24Ve Major Fuel Issue

[ragboy]

Ok, here is the deal. I have posted before and complained about my fuel gauge not working on my new boat, and my dealer not doing too much about it. Well, I ran out of gas yesterday on my way in after a full day on the lake. Now of course my gauge showed empty, but it shows empty, after just a few hours of use, so its no help. I was watching the hours, and I knew we were lower on gas, but I figured we had about 1/4 tank left or so. So I was embarassed and confused, and worst of all, had to be towed in by a moomba. At least I found another good use of my infinity PA/Talkback system. I was asking for a tow to boats passing by, since it was already dark, and hard to flag them.

Well anyway, I get the boat hooked up after church today, and take to fill it up, don't want to leave it dry. It only takes 35.5 gallons?! Now, since I got my boat home, when I fill it up, it spits gas out, and you have to be ready with paper towels. Do others have this issue? It has done this day one and is a bit annoying. Now I am guessing, and I am pretty sure, when the pump flips off and gas squirts out its fuel, but how do I run out of gas and my 47 gal. tank takes only 35.5 gals. Any suggestions before I call my dealer that is a 3 hour drive, and has been quite lazy up to this point?

Is my fuel pickup missing the last 15 gallons? Should I try to fill up the tank further after the squirt? Maybe I haven't been filling up all the way?

The good news is the gas mileage is great. All day on 35 is pretty cool.

[Matt Garcia]

Cant answer all your questions but I can help on the gas spitting out. If you have dual gas caps, unscrew both caps and run the pump wide open and you won’t have any gas spew out. The dual gas caps will allow it to vent faster. A member told me about this in another thread and since using this method I haven’t had any gas issues. The pump turns off normally just like filling up in a car or truck.

Also I use the equation of 6 gallons per hour and I am usually pretty accurate. I have the Marine Power 360 HT engine.

[Dan and Christy]

Matt, any other suggestions on the gas issue with only 1 cap? Got a mouthful of gas this weekend filling up, not too fun.

[Matt Garcia]

Matt, any other suggestions on the gas issue with only 1 cap? Got a mouthful of gas this weekend filling up, not too fun.

When I had my 23V (single gas fill) I just had to listen for the gas creep up top and pump slow when I thought it was close. Try to figure out your gas usage as well that will help determine how many gallons you need to fill. Other than that its a crap shoot.

[Dan and Christy]

Thanks Matt. That's what I have been doing but I just got impatient, perfect weather and all.

[CP3]

Matt, any other suggestions on the gas issue with only 1 cap? Got a mouthful of gas this weekend filling up, not too fun.

I have found that on my 22V, if you pump about half speed that it wont spew and it will cut off automatically like a car. but as a precaution I get the papertowels at the pump and put them under the chain that holds the cap

[chpthril]

Ok, here is the deal. I have posted before and complained about my fuel gauge not working on my new boat, and my dealer not doing too much about it. Well, I ran out of gas yesterday on my way in after a full day on the lake. Now of course my gauge showed empty, but it shows empty, after just a few hours of use, so its no help. I was watching the hours, and I knew we were lower on gas, but I figured we had about 1/4 tank left or so. So I was embarassed and confused, and worst of all, had to be towed in by a moomba. At least I found another good use of my infinity PA/Talkback system. I was asking for a tow to boats passing by, since it was already dark, and hard to flag them.

Well anyway, I get the boat hooked up after church today, and take to fill it up, don't want to leave it dry. It only takes 35.5 gallons?! Now, since I got my boat home, when I fill it up, it spits gas out, and you have to be ready with paper towels. Do others have this issue? It has done this day one and is a bit annoying. Now I am guessing, and I am pretty sure, when the pump flips off and gas squirts out its fuel, but how do I run out of gas and my 47 gal. tank takes only 35.5 gals. Any suggestions before I call my dealer that is a 3 hour drive, and has been quite lazy up to this point?

Is my fuel pickup missing the last 15 gallons? Should I try to fill up the tank further after the squirt? Maybe I haven't been filling up all the way?

The good news is the gas mileage is great. All day on 35 is pretty cool.

If these are wired like a typical fuel level sending unit/gauge, then there is power on one side on the gauge and the ground comes through a variable resister. When the tank is empty, the sweeper on the S/U is at the ground side of the resister (low resistance to ground) causing the needle to move to the "E", when the tank is full, the sweeper is at the opposite end of the variable resister (hi resistance to ground) causing the needle to move to the "F".

An open in the signal (ground) side will cause the gauge to read "full" all the time. A short to ground on the signal side or no 12v on the gauge will cause an "empty" reading all the time.

OR it could be wired like this:

then there is power on one side on the gauge and the ground comes through a variable resister. When the tank is full, the sweeper on the S/U is at the ground side of the resister (low resistance to ground) causing the needle to move to the "F", when the tank is empty, the sweeper is at the opposite end of the variable resister (hi resistance to ground) causing the needle to move to the "E".

An open in the signal (ground) side or no 12v on the gauge will cause the gauge to read "empty" all the time. A short to ground on the signal side will cause a "full" reading all the time.

once you know how the system works, it easy to diagnose with a simple 12v test light.

1) check for 12v on gauge - no? fix and gauge should work
2) if 12v's found, unplug signal wire from gauge. Based on info above, an open may cause the needle to sweep, if not, with the testlight aligator grounded, touch the test light to the signal terminal on the back of gauge and the needle should sweep. If adding and removing ground does not cause the needle to sweep, then the gauge is bad. If the needle does sweep, then the sending unit is bad or no ground at tank.

[evil0ne]

perfect weather and all.

No doubt. First nice weekend day all year if you ask me.

[R&T Babich]

I found an interesting article about the fuel/air seperator, Attwood 1675, used on our boats at http://www.boatus.com/foundation/Fin...inlinefuel.htm that might help resolve some issues. Our boat does the "fuel burp" thing and I'm hoping it is fixed. I replaced the factory fuel/air seperator with a Racor LG100 while I "fixed" the vent hose routing. The directions I've seen for installing any fuel tank vent line is that it should slope upward to the thru-hull vent the entire length of the hose. On our 2000 21V the fuel tank vent fitting is sticking straight up in the corner of the compartment in front of the passenger. The hose is bent over and tied down to the floor, then goes up to the vent fitting creating a trap. When filling the fuel tank the air in the tank is being pushed out thru the vent hose. The fuel/air seperator has a check ball in it that will close to prevent fuel from getting out. If fuel has condensed in the trap and filled the trap, then when you start filling the tank the check ball will close maybe before the tank is completely filled. Using the larger fuel/air seperator may eliminate the burp problem.

[ragboy]

If these are wired like a typical fuel level sending unit/gauge, then there is power on one side on the gauge and the ground comes through a variable resister. When the tank is empty, the sweeper on the S/U is at the ground side of the resister (low resistance to ground) causing the needle to move to the "E", when the tank is full, the sweeper is at the opposite end of the variable resister (hi resistance to ground) causing the needle to move to the "F".

An open in the signal (ground) side will cause the gauge to read "full" all the time. A short to ground on the signal side or no 12v on the gauge will cause an "empty" reading all the time.

OR it could be wired like this:

then there is power on one side on the gauge and the ground comes through a variable resister. When the tank is full, the sweeper on the S/U is at the ground side of the resister (low resistance to ground) causing the needle to move to the "F", when the tank is empty, the sweeper is at the opposite end of the variable resister (hi resistance to ground) causing the needle to move to the "E".

An open in the signal (ground) side or no 12v on the gauge will cause the gauge to read "empty" all the time. A short to ground on the signal side will cause a "full" reading all the time.

once you know how the system works, it easy to diagnose with a simple 12v test light.

1) check for 12v on gauge - no? fix and gauge should work
2) if 12v's found, unplug signal wire from gauge. Based on info above, an open may cause the needle to sweep, if not, with the testlight aligator grounded, touch the test light to the signal terminal on the back of gauge and the needle should sweep. If adding and removing ground does not cause the needle to sweep, then the gauge is bad. If the needle does sweep, then the sending unit is bad or no ground at tank.

The thing is, my fuel gauge "works". When I fill up, it shows half a tank, when I am floating level. Then at about when I think I should be at half a tank, it is completely on E.

But worse is the issue that I ran out of gas, and then filled up and only got 35 gals in.

[chpthril]

The thing is, my fuel gauge "works". When I fill up, it shows half a tank, when I am floating level. Then at about when I think I should be at half a tank, it is completely on E.

But worse is the issue that I ran out of gas, and then filled up and only got 35 gals in.

ragboy
Member Join Date: Apr 2007
Location: Magalia, CA
Boat: 2007 24Vé
Age: 38
Posts: 73

Mine doesn't work. I show half tank at full, and empty, when the tank is half full. I called my dealer, and he said they are all like that, and its just the way it is. I didn't like the answer, and I my last 2 boats had tanks in the same place, and the gauge floated a lot, but idling level it worked. My Tigé 24Vé doesn't work at all, and I really don't like the answer from the dealer.

Ragboy; I just got my 24Ve a few weeks ago. When I am full, it shows about half. When I am half tank, it shows about empty. I called my dealer, and he said, sorry, that's just how they are, that doesn't sound right to me. Sounds lazy

My bad, Ragboy. Based on some previous post I thought this was a problem you would like to have corrected, and your dealer is not interested in fixing for you. I'm just offering some diagnostic assistance for you or anyone else. Especially for those whose dealers are a far drive, they could diagnose the problem themselves and maybe have the dealer drop ship the part, or order it and have it there when you bring the boat in for repair.

A gauge that only shows 1/2 tank when full, IMHO is not "working". If you would like some help checking this system out, I am more than happy to PM you my # and you can call me and I will walk you through it.

As far as your tanks capacity sounds like you got a 22Ve tank

As far as spewing out when filling, I recommend only filling to 90% to 95% full to allow for slosh and expansion. For this you need an accurate gauge/sending unit to know about how much you used. Then listen for the gurgle when you get close.

[ragboy]

My bad, Ragboy. Based on some previous post I thought this was a problem you would like to have corrected, and your dealer is not interested in fixing for you. I'm just offering some diagnostic assistance for you or anyone else. Especially for those whose dealers are a far drive, they could diagnose the problem themselves and maybe have the dealer drop ship the part, or order it and have it there when you bring the boat in for repair.

A gauge that only shows 1/2 tank when full, IMHO is not "working". If you would like some help checking this system out, I am more than happy to PM you my # and you can call me and I will walk you through it.

As far as your tanks capacity sounds like you got a 22Ve tank

As far as spewing out when filling, I recommend only filling to 90% to 95% full to allow for slosh and expansion. For this you need an accurate gauge/sending unit to know about how much you used. Then listen for the gurgle when you get close.

I am going to do some more testing, before I take it too dealer. I will post my results. Thanks for the help.

[talltigeguy]

I have 2 thoughts ragboy:

1. have you ran the boat since you ran out of gas? Maybe you didn't run out of gas at all?

2. Mine will get that splash sometimes so I always stand away. I wrap one of the blue service rags around the pump and it stops the worst of the splash. I sometimes get that splash long before the tank is full, and I bet that is what happened to you. I would be interested to take your boat to the gas station again and start fillling slowly and see if you get another 10-12 gallons in.

I wish I had dual fuel caps to stop the splash.

[ragboy]

I have 2 thoughts ragboy:

1. have you ran the boat since you ran out of gas? Maybe you didn't run out of gas at all?

2. Mine will get that splash sometimes so I always stand away. I wrap one of the blue service rags around the pump and it stops the worst of the splash. I sometimes get that splash long before the tank is full, and I bet that is what happened to you. I would be interested to take your boat to the gas station again and start fillling slowly and see if you get another 10-12 gallons in.

I wish I had dual fuel caps to stop the splash.

yeah, I am sure I ran out of gas. I didn't go out, but after putting the gas in, I took it home, and turned on key for a bit to let fuel pump work, and then started the boat. Started fine, it would not start before I put the gas in.

I talked to my dealer, and he said that sometimes the boats will blow back gas with only 10 gals put in them. So I am going to go back to station, open both fuel fills, and see if it will take the last 15 gals. If it does, I will report back, and I guess I can live with that. In every other way, the boat is fantastic, I love it. I have put 40 hours on it in one month, and not slowing down. Hopefully, I can get around this without having to take to dealer. They are like 3 weeks out right now.

[evil0ne]

Hopefully, I can get around this without having to take to dealer. They are like 3 weeks out right now.

Schedule your appointment now and come bring it in when your appointment is scheduled and you won't miss any of the action. You'll want to get that gas gauge looked at.