2019 208 Sea Pro with Suzuki 140 and C 10 Gauge Fuel Level Concern

[Grandpa]

Hi all first post but I did a quick search and did not find what I was looking for. Here is the concern (2 hours on boat and motor) 61 gal tank the dealer put 31 gal in. the gauge shows full on the fuel data page on another page I set up it shows 47% for fuel level. Since I am not familiar with the this gauge set up i'm not sure whats correct or if i just need to drive the boat to calibrate. I miss the old school fuel level sender. I'm not sure if this boat has that or if it is all calculated. It does have NEMA 2000

How do I know if the gauge is reading the fuel level correctly? Is there a way to manually input the actual level (there should be maybe a update would fix this)?

[Moonlighter]

OK Hi Grandpa!! And welcome to the forum!

Ok, what you are seeing is very easily explained.

The dealer has obviously connected the tank sender unit to the network, and that is now being shown as the 47% fuel, which would correlate fairly nicely with the 31 gal that the dealer put in. As you know those tank float sensors are only ever a rough guide as they depend on the angle the boat is sitting on etc.

So you can relax - you still effectively have the old school Fuel level sender, its just being displayed on the C-10 instead of on a separate fuel gauge like before. ✅

Secondly, the fuel data page is showing full because this is coming from the engine’s data. This is far more accurate than the tank sender. But, it relies on you resetting it every time you add fuel to the tank. And when the system is first set up, it assumes that it has a full tank, and unfortunately there is no way around that.

So on your boat with its new Suzuki, you actually have 2 separate ways of seeing your fuel situation - one piece of info comes from the tank sender, and the other is what I call a CALCULATED fuel level, it tells you exactly how much fuel has been used since it was last reset, and also can tell you the exact amount in gallons, litres etc or how much you have remaining in the tank. The 2 methods are not “connected” and by that I mean that when you fill up, the tank sender will obviously show the tank is full, but it doesnt reset the CALCULATED fuel level to full, you have to do that manually in the gauge.

As part of the setup the dealer will have set the tank capacity in the system. In laymans terms, the engine’s computer is telling the injectors how much fuel to inject every micro second and the system is aggregating that info to calculate fuel used and fuel remaining. Plus it also uses fuel burn data to show you real time gph data and also can show you real time (instantaneous) fuel economy in mpg if you have a GPS connected to the network to give it speed data to use.

Its very clever stuff when you think about it, and 99% of the time, its incredibly accurate. I filled up yesterday after a couple of local trips, and the gauge said I had used 56.1 litres and when I filled up, it took 55.7 litres. In US terms, that is only about a pint difference!

So here is what I suggest you do.

Go and fill the tank to full. Then both the tank level and the calculated level will be the same.

From then on, every time you fill up, you must remember to go into the gauge menu and reset to full. Add this action to your checklist. Its easy to do, takes 30 seconds. The dealer should have explained and shown you how to do that??

[Grandpa]

Moonlighter, Thank you for quick response, The dealer explained that every time I put fuel in I need to input the fuel added to the C10. Sounds like a great system using fuel burn to calculate fuel remaining. I cant imagine filling the fuel tank it will take years to use it. Typical trips on my old boat with a 115 we used 6 gals. I'm sure this motor will be close to the same. It will take some use to get the system accurate I'm ready to get out and use it just waiting on weather to work on my schedule seems like every time we have time to get out weather seems to stop it.

Thank You so much for taking the time to explain the system.

Stay Safe

Grandpa