Thanks for the answers.
Quote:
Originally Posted by noelex 77
My fuel polishing system returns fuel to the tank via a common return line shared with the main engine and generator.
The polishing picks up from the very bottom of the tank and I think that is important.
I only have one tank. With two you need to be careful you are not emptying, or overfilling a tank. A series of valves are not expensive and this ensures that the fuel does what you want it too.
It's also easy to arrange the valves so that fuel for the main engine can obtained from either the main engine primary filter or the generator primary filter. For boats without a generator the fuel polishing filter can be used a emergancy filter for the main engine in the event of a blockagage.
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I made this diagram just for the hell of it, this is how i have it set up (except have to put transfer pump in still)... there are also some vacuum gauges,
lift pumps and bypass valves but i left those off the diagram for simplicity:
Yes drawing off the bottom for polishing im sure will be better, however i just cleaned the
tanks last year (and i plan on
cleaning them again when the filters start picking up dirt regularly), and my main use of the system will just be transfer, and the
cleaning just a bonus.
I get nervous when running below around 1/3 of a tank (too easy to forget about things and end up bleeding 3 engines while floating near some rocks), so i would prefer to be able to move fuel up into one or two
tanks as levels start to get low without having to run lines and make connections.
I prefer to have the filters dedicated to "tanks" rather than "engines". This way if one tank is causing a problem, i can quickly switch to the other tank/filter in one shot by flipping a valve. If a filter clogs up/fills with
water, chances are, the tank that is being drawn on has some bad fuel in it and this will need to be dealt with before continuing to use the tank. If multiple filters are in action at the same time, its easy for them to get filled with water or clog all at once, leaving you dead in the water.
For example, a couple weekends ago i was out and all of a sudden both motors started surging after switching to the port tank i had just filled. It turned out the fuel
dock had
sold me some watery fuel (enough water to fill the racor's separator, and then some). I quickly switched to my stbd tanks, and dealt with the port side filter/tank when I got to the
dock (ended up having to drain about 10L of diesely water out of the fwd port tank).
Ideally I would have 5 filters... one for each tank + one for the transfer system (and separate it completely)... but that is kind of much i think.