Mounting Fuel Filter Above Engine?

[Burge]

Hi I need to move the primary fuel filter on my boat above the height of the engine to make room gor watermaker pump. My question is will the extra height cause pressure problems?

I would be increasing height by 250mm which would be about 100mm above the cyc head.

Any thoughts?

[Hudson Force]

I don't see any problem with a primary fuel filter above the engine; however, what is the position of your fuel tanks? I have a "downhill" run from fuel tanks to Racor Filters to engine and I think this is quite common.

[Wotname]

Originally Posted by Burge

Hi I need to move the primary fuel filter on my boat above the height of the engine to make room gor watermaker pump. My question is will the extra height cause pressure problems?

I would be increasing height by 250mm which would be about 100mm above the cyc head.

Any thoughts?

No issues at all IMO.

Regardless of whether you using a mechanical lift pump or electric and whether the fuel is gavity feed or lifted from a eel tank etc, there will not be an issue by having the filter about 10 inches above the head.

Bleeding may be marginally more difficult depending on the way you bleed but apart from that all should be good!

[Muckle Flugga]

Originally Posted by Burge

Hi I need to move the primary fuel filter on my boat above the height of the engine to make room gor watermaker pump. My question is will the extra height cause pressure problems?

I would be increasing height by 250mm which would be about 100mm above the cyc head.

Any thoughts?

No functional issues likely. However there is a fire risk consideration. I like to have my primary fuel filters well away from the engine such that they will not feed an engine fire should that occur. However if space requires, it does.

[GrahamHO]

Originally Posted by Burge

Hi I need to move the primary fuel filter on my boat above the height of the engine to make room gor watermaker pump. My question is will the extra height cause pressure problems?

I would be increasing height by 250mm which would be about 100mm above the cyc head.

Any thoughts?

My initial thought is that it might be harder to bleed the air out after you change elements. That is unless you have an electric pump or a outboard style priming bulb between the tank and filter. ( I've used a priming bulb for several years and the diesel doesn't affect it; some people have had problems so there must be various bulbs)


Another thing I would be cautious about, raising the filter, is its possible proximity to the engine air intake. Fuel sucked into the intake from a leak in the filter could cause a run away engine situation. If that happened you may not be able to shut down the engine. Even if that is not likely, it could happen as filters can leak.

[01kiwijohn]

No problem at all

[Tuadhmumhan]

I have a Malo 36 with the primary fuel filter mounted higher than the engine (but outside the engine compartment itself).

There is no issue with this - other than the fact that it makes bleeding a bit more difficult. The whole system needs to be bled through the secondary, engine-mounted, filter.

The manual lift pump on my engine isn't strong enough to lift the fuel right through the system so I fitted a priming bulb between the secondary filter and the engine. It makes bleeding a very simple job.

[Burge]

Hi All,


Thanks for your comments much appreciated and I am pleased to inform that you were all right, I moved the filter yesterday and ran the engine in neutral and under load without any problems.


Thanks again


Regards Anthony

[a64pilot]

My Filter is well above the engine, maybe a foot, and a couple of feet above the top of the tank. Factory mounted it there. I removed the electric pump and had no problem at all in bleeding the dual Racor set up I installed by using the lever on the mechanical lift pump.


Sent from my iPad using Cruisers Sailing Forum

[Snore]

Ditto on the it is not problem.

I would suggest that having an electric lift pump will make bleeding the system almost a no-brainer.


Sent from my iPhone- please forgive autocorrect errors.