Fuel

[Pedlyr]

Is terrible lately. Lots-O-Crap and water.....It will be interesting what the cold will bring up here this winter.....

[i fish]

Pedlyr,

Where do u buy yr fuel?


Same place all the time?


At dock or gas station?


My marina has fuel, with lots of additives. I only buy there. Have never had a problem.

As suggested earlier when I bought the 22 w/Yan, I keep the tanks filled all the time.


Len aka ifish

[Pedlyr]

Len-

Sorry if I am misleading. My Shamrock has a 302 and uses gas. But I work on the water and deal with diesels everyday. And I have been changing Racors once a week. Never have seen it this bad in 25+ years.

Yeah, we have tried fuel treatments. I personally don't believe in them. Water is a bad thing in fuel and the last thing you want is to have it go thru an injector. I like the idea of seperating it in a filter so you know what is going on. When water or dirt is emulsified or "mixed", it is going to pass thru the fuel system where it may do damge.

I have seen diesel engines that have thrown connecting rods thru the side of the block. This was atributted to water in the fuel that damaged the injector that was now "dripping". This fuel was washing the cylinder of lubricating oil since it was no longer performing normally. After awhile the piston will just seize.

This is the extreme. But it does happen. Vigilance and fuel filter monitoring will deter failures. It's just a PITA. At $3.00 a gallon, the oil company is not wasting anything.

[Lil' Miss]

Have you had alot of rain lately, your gasket on the fuel cap might not be tight and therefore letting water in it did on mine. hope it gets better, my fuel looks terrible when i drained the filter.

[skipm]

Where you have seasons some marinas let there tanks go down at the end of the season , causing moisture, it happened to me last year sooooThis year I added a Racor in front of my Dahl,once in a while I get a bad batch & the Dahl gets it.Thanks to the petcocks it's an easy fix.I also found a marina that supplies fuel year round.I would like to get a delivery service , that is really fresh, but the Predator,s tanks are too small for delivery service.

[Pequod]

On boat diesel.com the resident guru (Tony Athens) has a great article on diesel filtering titled "Marine Filtration The Seaboard Way." I am sure that Mistress can attest to Tony's expertise.

[Pedlyr]

I have heard how Racors are no longer adequate for Common Rail or similar fuel injection systems.

The latest and greatest CAT HEUI fuel system that I have worked with sees 60,000 PSI injection pressures and the injectors ( called Hydraulic Electronic Unit Injectors ) are 4 years old with probably 10,000 hrs on them. Right in the PSI ballpark with Cummins common rail systems.

This is not a CAT versus Cummins debate. The point is, Cummins is promoting it's Common rail system and elevated injection pressures. So any H2O at that level can do some damage. But these numbers have been around for 8 years or so with old fashion filter tech and are still working.

I started this post because at work I am now getting 100 hrs out of Racor (Secondary) filter changes where I have usually been getting 250 hrs for 25 years or so. But I have not seen any "failures" because I monitor the good ole vacum gauges and can visually SEE water in the Racor bowl. Very Simple.

BTW, the Micron rating of any filter is coupled with an efficientcy rating as well. If a certain filter is rated at 90% and 10 Micron, that means it "traps" or stops 90% of particles 10 microns or more. So even though a filter has a particular rating, if it's efficiency is to low it may not work well enough....

[Mistress]

On boat diesel.com the resident guru (Tony Athens) has a great article on diesel filtering titled "Marine Filtration The Seaboard Way." I am sure that Mistress can attest to Tony's expertise.

Tony's about as opinionated as Pascoe, but with 10X the knowledge (if not more). Great guy too, without the arrogance of Pascoe.

Most of his thought processes are based on 1000's of hours (commercial use), but much can be learned from him. Yes, he's a strong supporter of step-filtration.

[skipm]

Glad I don't have common rail.