Fuel Management Systems

C

CaptPearl

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Joined
Jul 24, 2007
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27720
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With the rising cost of fuel I am considering installing a fuel management system. We have a Regal 3360 fitted with twin Volvo 5.7 GXi-DP engines. I have just started my research and was wondering if anyone else has installed a system like this and can give me the pros and cons. The system of current interest is the NAVMAN FUEL 3100. I was also considering installing a Faria Sync gauge but I'm thinking if I go with a fuel management system it may not be necessary. Some specific questions I have are who makes the best system? Can I install it myself? User friendliness? Any help/ideas would be very appreciated.
 
IMHO, FloScan is the best, but you WILL pay for it. I have a Navman GPS w/ fuel management built in and I use it far more than the GPS part. It's a good system, and you should have no problem self installing. Check that it will work with your injected system 1st, however.
 
I am looking into this as well. The Navman 3100 is NMEA 0183 compatible and in my case that's what I need, unfortunately it is no longer manufactured and hard to find. Being yours is a 2007,and also a larger boat I would assume your GPS is NMEA 2000 compatible. If so you can use something like the Lowrance LMF-200 which is under $200 w/ the sensors. Does volvo make something like smartcraft that let's you tie your engine system into your GPS. Also what GPS unit do you have that can feed your speed to a fuel flow meter?

MJK
 
quote:
Originally posted by king5899

I am looking into this as well. The Navman 3100 is NMEA 0183 compatible and in my case that's what I need, unfortunately it is no longer manufactured and hard to find. Being yours is a 2007,and also a larger boat I would assume your GPS is NMEA 2000 compatible. If so you can use something like the Lowrance LMF-200 which is under $200 w/ the sensors. Does volvo make something like smartcraft that let's you tie your engine system into your GPS. Also what GPS unit do you have that can feed your speed to a fuel flow meter?

MJK

Click to expand...


Check under the Northstar brand name. I believe they are under the same roof now.

WRT the speed into the fuel flow meter, I have never seen it. What I have seen is the fuel flow meter having a speed/MPG window that allows you to dial in your best RPM/MPG combo by feeding the GPS speed into the head unit.

I did not see the 3100 in BF, but they are still available elsewhere.
 
We had the navman 3100 on our 2860. Worked great but make sure you install the inline fuel flow sensor after a filter. Small specs of anything can jam the sensor wheel.

The calibration procedure was a PITA though.
 
I got an email from Northstar that they are no longer available, and the only one they offer is the F210, which does not integrate with a GPS.

I have not found any online or anywhere. eBay had 1 but it was sold before I got a response to a question.

MJK
 
I have a Lowrance LMF 400 coming and will get it installed over the next few weeks. Fuel filters get installed this weekend and the gauge and sensors next. Too bad I will have to wait a month or two in order to try it out.
 
Thanks for all the quick and informative responces.

Our boat is equiped with a Raymarine C80 and what ever system I get I want to intergrate it with C80. I checked the Raymarine and Volvo web sites and neither seems to offer a fuel management system. I was aware the Northstar and NAVMAN are now under the same roof. I am under the impression that the Fuel 3100 from NAVMAN is still available.

Does anyone know which fuel management system works best with the Raymarine products?
 
I bought a Navman 5500 Chartplotter and am going to order the fuel sending units for it . I have not been out to my boat for a while but I don't think that I will be able to mount them after the engine filters. I picked up a Racor filter base that came with a 2 Micron filter . Is that going to be too fine and restrict the flow? I see that a 10 micron is avilable, would that be a better choice?
 
kbradatzke;

2 micron may or may not be too small depending on what your engines are. the new common rail diesels will need that small a filter, if you have mechanical injection diesels 30 microns is probably best. if you need 2 micron filters, they should be set up in series starting with a larger 30 micron filter first and if possible a dual bank so that you can switch filters underway if they become clogged. If you are filtering gasoline I don't know the specs but would guess that 2 microns is way to fine as the injectors are not as small/high pressure as diesel. BTW if your engines are diesel, the fuel flow sensor set up is different than gasoline and they are not interchangeable. with diesel there is a fuel return line and the system measures the difference between the two rather than just the flow to the motor.

hope this helps.
 
Thank you Vic , mine are gas ( carb) no return lines. From what you have said I think I could get away with 10 micron. The 10 micron are rated at 20 gas (80 litres) per hour. I think for my twin 4.3 190 hp that it would be ok.
 
kbradatzke;

if you have carbs on the engines you probably don't need anything smaller than a 30 micron filter, don't over filter the fuel for particulate, all it will do is block up the filter sooner and that is a short day on the water unless you have a dual filter with a bypass valve that you can switch filters on the fly. if you have fuel injection, check with the engine manual for the correct filter sizing.

good luck!
 
I just had the garmin gfs-10 fuel management installed on my garmin 5212. The system works flawlessly on my 2006 Regal 3560 with volvo 8.1 gxi inboards. It shows gph as well as mpg on the bottom of the screen as well as calculate how much fuel is left and miles you can still go on the tank.
 
Was that a plug in system to engine ECM or did you have to cut fuel lines?
 
With the garmin fuel lines needed to be cut to do the install.
 
Currentsea Frank Regan from Seacurity in lindenhurst did the job for me.
 
I want to do this but I am told I can interface my Volvo 8.1's directly to my raymarine.
I would prefer to do this over cutting the fuel lines and installing those sensors.
That is just one more moving part to worry about.
Thanks.
 
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