Fuel Flow Monitor Systems

[John Nardi]

With FloScan out of the Marine Application biz, what do you guys recommend for twin gas engine fuel flow sensing?? I am going to use Older Furuno Nav Net systems, so I wont have an NMEA 2000 connection...Anyone familiar with products made by Lowrance, Faria, or Livorsi?? Also, this product by Interactio which sends data to your phone looks interesting...The dual FloScan was what I was really looking for...Any thoughts are appreciated...Best, John

[coolair]

John
I purchased the Garmin flow sensors. They are NMEA 2000. But I also have a Garmin chart plotter. I can not tell you how well they work because I never finished hooking them up and the boat is currently out of the water.

[Bruce]

John,
You carburetor or fuel injection with return line to tank.

[John Nardi]

I will be carbuereted

[Donmystic1]

I used the Garmin on my 33 sport fish. They worked well .
The readout could be seen on my Garmin GPS

[Carl]

Might be able to find a used Floscan out there.

People going injection with returns or converting to diesel...with returns...cannot use the carbed units as it does not account for the returned fuel...so good units may come available.

I know this as I will be pulling mine and offering for a site donation, before giving a shot on ebay.

[John Nardi]

Carl please give me a shout when convenient...954 290 6783...Thanks, John

[bob lico]

this is my "garage queen". it sits on blocks and only goes for a short ride now and then.1967 427 has triple two- barrel carbs.that make for a nightmare. i installed an temporary electronic fuel monitor system back at tank. the truth is it was not worth the money and very delicate.a small computer measures the feed and return fuel from tank electronicly. would be short- lived in marine bilge!!!

[Bruce]

John,
Not sure I do, but I got a bin of floscan stuff when I closed the shop. I know I got a bunch of high flow diesel units
I'll look and see if I have the twin scan dual analog guage and two senders. I think they are 231's. If I don't have twin scan, I'll see if I got the analog single read that you use a switch to go back and forth. You about 330hp? Should be the 0 to 32gph read.


I'll look this weekend.

[bob lico]

bruce was Flowscan the only company that made a device to measure fuel? a real gentlemen named Joe Dynesco was in charge of production and help me put together a Flowscan water temperature gauge from parts he had in the bins. I wonder if he has access to any parts.I designed my gauge cluster with a twin tachometer and twin -engine sycro on bottom they had option of twin tach. with fuel monitor on bottom.

[bob lico]

[Carl]

Bob, while I prefer the style of your 73?
I have to say that 67 is quite the beautiful car.

Do you deal with LI Corvette at all?

[John Nardi]

Love that Vette Bob...My favorite...I am looking for that Flowscan guage like in your pick only for twin gas...Carl said he has one of the gauges and I may have a lead on another...Bruce I will let you know what I end up with and see if you may have the correct senders...Thanks, John

[Carl]

John,
I'll see if I got the analog single read that you use a switch to go back and forth. You about 330hp? Should be the 0 to 32gph read.

That is the one I have, it is a series 5000.
Two sensors, single analog gauge that you add a switch to go back and forth while totalizer tallies both on a digital display.

I wanted more resolution from the unit on largest display so opted to go with the 0-20 gph gauge. It still keeps track of fuel burnt over that amount, but needle get pegged soon after the 4 barrel opens. Which is ok by me, after I am burning 20gph / per engine, I really don't need to know how much more I am burning at that point, I just need to locate the closest fuel dock.

Figured, I'd just let you know.

I have to say that gauge paid for itself many times over and helped diagnose issues early on. Especially when one carbs throttle shaft wore...consumption jumped 5-6 gallons more over the other engine in certain positions. I never would have known otherwise and motor was running perfect.

[Rawleigh]

Who is repairing those Twinscans now? I have a friend who needs one repaired.

[bob lico]

carl the convertible is an 1971 with "eggcrates" remove 100% stock body. the 1967 corvette is tough to drive she needs 93 octane plus a gallon of V-P racing fuel to each tank and you get 5 mpg .,not exactly a touring car.A 97 point NCRS restoration best keep out of harms way.Laquer paint really cannot be left in the sun.

[Bruce]

The twinscan line was short lived due to cost of micro processor based guages vs the cost of analog. They also required the use of isolated ground senders to work properly 100%.
Joe was head of sales and did boat shows. Ed was head of tech. All in all the folks at floscan were good people who made a complicated product especially in the high flow diesel systems that not only measured flow, but had to measure fuel density/heat as the fuel heated up. Cummins gave them fits which had big fuel pump pulsation which if anyone saw their product the dampers looked like filters.

No one I know is repairing the twinscan guages. If I got a bad one, floscan replaced it.

Not sure if anyone bought their inventory.

[bob lico]

bruce -----good information ,I just hope these twinscan gauges hold up because they had a brilliant idea by having red Led in the indicating needles when in fault (owners sets his your own parameters) so when you are in nasty seas you just glance down . you are not reading the gauges just looking to see if one indicating needle is not exactly pointed to the other. SMART however if one gauge goes bad i have no way of replacing.they is further complications of not enough room under the glass for double the amount of gauges.

[Bruce]

Bob,
I thought the twinscan line was innovation that was needed. Unfortunately like the free market we are, price was the final factor. Too bad.

[msteimer]

John,

Take a look at Maretron. They are nmea 2000 but they also sell small displays for engine/fuel data so you could add the network and have it for future electronics upgrade. Just a thought as it hasn't been discussed yet. I dont have any direct experience with them but that is what I'm planning to do on my 35.

Mark

https://www.maretron.com/products/ffm100.php


https://www.maretron.com/support/manual ... 201.0.html


https://www.maretron.com/products/dsm410.php

[coolair]

Any new info on this? Flowscans website is still up. Since my engines became fuel injected i am pretty sure the garmin flow system wont work for me anymore.

[Bruce]

They have a new web site, https://floscaninc.com/ , sya they are under new management and Joe is still listed as a contact.

What gas injection do you have factory, aftermarket return line to tank or re circulation?

[coolair]

its aftermarket. I got a deal on 2 systems form FAST. We will see how well they do and hold up. It has returns.

[Bruce]

I've seen, installed and serviced every after market TB and multiport injection system on the market.
Fast is one of the better ones but some advice.

You only get get one O2 sensor. Every factory system uses 2 to monitor both sides which is much more tunable and results in better AF ratio adjustments.

The ecu that come with the system are self learning, not tunable by laptop. This step is very important to do correctly. These systems error on the side of running rich to keep engine damage from lean conditions. So fuel milage over carb isn't a great savings.
You can turn off the self tune and use screen inputs, but becareful and understand how Things work as it can be mucked up pretty quick. Can always go back to self tune mode.
Also placement of the O2 sensor is important to get proper AF readings. That's tough to do in a marine exhaust manifold where you have no distance before the wet part starts so readings won't be ideal.

Good power is a must so be careful of your connections. Most of these systems won't fire on low voltage. High energy ignition helps these systems a lot.

The display should give you fuel burn.

Also a lot of back firing from tuning issues can damage the TB.

[coolair]

Bruce
Thank you for the information, my knowledge of tuning the EFI is limited at best, i didnt really plan on messing with the settings alot but maybe as I learn more and become more familiar i will. Figuring out the O2 sensor and exhaust on this was probably the most difficult part considering i have the Chrysler/Ford M460s which are odd balls. I also upgraded the stock Chrysler ignition to MSD readytorun distributors which was a night mare dealing with the gear on the reverse rotation engine. One of the things they stress the most in the instructions is connecting the power leads directly to the battery, which i did. Unfortunately the FAST display does not show you fuel burn.

I did email Joe at Floscan. This was his response. In a second email he did price out a system that uses the NMEA 2K interface for me.

FloScan was bought out in 2018 and is under new ownership. The new owner has continued production of the original line of aircraft fuel flow sensors and we are working on introducing a new line of gas and diesel fuel monitoring display instrumentation by August of this year. At this time, we can still supply the following FloScan models or spare parts used in older systems:

- gasoline and diesel fuel flow sensors used on marine and generator applications
- fuel pulsation damper and flow homogenizer canisters
- FloNET / NMEA 2000 Interface Systems (gas and diesel models)

Unfortunately, the 5500 Series CruiseMaster, 7000/8000/9000 Series Multifunction Meter and TwinScan models are no longer available for resale. However, I will put you on the email list to be notified when the new display instrumentation becomes available.

Regards,
Joe Dydasco
FloScan, Inc.

[Bruce]

One of those systems does give fuel burn in mpg with a GPS speedo, I thought it was fast. Too many things to remember at an old age.

[coolair]

I feel your pain... what were we talking about again??