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Glenn Ashmore
 
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Default Fuel transfer/polishing pump

Doug,

I have been through this myself. Actually you do have more of a filter
problem than a pump problem. The 500 is just to small for a practical
polishing system. You need a 1000 at a minimum.

The smallest transfer pumps (Reverso) are rated at 180 GPH at zero head
which is the max rating for the 1000. Racor says that when you get
close to the max rating the turbine can scour water out of the bowl but
you have head loss in the piping and the filter itself so the actual
flow will be somewhat below the max rating. It would take four 1000's
to keep up with a Jabsco VR050 and two to handle a Groco SP06.

While the Reverso filters can handle up to 15 PSI, Reverso incourages
upstream installation to avoid the possibilities of pressureized leakage
and slightly better filtering performance.

My system consist of 40 gal port and stbd mains and a 30 gal "day" tank.
The mains have Racor 1000s on their pickup lines and there is no
external fill for the day tank. Any fuel reaching it has to go through
a filter first. I am using the Reverso GP301 3 GPM reversable with four
check valves and two 3-way selector valves.

By changing the direction of the pump rotation I can pull from either
main tank and with one 3-way selector can route the output to any of the
three tanks. The second 3-way allows me to bypass the day tank and pull
from either of the mains should the Reverso crap out. With this
arangement I can fill the day tank with freshly filtered fuel, polish a
single tank or move fuel to the windward tank for trim. Whenever fuel
moves it gets filtered.



Doug Dotson wrote:
I am designing a fuel polishing and transfer system. My thought
is to use valves to route fuel from any tank to any tank. No
problem with that part. I want to be able to just transfer fuel
or switch in a filter to polish the fuel while transferring. Since
I can select the same tank for source and destination, I can
polish fuel in place as well. The problem comes with the selection
of a pump. I was looking at a Groco or Jabsco pump which seems
good for transfer purposes, but way exceeds the flowrate of the
filter when polishing. A Walbro fuel pump (which I have as a priming
pump now) seems like a good fit for polishing (33 GPH) but will be slow
when just transferring fuel. What happens when a 5.5 GPM pump
(Jabsco) is pushing fuel through a filter rated at 60 GPH (RACOR 500)?

Thanks!
Doug
s/v Callista




--
Glenn Ashmore

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