and what we got when we came up from Florida, I would say we are burning no more than 10-13gph per motor at 2350. And hardly anything for the hour at idle speed.

According to Cat documents we should be burning about 13 an hour per motor at 2380. At 1500rpm it goes down to 3.1 per motor. So it sounds like they are running just about right.

 

[Audrey II]

These number seem to fall right in line with what I have been finding, I know it's hard to believe. People have been telling me for years I simply lack the mathematical skills to compute these complicated calculations

 

[jmeirhofer]

I guess we are both equally bad at math Dave. I did get on the club sea ray site last night and searched fuel burnand they seem to suggest the same thing. 13 gph per motor at cruise for 420hp 3126. A little bit more than what we are getting but not much.

In the end I guess it doesn't really matter so much. I am just happy it is running good. And looking forward to our next trip out

 

[Audrey II]

John I'm glad to hear the rebuild went well and I hope you get to enjoy your new boat this season.
For the record 12 per motor sounds about right to me this could be because I run a little slower.
If I run for lets say 5 hours at cruising speed and just over a hour at either idle or 1500 coming and going for port to port that's 5 hours rb2@gr5t 24 gallons then about 1.5 at 8 it comes out to just about 20 an hour. These numbers but us at just over 1 mile per gallon or there about. I have logged pretty much every tank since I have owned it and the worst I have gotten was 23 gallons an hour and this was pushing the boat a bit. Considering the size of these boats I think this is great!

 

[Silver Lining]

John, if I remeber correctly, you were putting together a circulation system for your diesel sea water systems. Did you get this completed? Since you are next marina over, you are welcome to look at my system for ideas, I keep it on the boat.

I am on the boat several times a week right now completing all of the pre-season projects.

 

[jmeirhofer]

Yes I did as a matter of fact. Thanks to all your suggestions. Built it pretty much the same way you did. Except I used chemical resistant plastic fittings from tractor supply. It worked like a charm. The port motor had all new or reconditioned parts but the starboard motor had not been touched in who knows how long. And I could not believe the gunk that came out.

I did the after cooler first. Let it run for about an hour, changed the fluid which was now dark brown, ran if for 5 min and let sit for an hour. Ran if for another 15 minutes and still had some pretty dirty fluid. Flushed for an hour with fresh water changing it after 30 minutes.

Then did the same for the heat exchanger. When I took the heat exchanger hose off I found a couple chunks of impeller in the hose. So I took the end plate off and this is what I found.

So of course I took the impeller out and it was fine. Since it only had a few hours on it since replacement, this must have been in there from the previous owner. I know it had to be blocking some water flow. The temp is about 5 degrees cooler on that motor now.

Still can not believe how badly gunked it was. I will be doing this annually you can be sure of that.

I also installed fresh water flushes on both motors last fall when I winterized. I can hook a hose directly to the water intake before the strainers, shut the seacock and flush the motors, air conditioning and genset. This should help a little bit as well.

Next project for the engine room will be to clean, wire brush, paint, clean, everything down there.