"Bruce" wrote

One thing I did add to my sailboat fuel system is a water trap.

I suspect that device is vital in your climate and fuel supply chain. After
two years of paying no attention to fuel or filters, I found not a drop of
water in the sediment bowl of my water separating filter.

I think Wayne is right, for my small diesel, operating in New England, I'm
covered. I'll probably add a parallel filter when I start going to
Newfoundland because that trip will involve a lot of motoring close along
the cliffs to take pictures.

I learned that the PO was running 2 micron filters in the primary and I'm
going to continue that. I can see changing the primary underway in
emergency conditons but I would not want to tackle the secondary in my
installation. The primary is rated for 15 GPH and my engine needs less than
1 so it would take a lot of filter degradation to shut me down. My primary
was loaded black and the secondary looked like it was put in yesterday when
I opened the system up.

I've never seen anything like that water trap here. Has anyone else?

--
Roger Long

The racors will trap water and allow you to drain it as well. You can
also fit one with an alarm sensor. If you haven't been having problems
with water, i'd just stick with one of those. Look at the cost of the
replacement elements to decide between a spin-on and a cartridge. I
have both in my fuel stream. Racor 900's as primaries, and I replaced
that dual CAV cartridge setup on the engine with a Racor spin-on. The
cartridges are much cheaper and easier to replace. The spin on
requires draining then removal, then a special wrench that grabs the
plastic bottom bowl along with a filter wrench to separate it from the
spin-on element. Harder to change and more expensive, but I only
change it once a year, since pretty much nothing ever makes it past
the Racor primary (2 micron cartridges).

I agree. Now that I've changed the filter on that obsolete Racor, I can see
that it is much easier to replace than a spin on. I would like to be able
to wipe the alge film out of the sediment bowl but it isn't really hurting
anything and I can disassemble the filter after fall layup. I'm going to
stick with my current filter as long as the elements are available.

--
Roger Long

On Fri, 20 Jul 2007 21:05:59 -0500, Molesworth
wrote:

In article ,
"Roger Long" wrote:

Does anyone recognize this fuel filter?

http://home.maine.rr.com/rlma/Filter.jpg

I

It's an obsolete Racor. Filters can be had a NAPA.

Obsolete? No, not at all. The Racor 200F is *discontinued* but not
obsolete. I prefer this style because I can remove and inspect the
filter element unlike the spin on types. I use an old dental pick and
small pieces of lint free cotton cloth to clean the inside of the bowl
when required.


Filters (elements) are available in 2 and 10 microns from several
sources at $11.00 to $14.00 (CAD)

here is my 200f set up:

http://members.shaw.ca/albin82ms/mechanical.html

it was relatively inexpensive to build mainly becuase I was able to
pick up two *NEW* 200f's via e-bay. My boat came with one Racor 200f
that worked just fine... I just wanted a 3 filter system and saw no
need to discard a perfectly good filter system. Instead I added on to
it. I will be adding a vacuum guage to complete the system.

regards

JBT

Roger Long wrote:
I agree. Now that I've changed the filter on that obsolete Racor, I can
see that it is much easier to replace than a spin on. I would like to
be able to wipe the alge film out of the sediment bowl but it isn't
really hurting anything and I can disassemble the filter after fall
layup. I'm going to stick with my current filter as long as the
elements are available.


It's a Racor 200 FG (same as my boat). Obsolete so the filter
elements are bit more costly than the 500 MA/FG. The filter elements
on it are TINY though.

I'm going to upgrade to a Racor 500 because the bigger filter elements
are nicer and more likely to be in stock in out of the way places.

Evan Gatehouse

On Sat, 28 Jul 2007 07:56:40 GMT, Evan Gatehouse
wrote:

I'm going to upgrade to a Racor 500 because the bigger filter elements
are nicer and more likely to be in stock in out of the way places.

I have a few slightly used 500s laying around back home if you're
interested, also some new filter elements. I'm out on the boat for
the summer however so I can't get to them for a while. Be sure to use
the required element spacer with 500s, otherwise they will pass some
gunk downstream.

On Jul 20, 9:50 am, "Roger Long" wrote:
Does anyone recognize this fuel filter?

http://home.maine.rr.com/rlma/Filter.jpg

I can't squirm in far enough to find a model number and didn't see anything
that looke like it in the marine store. Considering some of the weird stuff
I've found on the boat, I don't want to assume that the Racor elements in
the spare parts are for it.

I also want to be sure it isn't the one referred to in another thread that
passes unfiltered fuel if a spacer is left out. If that could be done, the
PO of my boat would have done it.

--
Roger Long

Greetings Roger;

That's a Racor fuel filter housing not a filter, but I know what you
are asking.

Racor made a dozen different sizes rated by flow.
Bigger is not better, as the water seperator needs a tuned stream of
fuel to properly work. I have a housing that looks exactly as your and
it's a Racor 2000. You need to pull the filter out of the housing to
know the exact type, and color. The end cap Color of the filter
denotes filtration on Racors. Brown is 2 MIC, Blue is 10 MIC, Red is
30 MIC. With a small engine I would assume is on your boat dual set-
up's is not worth the hassle, just put a vaccume gauge between the
filter housing and the fuel pump. As far as alge goes if you are
having a problem get a pre- filter strainer with removeable SS mesh
type filter...saves on the cost of Racors. Also... you do not need a
seperate water trap with that racor system, just wasting money. If you
need to scrub the walls of the water trap remove the valve on bottom
and you have a nice size hole to use a bit of wire with a rag twisted
on the end, but it's easy enough to remove the bowl and do it right if
you had the room. Racor's the best F@*k the rest.

Joe

Interesting point about the proper flow to make the water separator work. I
wonder if this on is in the proper range at about 1 gallon per hour.

--
Roger Long

On Jul 28, 3:00 pm, "Roger Long" wrote:
Interesting point about the proper flow to make the water separator work. I
wonder if this on is in the proper range at about 1 gallon per hour.

--
Roger Long

Is it original with the boat ?
If so it was most likely properly sized by the engine mfg and builder
I'd suspect.
Is it trapping any water?

Joe

I don't think it's original and I've never seen any water. What I need is
to find instructions or specs for one of these filters. I tried Google but,
no luck.

--
Roger Long