FYI - You can always add an electric pump after the Racor and before the engine that feeds back to the tank. You can turn it on to suck fuel through the filter after changing it to prime it and also just leave it go to clean a tank of fuel.
Joe Della Barba Coquina C&C 35 MK I www.dellabarba.com From: Rick Brass [mailto:rickbr...@earthlink.net] Sent: Wednesday, October 14, 2020 1:27 PM To: 'Stus-List' <cnc-list@cnc-list.com> Subject: [EXTERNAL] Stus-List Re: water separator I was about to comment that the Racor diesel fuel filter I installed on Imzadi about 16 years ago had a priming pump in the filter head. I understood that the filter head without a priming pump was primarily used for a water filter for gasoline engines (mostly outboards). I use the smallest Racor filter on Imzadi, which is designed for 15 or 20 GPH of fuel flow IIRC. That’s about 10 times the flow rate for my 4 cylinder M35B (about 1.5 GPH including the fuel returned to the tank). So I have elected to not replace the Racor at 500 engine hours, based on the logic that 500 hours at 15 GPH is equivalent to 7500 hours of operation for my small diesel. I replaced the secondary 10 micron filter on the engine once, mostly on GPs since I use a 10 micron Racor instead of the 30 micron that most sources recommend for a primary filter. (if I had a Mitsubishi diesel, or another that used a 3 micron secondary filter, I WOULD replace it annually.) In 16 years (about 1400 engine hours) I’ve replaced a clogged Racor filter 3 times (each time within about 40 miles of taking on bad fuel). It is kind of a PITA to change the filter and reprime when I take on bad fuel, but it happens so seldom that I find that method preferable to changing the filter every year when I change the engine oil filter. When I go full time cruising, I’ll probably be changing the Racor as part of the periodic maintenance every year. Anyway, that was a long and wandering way to get to the message that the priming pump on my Racor has not had a problem in 16 tears of recreational use of the boat. Rick Brass Washington, NC
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