Racor Filter element

[a64pilot]

it's true that only the engine mounted filter comes with the engine, boat manufacturer supplies the boat mounted one, but I have a JD 410 Backhoe that has two filters, a International 574 tractor, also with two and a JD 997 lawnmower, with two filters.
My Duramax truck, has one and it's a 2 micron I think.
Your fuel can't be too clean, and as long as the high pressure fuel pump is supplied fuel under pressure, all's good.

[IP Man]

As a relatively new (used) boat owner, 1969 Hinckley 38' I have drained the junk at the bottom and changed the filter in my racor 200 FG once about a year ago but have not sailed or motored much.

Not many hours since then but I see I need to drain the gunk out of the bottom of the racor. So I start to look around and noticed a few things.

1. There is small black material pieces inside the filter above the gunk at the bottom. I have sailed once since having some work done in the yard (an unmitigated disaster), one of the items was to replace the fuel fill line. I think I can safely assume now that that was done with a sawsall (sp) down the middle which would have let material roll into tank.

2. Watched a video on u-tube on how to drain and replace filter, seems easy enough.

3. Check spare filters and have several 2 micron and 10 micron filters, so I came here. Seems the 10 should be OK.

4. Went looking for the engine fuel filter and discovered for whatever reason that there is no other filter forward of the one and only racor. Oh and the final piece of fuel line to the motor has no clamp on it

Motor is a relatively (500) hours young Westerbeke 44A.

My questions are as follows and thanks for the advise in advance...

1. 10 micron at the racor? or 2 micron.

2. Should I purchase and install a fuel filter at the motor (I think yes is the right answer here).

Thanks

IPMan

[sanibel sailor]

If you have gunk in your filter, it means you have bad fuel in your tank, probably minimally related to the fuel fill change. Change the o-ring in the fill cap. Clean the tank (actually clean it, I believe polishing is a poor substitute) and then put a new filter in the Racor. Be gentle with the Racor 200, they have been obsolete for 15 years at least and if you crack the bowl, new parts are not available. And on the boat I learned this on, there was not room for a 500...

[IP Man]

Originally Posted by sanibel sailor

If you have gunk in your filter, it means you have bad fuel in your tank, probably minimally related to the fuel fill change. Change the o-ring in the fill cap. Clean the tank (actually clean it, I believe polishing is a poor substitute) and then put a new filter in the Racor. Be gentle with the Racor 200, they have been obsolete for 15 years at least and if you crack the bowl, new parts are not available. And on the boat I learned this on, there was not room for a 500...

Haha, thanks for the quick response sanibel sailor! ....... I am beginning to wish someone would have written the book I am going to write warning people of all the pitfalls and costs of purchasing an old boat. WOW the hits just keep on coming.

I did notice online that a site no longer carried the racor filters, guess I'll either budget for a new racor or just replace the 200. Lot's of room in a very accessible place for new filter.

Thanks

IP Man

[rjdives]

I just re powered with a Nanni Kubuta and they require 2 micron and I had to change the 10 micron I was using in my racor.


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[colemj]

Originally Posted by rjdives

I just re powered with a Nanni Kubuta and they require 2 micron and I had to change the 10 micron I was using in my racor.


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Interesting. Is the racor the only filter, or is there also an engine mounted spin on? Is this a common rail engine (they do require finer filtering)?

Mark

[rjdives]

There is also the engine mounted filter. It's a new 60hp Kubuta tier 4 turbo that has to be the smoothest running engine I have ever had. They don't call it rail, E-TVCS combustion.


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[colemj]

Nice engine! Yes, these are common rail designs and yes, they have different fuel filtering requirements than older designs.

Mark

[Cheechako]

Originally Posted by IP Man

As a relatively new (used) boat owner, 1969 Hinckley 38' I have drained the junk at the bottom and changed the filter in my racor 200 FG once about a year ago but have not sailed or motored much.

Not many hours since then but I see I need to drain the gunk out of the bottom of the racor. So I start to look around and noticed a few things.

1. There is small black material pieces inside the filter above the gunk at the bottom. I have sailed once since having some work done in the yard (an unmitigated disaster), one of the items was to replace the fuel fill line. I think I can safely assume now that that was done with a sawsall (sp) down the middle which would have let material roll into tank.

2. Watched a video on u-tube on how to drain and replace filter, seems easy enough.

3. Check spare filters and have several 2 micron and 10 micron filters, so I came here. Seems the 10 should be OK.

4. Went looking for the engine fuel filter and discovered for whatever reason that there is no other filter forward of the one and only racor. Oh and the final piece of fuel line to the motor has no clamp on it

Motor is a relatively (500) hours young Westerbeke 44A.

My questions are as follows and thanks for the advise in advance...

1. 10 micron at the racor? or 2 micron. 10 or 2.. opinions vary, both work fine.

2. Should I purchase and install a fuel filter at the motor (I think yes is the right answer here). I would and would put the 2 or a 5 there.

I would have the tank polished (fuel and tank cleaned) on that boat. It's amazing how much crap they get out. You indicate you are getting stuff in the Racor after very little use... that's why I would do this.
Thanks

IPMan

See comments in bold above.

[UNCIVILIZED]

Common sense engineering (or just plain old thinking) would say that if one's filter is massively oversized, meaning it's GPH or GPM rating compared to how much the engine burns, that using a filter with smaller pores would be okay. Especially if you're making sure that what's going into your tanks is pretty clean, & that you're running a vacuum gauge so that it's easy to keep an eye on things.
I mean, the math behind said statements doesn't lie.

And in answer to how often to change them. Is it not akin to frequent oil changes in your car? Fairly cheap "insurance" to make sure that thing run trouble free, for a long time. That, & guys who do their own regular changes tend to (be the type) pay closer attention to their mechanicals than those who don't. And due to the frequent maint. habit, generally catch other problems earlier on as well

That said, it's easy enough to keep a maint. log, including filter changes. But as well, to post reminders in it in terms of what needs doing at X number of hours, & similar helpful notes to one's self.

[IP Man]

Originally Posted by Cheechako

See comments in bold above.

Thanks for the reply Cheechako!

Duly noted.

IP Man

[leftbrainstuff]

We use a 10 micron for our primaries and a 2 micron on the engine and generator.

We filter all diesel prior to filling so can avoid the 30 micron primaries.

We monitor fuel vacuum but change all fuel filters at 100 hour intervals.

They do get some build up and changing them lets us inspect the filters. Filters are cheap.

No engine ever failed from having fuel that was too clean.

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[darylat8750]

I am looking for a vacume gauge with a telltale needle so I can check the max vacume attained during any run. I do an engine room check every hour but normally the engines are at a very low power setting during cruise.

[Cheechako]

I buddy boated in Mexico years ago with a friend who was a physicist for Hewlett Packard. He had some fine mesh screen from work that was green in color. I think it was Teflon coated or something like that. We used to put it in our Baja filters. The really cool thing about it was it would pass diesel but not pass water! You could pour a little water in the filter and it would just sit there.
Trouble was the Baja filters were too slow to really use in the first place... with that in there it took forever!

[onestepcsy37]

The engine mounted fuel filter on my 4-108 is such a pain to change I keep a 30 micron filter in it. But the racor, easy to change and I do it every hundred hours, is a 2 micron. Since I only jerry jug fuel, everything going in to the tank goes through a baja filter.