Fuel tank serviced

I agree with what Bruce said about the chances of you needing to prime the filters or engines and loosing 12v power at the same time.

You have to be careful about putting a fuel pump inline before your Racor filters. Some of them have small screens or filters attached to them and they can clog up. Better to valve the pump in in such a way that it is only inline when you need it. You could even valve to where you only need one pump to prime any engine.
 
Good point

Keep in mind that those engines have been happy for 40years without any pumps. :D

A few quarts of diesel is all that is needed to fill empty racors, most people just carry a small can. and they have a great design that allows you to pull a dirty filter and push in a new one and the dirty fuel in the canister will be filtered before going past the new filter. In that case you only need a beer can full of fuel to top off the filter.

The reason a full canister is necessary is that it is very difficult for the engine to pump enough vacuum in the canister to suck fuel into it. Full tanks or tanks situated above the filter may allow gravity flow making pumps unnecessary. Find out how yours works before fixing it.
 
quote:
Originally posted by Capt. Bill1

I agree with what Bruce said about the chances of you needing to prime the filters or engines and loosing 12v power at the same time.

You have to be careful about putting a fuel pump inline before your Racor filters. Some of them have small screens or filters attached to them and they can clog up. Better to valve the pump in in such a way that it is only inline when you need it. You could even valve to where you only need one pump to prime any engine.

Click to expand...
Now that sounds like a good idea one diesel prime pump (12VDC) that can prime either system then be removed.
I will have to draw that one out on paper!
All good ideas thank you guys.
Bill
 
some boats have transfer pumps to move fuel from tank to tank. I thought of adding a valve and hose but decided when the fit hits the shan I want a simple immediate mess reducing solution.
 
All pumps or bulbs should be downstream of the Racors. Remember, any add ons in the fuel system are additional leak potentials.
 
You need to be able to pump fuel to the Racor not through it. If the level was so low in the filter that you could not draw fuel through it, then a pump down stream of it is useless.

Of course as Bruce mention if your fuel pick up is at the bottom of the tank then the pressure gravity provides will force fuel to the Racor. But an electric pump that you can put inline is still nice to have to bleed the engines fuel system if it gets air locked. It beats pumping the thumb operated mechanical lift pump that you have to use on many engines to prime them with.

Making the system air tight is not particularly difficult if you use the proper fittings, valves and pay attention to the details as you plumb it.
 
http://www.yachtworld.com/boats/1976/Gulfstar-Trawler-2481023/Baltimore/MD/United-States#.U0pp3fldWSo
 
That is the boat my offer was accepted on and is under contract, I posted a link earlier to it Sal.
I think the broker might be a tad bit lazy the boats bottom has been cleaned and painted and the props were clean when I made my 1st visit. Those pictures are outdated.
Thanks,
Bill
 
quote:
Originally posted by PascalG

It s a fine line between prettier maintenance and "if it ain't broken don't fix it" but in this case I woudl probably run the boat first before.

How big is the tank, how much fuel is in there and how old is the fuel?

Assuming the fuel hasn't been sitting there for years and the boat has been used, I d rather spend the money on switching to dual racors with a vac gauge then doing a fuel polish which may or may not really clean it all depending on the baffles set up. With dual racors and a vac gauge you can see how your filter is doing and if it clogs, all it take is a flip of a valve to keep going.

While fuel filters may not be as cool as other things.... That set up is a must have in my opinion

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I'm going with the dual filter option and a way to prime them. However before I do that the tank will be cleaned. I think it's a plus the fuel tanks (2 X 125) are fiberglass on this vessel.
Bill
 
I'm looking at the RACOR 900 series dual filter series with the built in by-pass valve and a vacuum gauge. They are saying 30 micron filters I noticed I have seen lower numbers which mean the filter would catch finer particulates. Are 30 micron filters too large to protect these engines?
What about the generator would you use a dual filter setup there as well?
Thanks,
Bill
 
As I recall 2, 10 and 30 micron Racor elements all have the same flow rate. My school of thought is to keep any contaminates in the fuel as far away from the engine as possible. So I would use the 2 micron filters. The same as I did on my trawler which had 120 hp Lehmans in it.

For the Genset I'd use either one 900 or dual 500s that you could switch between on the fly with 2 micron elements in them. And since you run you Genset for a lot more hours then your engines and your Genset is returning fuel all the time, it acts like a polisher for whatever tank it is drawing from and returning to. See, sometimes you can get a free lunch. :-)

Bare in mind it's pretty rare for a low HP engine to just should down without any warning due to glogging filters. In most cases you get a warning of some kind based on how the engine is running.
 
Our engine manufacturer recommends using 30 micron primaries, 10 micron secondaries, and they warn against over-filtering since that could impede flow rate. Perhaps Perkins makes a recommendation?

-Chris
 
Thanks for your input Capt Bill & Chris. I will ask my friend that's a diesel mechanic what he thinks. I'm waiting on the Perkins 4-236 engine manual.
I'm thinking out loud here on the board soaking in the suggestions.
Bill
 
The flow rate on clean 2 micron 900 elements is 90 gph. If you use a large surface area element on a low fuel flow engine you don't have any flow rate issues till the filter becomes very, very clogged.
 
quote:
Originally posted by Capt. Bill1

The flow rate on clean 2 micron 900 elements is 90 gph. If you use a large surface area element on a low fuel flow engine you don't have any flow rate issues till the filter becomes very, very clogged.

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I'll admit I'm in new territory here. Although I had similar thoughts that the flow to these small diesels wouldn't be impeded unless the filter was really clogged.
What concerns me is can particulates as small as 2 microns really damage these old school diesels?
Bill
 
It's wear on the injectors and injector pumps that you worry about. The cleaner the fuel the better.
 
quote:
Originally posted by Capt. Bill1

It's wear on the injectors and injector pumps that you worry about. The cleaner the fuel the better.

Click to expand...

Thanks Bill that makes sense.
Bill
 
The boat passed the on land portion of the survey. The in water and Sea Trials will hopefully be done in the near future.
I'm hoping this week or early next week.
I'm one step closer to owning this trawler as of this afternoon.
Bill
 
We use 30 micron in the Racor and 2 micron on the engine mounted filter on our Mainship 34 Mark I. That's with the 354-6 Perkins 160. We carry a portable 1 gallon tank in the lazarette to prime the Racor. We have had to do this due to funky fuel in the tanks. If you don't have a way of priming, then you have to go through the procedure of loosening bleed nuts on the injector pump, manually pumping the lever on the lift pump and then loosening at least a few of the coupling nuts to the injectors--not fun when it is aren't tied up and it is rough (which is when the funky fuel gets stirred up in the tanks.} We haven't had to do it, though, filling the body of the Racor filter when changing the element works like a charm, I don't think I'd bother with the primer pump, you'll already have some diesel fuel on your hands from changing the filter, the tank is simpler. The engine(s) will begin to surge a bit when the Racor is nearly clogged. We do have the tee handle vacuum indicator, haven't had to change filter at sea since I put that on. Relatively inexpensive, real simple to install, just have to remember to look at it before each trip.
 
Thanks for your input Suprise. I actually thought I might end up with a Mainship Mark I - III, but this boat came up and I like the aft stateroom. I checked with my friends Son a diesel mechanic he said exactly what you did the engine should have a 2 micron filter on it and the external (from the tank) should be a 30 micron filter. I will probably install a dual Racor 9000 unit with the vacuum gauge and T handle for each engine.
Thanks again for your input,
Bill
 
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