Dirty Fuel

[mmarin]

Morning,

I had my first experience this weekend in Islamorada with a dirty tank. After filling up in Boynton Beach (after my normal launch procedures) I lost an engine in Biscayne Bay and swapped out a filter foolishly thinking I had "fixed" the issue. As I was approaching the Marina I lost another engine with the same issue. After being disgracefully towed in, and reviewing my situation, I quickly came to the conclusion that my ride down knocked everything loose in my tank.

Cliff Berry Incorporated was more than accommodating in dispatching a truck to pump my tank on the 4th and I think we got nearly 99% of the fuel/liquid out. As you can imagine, it was a memorable holiday weekend with my GF and my baby.

Anywho, I'm willing to accept responsibility for not being 100% on top of my fuel maintenance (wont happen again) but I run her often and get fuel from a brand new marina (I know it does not mean anything at this point). I'm going to get the tank cleaned and I'm thinking about installing a fuel polishing system. Racor has what appears to be a new system the P510MAM.

Does anyone have any experience with the P510MAM or a comparable system? I've read the thread on fuel polishing systems and as always there's great advice out there!

Best,

M

[skipmac]

Have no experience specifically with the P510MAM but have been using Racor products forever, including a dual Racor 75500 on my current boat. I read the specs on the polisher and don't see why it wouldn't work very well. Even with the polisher I think switching to a dual filter system would be a good idea. Lose an engine from a clogged filter it takes seconds to turn the valve and connect a new filter, already primed and ready to go.

By the way, are you sure it was dirty tanks and not a bad load of fuel that did you in? Is the place you filled up the same place you always use? Have you inspected the tanks yet to see what's lurking in there? Walls coated with grime and slime or just some crud sitting in the bottom?

[Kenomac]

Do a forum search for my thread on fuel polishing systems. I used the Reverso fuel polishing module along with the recommended Separ filter. The module and filter are capable of moving 150 gallons per hour. If your going through the trouble, think about also adding the dual Racor filters with a quick switch over lever.

The literature on the Racor system you found states that it polishes 45 gallons per hour, so it depends on how much fuel you carry. The recommended turn over is to to run three times the tank capacity in order to consider the fuel polished. So if you carry 200 gallons, that can take a while.