What size Racor fuel/water seperator?

[Cheechako]

Originally Posted by Sailmonkey

This is the ticket.

It’s not about the name. It’s about the ease of changing!!

Even though the engine is only consuming .25-.5 gph it’s moving closer to 5 gph through the filter.

The non-ease of changing a Racor is what I dislike about them. The bowl gets dirty with debris... guess what? There's no way to clean it out unless you take the unit apart.
You may try to drain fresh fuel through it to get the crud out but it sticks well to the plastic clear housing. For the price it ought to be very easy. Th cartridge type with a clear bowl that comes off when you change cartridges is far easier. And as I said early on, you can get a big one with cartridges cheaper than the small racor.
With a cartridge you throw away all the crud when you change, no cleaning etc needed. JMHO

[Nicholson58]

Originally Posted by Svsumurun

Shameless plug here, but I have this one listed on ebay right now - might work for you

https://www.ebay.com/itm/284386883459

That one can be bought on amazon for a lot less. I have one in the dinghy bought for less than $20. Ended a lot of OB troubles.

[Bill O]

I use a pipe cleaner and fuel rinses to clean the bowl. This works reasonably well to get stuck on junk off the bowl.

To recover fuel, I use a funnel type coffee filter (w/a funnel) into a coffee can that I keep just for that purpose. The coffee filter removes sediment but not water. By carefully pouring off the fuel, the water stays behind and the fuel can be used to rinse/refill the filter housing and avoid a large volume of waste fuel. The waste fuel/water goes into a disposal jar when we hit proper facilities to discard.
Over the years found that a proper fuel set up allows for enough space to work on the filters, otherwise it can be messier than needed when too cramped.

[double u]

...you go into the chandlery in f.. Taravao (yes, look it up in Google maps!) - & the Racor cartridges are right there at the counter...
(& I didn't see any others...)

[Calif.Ted]

I put a disposable aluminum bread loaf pan under the Racor, unscrew the whole mess without draining and then take the pan, filter and fuel therein to the dock.
I found that in practice I never had to drain any water from the filter, boat is in use year around with fresh fuel every 9-12 months. The bowl gets checked annually with the filter change so I'll let you know what I find in the bottom of the metal bowl next spring.

[Squanderbucks]

Consider something like this. Larger micron as first defense and finer one second. I had the Racor and used it and added the second unit from Amazon. It was around $20. A pair is about $35.
These are at the bottom of the picture. Engine above.

[Tupaia]

Originally Posted by nuku34

2) Unless Rocor have re-designed the clear bowl of their filter housings, you'll find they are in fact plastic, which after a while is subject to getting brittle and eventually cracking (usually at the bottom where the drain screws in).

Totally agree Racor will be overkill.

Tip - Anyone who does have a Racor installed you can get round the bowl cracking by fitting a quarter turn valve. Makes draining simple and no longer stresses the threads.

[Cheechako]

Originally Posted by Tupaia

Totally agree Racor will be overkill.

Tip - Anyone who does have a Racor installed you can get round the bowl cracking by fitting a quarter turn valve. Makes draining simple and no longer stresses the threads.

The one issue with this is only the liquid comes out if you have a valve, the rust and sticky debris is most often stuck to the plastic bowl and will not come out. I have even tried pouring fresh fuel through to clear it but it's of little use.

[Svsumurun]

Originally Posted by Nicholson58

That one can be bought on amazon for a lot less. I have one in the dinghy bought for less than $20. Ended a lot of OB troubles.

Well silly me just used what I paid for it at west marine as a price line .. time to adjust .. so maybe do like you did - great idea for the outboard!

[fritzdfk]

The turbine function on 500 series Racors is useless on small engines. The flow is not enough to get any kind of centrifugal force going. Other than that they are good filters and easy to service.

[goboatingnow]

Originally Posted by fritzdfk

The turbine function on 500 series Racors is useless on small engines. The flow is not enough to get any kind of centrifugal force going. Other than that they are good filters and easy to service.

Agree entirely. For my 27hp Volvo I use the smaller spin on series

[Bill O]

Originally Posted by fritzdfk

The turbine function on 500 series Racors is useless on small engines. The flow is not enough to get any kind of centrifugal force going. Other than that they are good filters and easy to service.

Have you seen any data from Parker to show what the min. flow would be needed to create a enough centrifugal force to be useful?

Water is fairly heavy and it wouldn't take too much CF to drop out a majority of water before it hits the filter.

[double u]

in view of the ease of change, worldwide availability of cartridges & ease of bleeding (if filter below tank-level) the discussion seems moot...
there is all sorts of more or less unnecessary electronic (& other) stuff on all boats that the extra expenditure for a Racor 500 is irrelevant.
But "suum cuique!"

[Shanachie]

The big drawback with a metal cartridge filter is that you get no warning of clogging until the diesel stops.


The Racor 500 with its see-through bowl, plus the optional pressure gauge, mean that you will never be caught unawares.


When I first bought my previous sailboat, there was water and gunk in the bottom of the 500 bowl, meaning it did its job properly. I don't know why anyone would think it doesn't do its job properly.


Now I use an aircraft filter to pour diesel into the tank and then add Biobor. The one time I was distracted and didn't replace the diesel cap before a rain shower, this system worked perfectly.


Courtesy of the Biobar, the growth became small, blackish particles that eventually settled to the bottom of the bowl. I used an electric fuel pump and jerry cans to filter the water out of the diesel.


I think the worry is that you have too small of a filter. You want one that can handle a fair amount of gunk before it clogs.

[Shaneesprit]

Originally Posted by Nicholson58

I agree regarding lost fuel and messes while changing elements. Our Racors, two with switching, are the 5 or 10 micron standard elements but they get fuel directly from my very large polisher, 1 micron. As a result, I have not had to change a Racor element or the even more agrievously horrid unit on the engine in 8 years. The polisher is changed annually and it’s easy. Polisher to the left of the Racors.

That’s bad thinking, if your not changing the filter on the engine sooner or later your going to have trouble, I can understand to some extend your thoughts on not changing the Racor but just because your polishing the fuel to 1 micron it doesn’t mean that your other filters are not receiving dirty fuel, unless all of the fuel goes directly through the polisher prior to getting to the engine and if that’s the case then your not polishing the fuel.
You should get that on Engine filter changed, not sure if Racor filters also have a shelf / installed in diesel life.

On another note - water repellent filter hmm 🤔 the water is not going to disappear, so what’s the point of it?