Fuel Tank Capacity?

[questover]

In the past I've kept fuel tank's full. After the thread's about diesel fuel degrading-etc. I've decided to keep tank's half full - down to 1/8 tank or 15% of capacity.

I've got mech gages- so I'm trying to get a close low end gallons@ 1/8 reading. I'm going to pull gage's and stick the tank. maybe allow 2" for hull slope. I'm assuming the tanks are v shapedon bottom.

I've got two tanks one 525 gal and the other 508 gals on a 58' MY 1987 with 8v92.

Also I've got floscan's - going to try to tie those reading's to gages.(presently one gage not working)

I talk to Steve @ sams. He said gages are not calibrated to gal's of tanks. So your getting a guess of fuel left. Less than you would think with a "v" bottom tank.

Any thought's? Thanks Russ

[Top Shelf]

The cockpit tank in my 48 CNV is 612 gals, if you were looking at it from the transom, it's actually sorta "T" shaped. Hangs over the stingers on both sides. So the mechanical guage is pretty worthless. Best I've come up with is I've taken digital pics of different guage levels and then what was required to fill it. After 3 years I can guess to within about 5 gals of what's in the tank.

I'm assuming 10% isn't usable.......

Flo scans, properly calibrated are the way to go. Wish I had em. Thx.

[Nonchalant1]

It's simple.....go at it from the other end. You know how many gallons the tanks hold when full. Since you have FloScans, you know how many gallons you use. So just fill them up full once and use the fuel down to whatever level you want left. It's just a math quiz. After that, refill with as many gallons as you use so it brings it up to your new desired level. Also remember what your fuel gauge reads when it's at your new desired fill level. The gauges may not be accurate as gallons or as a percent of fuel left, but they are accurate enough that they will reproduce the same reading for the same number of gallons remaining (if the resistance in the connections has not degraded).

Doug Shuman