2005 Sea Ray 420 - 480CE fuel burn difference

If it’s not more than 5 or 10 gallons per tank fill and somewhere close to the prop curve, I would just go with it and do some checks on the next haul out. Without flowmeters, it’s impossible to tell with these motors on short every weekend bopping around trips to restaurants and beaches. On longer trips you can get pretty close on estimated burn by running regimented segments at constant rpm. My wife is our flowmeter and a genius at this and can get it within a few gallons most days. We run a lot of slow cruising at 1100 and she uses 5 gph, we like to cruise at 2280 and she uses 32 gph as a base and sometimes tweaks it to account for seas, wind against the bridge glass if it’s not open, then throws in a little Kentucky windage based on how the egt is running that day. She uses .6 gph for the gen. She adds it up as we go along and then checks the fill up against her numbers to get a feeling for how happy the engines are or if I need to figure out why we’re burning too much.
My starboard fuel gage is wacky, it never reads correctly and drops faster than the port gauge. Most of my gauges don’t read correctly but they are consistent in their inaccuracy and I can deal with that. So long as the needle is pointing to the same place all the time, that’s all that matters.
Last long trip we were on was when we were up in your neck of the woods. Here’s a shot of the last two full pages of her scrap book on our way home.
View attachment 131623
Damn...she's GOOD! Best Fuel flow system ever!
 
I find that every single post on this subject over the years, it's always the port engine burning slightly more fuel.
 
Why am I always the exception, lol. My boat didn't get the memo I guess.
Everything about my starboard side is slightly more. EGT, Boost, gear pressure and, if not running the gen, fuel burn. But ever so slight. Usually within a couple of gallons on a 200 gallon fill up.
IMG_E2433.JPG
 
The rotation of the port propeller when moving the boat forward is through the gear's countershaft which consumes more power to drive through the extra gear sets rotating the gear in a reverse (for lack of a better term) direction. The countershaft always rotates but is not the drive path when the gear is normal rotation as in the starboard side.
 
The rotation of the port propeller when moving the boat forward is through the gear's countershaft which consumes more power to drive through the extra gear sets rotating the gear in a reverse (for lack of a better term) direction. The countershaft always rotates but is not the drive path when the gear is normal rotation as in the starboard side.
That makes sense
 
For v-drives. Port prop turns the same direction as engine rotation on straight shafts. Starboard turns backwards. Must be why I’m the exception.
 
My port engine burns more fuel as well. I got them dialed in right around where suggested @2200 and they purr. I’m running 23x25 props.
 

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