Fuel consumption

[87rocket455]

I am looking for a rough estimate on fuel consumption for a boat i way buy...
It is a 1990 226 Baja sport. Had a Bravo 1 outdrive with a 496Mag mercruiser engine. Any thoughts guys?

Thanks

 

[Philster]

Re: Fuel consumption

2.4 miles per gallon on my 502 Merc, Bravo 1 and 26' ride. That's when cruising and being good.

You are likely near 2.8 with that setup, but the only way to tell your burn rate is to fill it, run it, measure the time and/or distance and go back to the same station and fill the tank. Note the fuel burned.

No one can nail it for you here. You have to do the process above.

We can ballpark it, but this should never be used to plan a voyage. But, as a buyer, it's safe to say that you can count on less than 3 miles per gallon. So, if you cruise for an hour at your cruising speed (say 38 MPH), then you went 38 miles and burned about 12.6 gallons in that hour. That's being a good boy and just cruising near 40. For comparison, any decent car burns 2 gallons per hour cruising down the highway.

I actually get more like 2 miles per gallon, because a performance boat tends to be pushed a little harder for fun and all that.

 

[87rocket455]

Re: Fuel consumption

Thanks Philster. I was just looking for a reference number.
Is your 502 EFI? or MPI engine?

 

[lkbum]

Re: Fuel consumption

A very good rule of thumb for gas powered I/O's is as follows:
For what ever Horse Power you are using, you will burn this number times 0.1 in Gallons Per hour. Wide Open - 330 HP, you'll burn 33 GPH. Half power (not half throttle) , 165 HP, - 16.5 GPH. Take your speed at the settings and you can calculate MPG. This is very accurate, it takes a little judgement to figure how much of your engine power you are using. An engine burns the same amount of fuel regardless of the boat it is in. But the boat will determine the speed obtained with engine and hence MPG will vary based on boat size.

 

[Philster]

Re: Fuel consumption

Thanks Philster. I was just looking for a reference number.
Is your 502 EFI? or MPI engine?

MPI.

What's the year/setup (carb? EFI?) on the 496 Mag?

 

[QC]

Re: Fuel consumption

All 496's are MPI.

 

[Philster]

Re: Fuel consumption

Stock 496 Mags are injected (but I'll grant you this to save you some face: If it's carbed, is it really a Mag now or something else? )

Once you open the engine cover on a hi-po boat, all bets are off as to what you'll find.

 

[87rocket455]

Re: Fuel consumption

My bad.... Correction it is a "454Mag" the add said

 

[QC]

Re: Fuel consumption

Carb'd, and to save Phil some face . . . if it's stock.

The first "stock" EFI merc was 502 MAG in '93, followed by 454 MAG in '94 and then 5.7 in '95. The first mention of MPI was in '95, but I believe the '93 502 and '94 454 were also, but not positive