Racor plug failure

[PascalG]

Last few trips I noticed my 18kw Norpro surging a little on medium load. I replaced both the racor and secondary and it seemed a little better on the last run. Yesterday when I fired it up it started surging even without load and would stumble badly under load when a chiller started.

Opened the racor 500 which was 3/4 empty. Thinking the electric fuel pump was getting weak I decided to rig a walbro priming pump between the tank and the racor. Flip it on and found fuel leaking from the bottom of the racor. Turned out the small plastic plug, which I believe is used where a water sensor would go, was partially cracked and leaking. Under suction it would suck air causing the power loss. When I removed the plug it cracked all the way.

Since I have no intention on putting a water sensor and since I didn’t have anything that would fit the threads, I just epoxied it back in place.

gen has now been running fine with both chillers for the last 3 hours.

Learn something new after 40 years on the water !

 

[boatbum]

Get a new plug as well? Seems like it would be wise to examine all of them. Maybe replace with brass?

 

[PascalG]

I epoxied the plastic water sensor plug so no worries. The main plug is brass. No worries

 

[GeeBee]

It looks like the plug is proprietary and not a standard PT tapered thread as it has an O-ring and a machined receptacle to accept the O-ring so a standard brass plug would not likely work unless the threads meshed and you gooped it heavily. I would be careful with epoxy a permanent fix as diesel will break down cyanamide based epoxy over time.

 

[Shake n Bake]

Had a similar failure. The failure often happens when the plug is overtightened. Replacement plugs are available.

 

[PascalG]

Funny think his that I never touched that plug in all these years

I m not concerned about epoxy and diesel. While West System doesn’t condone the use of their epoxy to build diesel tanks for liability and regulatory reasons, it has been done with no issues.

 

[Dani-Lu]

Last few trips I noticed my 18kw Norpro surging a little on medium load. I replaced both the racor and secondary and it seemed a little better on the last run. Yesterday when I fired it up it started surging even without load and would stumble badly under load when a chiller started.

Opened the racor 500 which was 3/4 empty. Thinking the electric fuel pump was getting weak I decided to rig a walbro priming pump between the tank and the racor. Flip it on and found fuel leaking from the bottom of the racor. Turned out the small plastic plug, which I believe is used where a water sensor would go, was partially cracked and leaking. Under suction it would suck air causing the power loss. When I removed the plug it cracked all the way.

Since I have no intention on putting a water sensor and since I didn’t have anything that would fit the threads, I just epoxied it back in place.

gen has now been running fine with both chillers for the last 3 hours.

Learn something new after 40 years on the water !

View attachment 1336

Good catch.