Fuel consumption of a nineteen with 140 hp Mercruiser

[luva63]

Been trying to find out what I could expect as far as fuel use on one of these. Was told a 140 OMC would burn 6 gal in one hour at 25 mph and 16.5 WOT. I was hoping it would be around half that much fuel usage for a 140 Mercruiser. Was I dreaming?? Really wanting the '76 nineteen I'm looking at,but with numbers like what I was told, I might be better off with my old outboard. thanks, jim

 

[renojim]

Re: Fuel consumption of a nineteen with 140 hp Mercruiser

Hey Jim
Fwiw, I have a 19 with the 165hp. I check my fuel usage almost every time. Humminbird 798 bread crumb trail. When I boat in Lake Tahoe, elev. 6300' I use a 15" pitch prop and usually have 4 people in the boat. I do a 50 mile run, 75% of the time cruising around 25 mph. The rest of the time around 10 mph checking out the scenery. I'll average between 4 and 4.5 mpg. We also boat at Pyramid Lake, elev. 3800' here I use a 17" prop with 4 to 5 people in the boat. We ski & tube and to get to our favorite spot across the lake is 8 miles away. We'll do 2 or 3 pulls a person then cruise back. I run around 30 mph to get back and forth across the lake, approx. 3/4 throttle. The worst fuel mileage we've ever had is 4 mpg. Can't help you with WOT fuel use, never ran it WOT more than 10 minutes or so. My old boat was a 1978 20' Sleekcraft modified tunnel hull with a 175hp Johnson outboard and it would only get about 2 mpg. The old carbureted 2 strokes were horrible on fuel. Depending on your boatn style I would think the 140 might be a little better then my 165, especially at lower speed cruising but if you start loading it down the engines gonna work a lot harder.
Hope I helped, Good Luck!

 

[luva63]

Re: Fuel consumption of a nineteen with 140 hp Mercruiser

Thanks Jim,I just was thinking the 4 cycle would be a lot better than my old v-4 johnson75 hp. It will run 1 hr on 6 gal at 30mph.By my figuring ,that's 5 mpg. If I back it down to say 20 mph,I get around 1hr 40min per 6 gal. I was wanting to improve my fuel economy a little.jim

 

[ziggy]

Re: Fuel consumption of a nineteen with 140 hp Mercruiser

imho, boating and gas mileage is an oxymoron. feed it what ya got to. get a bigger engine. it'll work less as less than wot of a small engine. ya may need a bigger engine when the lake gets nasty anyways. most folks never want less hp, maybe better fuel milage.
i went from 2 stoke o/b's (fishing boat, small o/b's didn't use much fuel)to pwc to 4 stoke pwc (both sucked the fuel down, less than 2 hrs @wot 15 and 18 gal fuel tank) and then to my L6 (18 gal fuel tank). bigger than the L4 your inquiring about. the L6 does as good as any of the others. mostly it's about how much ya get ontoit. ya do a bunch of wot and you'll pay for it. ya cruise around at just above plane and slow idle enjoying the lake, ya can go a lot. i do the slow thing mostly. 18 gal. tank. i can go out 3 or 4 weekends w/o fill up (float around, slow idle cruisein, just above plane mixed). if i give it much wot, drop a week. it uses some fuel.
ya want mpg. get an inboard trawler. seems to me about as good as it gets short of the blow boat.

 

[luva63]

Re: Fuel consumption of a nineteen with 140 hp Mercruiser

Thanks guys, I'd always heard that I/Os would do better on gas than older outboards. Sounds like the fact is you gotta pay to play ,no matter what you ride. I'll be keeping my '63 Aristo Craft Funliner, but wanting a little bigger boat. The Nineteen looks like it would suit me good.Got another boat I'm trying to sell now. If it moves, I'm going to look at the 140 nineteen ASAP. thanks ,jim