Unaceptable fuel economy?

I am looking for input on what I should be getting for fuel economy on a NEW 2007 150 Etec? Some specs on what I am running: 1995 Stratos 278DC (18ft), new 150 etec (less then 10 hours on motor) Boat wieght combined with motor is approximately 1800lbs, fully loaded with 2 persons and gear is 2500lbs. The prop is a renegade 23×13.5 and hole shot is great. I am getting real close to 1.5 miles per gallon at 5500rpms. Speed is 60mph on speedo (not gps reading). Oil consumption is just as poor as fuel, but I understand it is breaking in and using twice the amount of oil. At what point does the engine switch from break in and stop using so much oil? Any ideas on the poor fuel economy ?

What oil are you running in the motor: XD50 or XD100? What oil setting is the motor on? Break in should be almost over, a computer print out will show you if the break in period is over. How are you running the engine: WOT or tons of idling/trolling? What are your RPMs w/current prop?
All are factors along with set up and propping….

How are you determining the 1.5 MPG?

I have a 2008 e-tec 150 on my Alumacraft Navigator 175 Sport. I run the XD100 oil and have about 100 hours on the motor. I have the e-tec hooked into my Lowrance network so I get engine stats on it. One of the stats is MPG. When I’m running about 4000 RPM I am typically seeing around 4 to 5 MPG. I have no idea how accurate that is, but it is all I have to go by. I made an 80 mile run last weekend and went through about 20 gallons of fuel, so I can assume that the MPG stat is pretty close. If I’m running at over 5000 RPM, the MPG is less than 2 if I remember correctly.

I use very little oil as well. I would say a fair guess is about a gallon for every two to three full tanks of fuel.

When I first got the E-Tech 225 ho it was awful on gas and oil for the first few tanks. It would literally go through a gallon of oil and a tank of gas on the same day. Once it got through the breakin everything settled right down to the point I was wondering if the fuel guage was even working.

Wow 1.5 gallon per mile is terrible, I have a hard time believing it’s actually that bad… But it’s hard to say what all the motor is programed to do during break in.

I’m going to speculate that since you don’t have gps speed for the boat, you aren’t running a gps, and are guessing at actual mileage, and I think you’re off a bit, I’ve done the same thing until I really sat down with a actual map and cauculated aproximate mileage then I realized how off I really was. Even at WFO I would think you could still pull around 3-4 mpg, for sure after breakin is over, really until then I don’t know exactly.

Lowrance makes a some sensors to calculate gas mileage, based on fuel flow and GPS, they connect up to a modern Fishfinder/gps, make a stand alone unit that doesn’t require a FF/GPS. They also make for most modern motors a connector that connects to the motor and share’s the motor’s information with the FF, gicing you such things as gas useage, and rpm’s and if you have a GPS, mpg. I do believe they work and make those for Etec’s.

Bottomline is, I’d be sure you are actually correct in your MPG’s and through break-in, before I’d start chasing a problem.

BTW my 2005 Yamaha 200 EFI get a little better than 2 mpg at WFO and 60 mph, I’d expect you to be atleast 1 mpg better at minimum at any given speed.

I think Jeremy hit it. The internal computer is still running the break in code.

Generally boat fuel consumption is measured at GPH or Gallons Per Hour. Just an FYI.

You may want to post this on the e-tec owners forum:

http://www.etecownersgroup.com/

Good Luck,

-J.

Thanks for the inputs. I have a mississippi map that I calculate mileage from the mileage markers. I run upstream 2 miles to the marker and fish for walleyes. After fishing the wingdam, I then run back downstream to a catfish area and try for cats. The mileage is 2 miles up, 9 miles down to my other spot and then 7 miles back to my docking area. Like I said, I use a river map and put in a certain amount of gas each time. Each time I return I have the same amount of gas in tank (visual inspection). I am running 5000-5200rpms and traveling at approx. 60mph on the speedo. It is going into the shop this week for error codes so I will ask the tech to see if it is nearly broken in. Oil I use is XD50. Idle time on the motor is very little since I use the trolling motor for fishing. Thanks

So, you’re saying that you used 12 gallons of gas to travel 18 miles???

-J.