fuel flow gauge

[Mac3]

Hi all,
I am wanting to fit a fuel flow gauge to my 98 Johnson 150 Ficht. I don't want a large stand alone display with lots of do-dads and I liked the look of the Northstar F210 but on enquiring I am told it is discontinued. The only one my local chandlery could come up with was a Lowrance but that looked a little over the top as well. Can anyone suggest something similar to the Northstar?
cheers
David

 

[Silvertip]

Re: fuel flow gauge

http://www.rivermarinesupply.com/xc...hstar_Explorer_F210_Digital_Fuel_Display.html

http://www.jmsonline.net/NORTHSTAR-F210-DIGITAL-FUEL-DISPLAY-W-SINGLE-ENGINE-KIT.htm

http://www.bethel-marine.com/Northstar_F210.htm (This is where I bought mine but it has been a number of years ago -- price hasn't changed much).

 

[robthompson66]

Re: fuel flow gauge

I purchased the Northstar F210 Fuel flow gauge set up a few years ago to monitor the fuel flow on my evinrude 115. I installed everything as directed and it only worked for a few minutes, and would behave erratically. I spoke to northstar/Navman, and they were really helpful, in the end, they sent me a new transducer unit which also lasted about 10-15 minutes and no matter how I installed it, it wouldn't work right. I called them again and they determined from what I told them that everything was installed correctly so they sent me a new transducer unit again. I pulled everything out of the boat and sold it with the new transducer on ebay, I was just tired of dealing with it.
I don't know if my motor made the difference or if premix fuel was a problem, but they never said anything about that. I run a 1974 Evinrude 115 with premix gas/oil.
Northstar/Navman was excellent to deal with and in my experience have great customer service, maybe the F210 or transducers were just problematic.

I now have a floscan and am happy.

Rob

 

[wilde1j]

Re: fuel flow gauge

FloScan isn't the cheapest, but their devices work well and are well supported. I've used one of their devices for about seven years with zero problem and great performance.

 

[Outsider]

Re: fuel flow gauge

and it only worked for a few minutes, and would behave erratically.

I've used that design flow meter for about 6 years. Worked great on a carbed Suzuki, didn't do too well when I went to fuel injected motors. Finally determined the erratic readings resulted from the 'refresh' rate being set too short, and was picking up the times fuel wasn't flowing because of the design of injection systems. When I set the refresh at 12 sec (it can be set as desired), problems went away.

My unit is a Horizon F41, but the design has bounced around the industry. Mine was good to 4%, and I tweaked it down to about 2%. The old transducer design with soft nipples does NOT like ethanol, the newer version with hard plastic nipples has been flawless ...

 

[robthompson66]

Re: fuel flow gauge

That's interesting, mine did have hard nipples, and a lot of fuel available around here has ethanol in it I believe. I went through troubleshooting with northstar and they never offered any advice like you have here. Anyways, the floscan wasn't much more and was never any trouble, worth the extra $90

 

[Mac3]

Re: fuel flow gauge

Well thanks guys, that's food for thought... I'll look into all avenues. It's raised more questions than answers!