"map" wrote in message
oups.com...
ok so here is an old question that I have not seen discussed recently.

My mechanic says not to polish, will be better off by installing two
(twin engines) of the redundant big racors, I'm sure that's the best
way to go, but at $1,200 each I'm looking at spending aprox. $4,000
when you include instalation.
I was thinking to buy a couple of the large single Racors, one per
engine and leave the old small units for redundancy, if I can make this
work I can probably get it done for under a thousand bucks and still
have a redundant system for each engine.....
And of course there is the question of professional polishing...
thoughts out there??


My personal opinion is that polishing is only necessary if the boat has not
been used for many months and is stored in an area subject to hot, humid
weather. Adding a diesel algaecide when the fuel was fresh helps reduce the
growth of the little creatures that can clog up your filters quickly.
Adding algaecide too late can compound the problem. I also discovered that
some marinas add algaecide to their diesel storage tanks anyway.

Redundant Racors, valved such that you can isolate either one is a great
setup. Nothing worse than having an engine die of fuel starvation while
underway and having to replace a filter in 6 - 8 footers. The filters need
to be of the proper size for the fuel flow however. Too small will restrict
flow, too big will not filter properly.

I have a boat that spent over a year tied up at a slip in Florida without
being run enough to refuel.
Knowing it was going to sit for a while, I added the recommended amount of
fuel conditioner that included algaecide at the last refueling. When I
finally prepared the boat for a return trip from Florida to MA, I had the
fuel (500 gallons total) professionally polished as a precaution. Turns out
it really wasn't bad ... I could have easily made the trip with out fuel
problems.

Eisboch