flow meter?
Turbo Mini Forums

hey all, after spending most of the weekend goign to and from liverpool and bradford in feebles new astra, using the "galons per hour" thing ont he computer interesting, and could be quite usefull,
and was thinking of ways to get some thing like this in the mini.
would it just be a case of fitting a flow meter (any ideas were from) inbetween the plenum and float bowl and a guage. or am i talkign sh!te? lol
just an idea and i want this in my car, lol

cheers, Dan

im assuming its ecu controlled. just fill your tank up, measure the mileage you do then work it out

lol, i dont want to know what mpg i am getting, just what its using at the time, like we found if you stay in someones slip stream fuel consumption goes down loads

foudn tihs one bay, seems to have answerd my question

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vie...ssPageName=WDVW

Dan:)

iain he means a constant one, so you know what revs your producing the best fuel economy at

Previous Engine: 1040cc Morespeed engine, 1275 turbo head T2 Turbo Mirage Manifolds Megajolt
Previous engine: STD metro turbo, megajolt
Drives: 399bananahp (flywheel) Honda Civic Vtec b18c4 T28 Turbo 1968 Mini

Megajolt maps to download: http://www.jamesfawcett.co.uk/cms/index.ph...&gid=3&Itemid=3

The problem with the one on Ebay is it can only ever tell you GPHour not GPMile as it dosn't have a speedo hookup.
The one in the modern fuel injected cars runs from the injector duty cycle or pulse width then uses this plus the reading from the speedo to calc the fuel flow.

Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the the universe.

A boost gauge plumbed in to read vacuum when off boost as well as pressure will indicate the same thing, e.g. when you are at high vacuum or high boost you are using loads of fuel. When you are near zero on the gauge you are using least fuel.

i.e. the way a gunson lo-gauge has laid out

Having read the description of the ebay item this bit stands out:
"It will only work with petrol engines (inboards and outboards) that do not have a fuel return line."
No use on a Turbocharged A-Series then!

Not strictly true....if you put it in the line from the reg to the carb then there is no fuel return in that part of the system, the fuel goes from the pump the the reg, a certain amount goes to the carb from the reg and the rest goes back to tank. So measuring the flow from the reg to the carb would give you the amount of fuel used, plus or minus a tiny bit to account for the float chamber being full or empty when you start measuring.........

Good point.
I'd not considered that.
Don't you sleep Tom?
Take it you're not working nights this week?

No I am on the handy thing you get working a shift pattern called "Rota Days Off"
Monday I repaired an Astra GTE, yesterday I fitted a cd player and did some jobs on a Citroen AX, today I am changing the clutch on a 106. All is busy at the TF Autos camp. Oh and in between all that I am building the turbo engine as well.......

What happens when you get busy then?

yeah thats what i was thinking about the float bowl, dows it just fill it up then wait or will it be acurate enough that it keeps it topped up all the time like,
i know i cant get miles per gallon read out, but gallons per hour is better than nothgin for me, also wil have the boost/vacuum guage:)

cheers,Dan

Don't some old fords have a seperate fuel computer. eg orion 1.6i etc.

Should be easy enough to fit if you get hold of all the sensors and a wiring diagram.

the speedo sensor might need so adaption but apart from that i imagine it would work.

Why you would build a turbo mini and still worry about the fuel economy is another matter lol.

becouse the car is an every day car still, i dont 'worry' about fuel econemy i just want to know how bad it really is lol
as i said earlyer tho i only want gallons per hour NOT MILES per gallon.

thanks, Dan

If you just want to know how bad it is then do what all the rest of us do and note mileage down each time you fill up and then work it out with a calculator!! A lot easier and cheaper than trying to get some super duper gadget to do it for you! A boost/vacuum gauge is the best thing to put on your dash to teach you to drive economically if that is what you are after.

it seems so simple and boring tho!! i will do it for now then might look into it a bit later on

thanks for help anyways!