www.iFourWinns.com

Good evening,
I could use some opinons please! First, let me set the stage on my boat.
2011 F224 5.7 GIC - 0 hours purchased this year, put in the water in May. I know have had 20 enjoyable hours on the boat. Still "breaking it in", haven't driven it over 40mph, usually crusing at 3000 rpms.
Here's three questions I've posed to my dealer/marina.

1) Floating in the Bilge under the engine I found two narrow black strips of black foam. Looked like one side of each foam piece is/was meant to be stuck on to something. Sound familiar?
2) Under the back bench seat(facing water) near the exhuast vents there is a rust brown liquid that keeps appearing and dripping on and around the exhaust vents. Looks to be come from under the seat?
3) MOST IMPORTANT QUESTION: We have 20 hours on the boat and I'm very concerned with the gas mileage. We've gone through 100 gallons in 20 hours. That seems VERY high. I'm not pulling any skiers/tubers. Most of our trips are 30 minutest from West Alton to Wolfeboro and back. We've made only one long-haul from West Alton to Meredith. We usually have a total of about 6-8 people with little gear. I usually cruise at 2800 rpm and roughly 28mph as I read prior to using the boat that is the most efficent crusining speed. We went through 50 gallons in the past eight hours!! I'm not new to boats, just new to this boat, and that seems very high based on the facts mentioned above.
Please let me know your thoughts.

For comparison, I have a Horizon 240 with 5.7GS. I get about 2.7mpg on long haul trips, cruising at about 30mph and 3200rpm (11 gal/hour while cruising). Mine is carburated...a fuel injected engine would do about 10% better for about 3 mpg. My 175 mile round trip last November required 65 gallons. This was with 4 people plus gear. These numbers were right in line with the Users Manual projections.

Now while idling or moving at no-wake speeds, fuel consumption is barely noticeable...maybe 2 gals/hour.

While your boat is 2 ft shorter, it is about the same weight as my older horizon, so it is a fair comparison. Your 6-8 people sounds like a heavy load. So your numbers do not sound bad if you are doing a lot of cruising speed.

Things that can hurt mileage:
Heavy load.
Bottom Paint (rough surface)
Bent Prop or inefficient prop
Poor tune on engine

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"Knot Easy" 2000 Horizon 240 Volvo 5.7GS /SX
tow: 2017 Honda PILOT EXL-AWD
prev. boats:
'87 Chaparral 198CXL 4.3 OMC Cobra
'69 Jetstar 16ft Ski Boat, 115hp Yamaha
'68 Aluminum Jon Boat, 3hp Sears
'64 Water Wings

I have the same issue with my F204 regarding the rust brown liquid from the rear jump seat. It appears to be a common thing when that rear seat gets wet....the brown stuff comes from the wood in the seat itself. I don't care for it, but it doesn't seem to hurt anything and it rinses off easily. Its just annoying really and I don't know of anything that can be done about it.

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2008 FW F204 - 5.0 VP "Stand On It"
Former Boat: Larson 186 LXI - 4.3 VP

I have the 5.0 and notice the fuel goes quickly too. 50 gallons in 8 hours seems like a lot. On the other hand I've read that at cruising speed, expected fuel consumption is about 7 gallons per hour. That puts you right in there, expected 48 gallons. Assuming you ran at that speed all that time. 8 hours at cruise is a long time. Itoo have read that best mpg speed is 3000-3500 rpm, which is where you are. So that may be good mpg, but still burning 7 gals per hour adds up fast. Do what I did -- get a gas grill, cruise an hour or two, then park and have a picnic.

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2008 Four Winns F224
5.0 Volvo Penta
Towing with Audi Q7 4.2 V8