Racor Management

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Delfin said:
Nah....I'm going to stick with listening to strong opinions, not actual data. If they are strongly held, they must be true.
Click to expand...
You're missing a logic step - if they're strongly asserted, they must be strongly held. There, now that works.
 
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OK, now you guys have really done it. I won't enjoy tomorrow's morning coffee on the boat unless I change my Racor filters...

I've only had them clog once. That was just after I shipped the boat back to Australia. The shippers insisted that I have no more than 200 litres on board when shipping. With 6 tanks and total capacity of 4700 litres that meant I had enough in a couple of tanks to drive the boat to where it was being loaded, and the other tanks were effectively zero. My fuel pickups are a little off the bottom of the tanks but the polisher pickup is almost on the bottom of the tank, and I used the polisher to suck 4 tanks dry. OK, so after being on the cargo ship for a month I get my boat back, drive it to quarantine and customs dock and then visit the fuel dock for a partial fill. A couple of weeks later I'm running up the bay at 1800 rpm and all is well. I then decide to go up to 2200 rpm to round a channel marker and get out of a fishing trawlers way. Within a couple of minutes both engine alarms are saying fuel restrictions so I back off revs and change to spare filters. No issues since. I've wondered what really happened - did a bunch of bugs grow in the near empty tanks, during shipping transit in the tropics? I switched filters once since then but never changed them. Until tomorrow. I agree its just beans to do it, and even though they dont seem to need changing I'll be curious to see if they are black or not.
 
djones44 said:
I recently changed two 1000FG filters on my Canoe Cove, and the second one nearly got to me. This was because the black rubber ring gasket that separates the glass bowl from the filter casing was proving impossible to replace.

To reinstall, you have to manually place the gasket up in its channel, then, while the centrifugal basket dances half-loose in between - in one motion, push it into place with the bowl itself, and put the four screws back in. Worked fine in the first one. Seemed to this time, and I started the engines to verify it all, and they purred and needed no priming.

One problem: my aft bilge pump came on later, I didn't expect it to, luckily looked and yes - it was diesel! I took a flashlight down to the ER and noticed aggressive big drips coming out of the back of the filter in rapid sequence. My oil spill cloth under it was soaked and overflowing into a bilge drain. YEEOW!

I shut down the bilge pump and knew exactly where to look: the rubber ring wasn't seated and while it didn't drip to sit there and look at it, when the fuel pressure built up it was a fountain.

The real pain was trying to fix it, which for a long time seemed impossible. I tried ten times to delicately place the (O ring with square sides) correctly, but the bowl face is flat and has no ridge - as a product designer myself I was not impressed. It could run around anywhere, and did. Soaked in diesel from repeated attempts to hang the ring on a sky hook that didn't exist - I chanced on a solution.

I dried the ring and slot it needed, then coated the upper and outside edges of the ring in silicone, and then easily placed it where it should be. Checked it all around to make sure it was right, even looked at it with a hand mirror. Then put the bowl and screws back in nice and flush, and knew I had it.

The MORAL: when changing the bigger Racors, either leave the old bowl ring in place or add silicone. Or plan to fill your ship's pail with dieseled bilge water for a few hours, after waiting for darkness...
Click to expand...

Out of curiousity, why were you messing with the bowl? To merely change the filters, you don't have to.
 
On the fuel islands it is not uncommon that a Fleetguard Cat or Parker Hannifan spin on filter will see 30,000 gallons or more of diesel before change out. Often changed by time/gallons pumped and not due to plugging.

On my boat my Racors get changed out every1000 to 2000 gallons with no signs yet of vacuum gauge plugging and no major build up of crap. Isn't the issue (if there is one) "how clean are your tanks?"
 
Since wrestling with that oring I no longer remove the bowl. I remove the filter and drain the bowl. Then with the drain still opened, I direct a stream of Aero Kroil from the aerosol can into the bowl from the top. It drains right out the bottom carrying any debris with it.
 
There was substantial dirt and crud in it, that didn't, and wasn't ever going to flush out, and I couldn't rationally ignore it.
 
My 500 Racor dual system has the metal bowls under the plastic ones, there is no drain valve, just a threaded plug holding them together. I'd like to put a drain valve there I'm thinking a lever operated 1/4" ball valve like a fuel shut off valve pointing down so I can get a good flow when draining/rinsing crud from the transparent bowl. I had the black plastic racor drain on my previous boat if I remember right the flow is not very fast with them. Anybody done this? Now to drain the clear bowl I need to remove the plug (with the bowl full) which can be messy. It's not a big problem but might make filter changes smoother.
 

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Greetings,
Mr. dj. "...wasn't ever going to flush out...". I ran into the same problem a while back. Some sort of black material (asphaltenes?) literally caked on the bottom of the Racor bowl. I had a long cable tie which I was easily able to snake past the "workings" in the bowl to agitate and dislodge the stuff which then flushed out.
 
Steve said:
My 500 Racor dual system has the metal bowls under the plastic ones, there is no drain valve, just a threaded plug holding them together. I'd like to put a drain valve there I'm thinking a lever operated 1/4" ball valve like a fuel shut off valve pointing down so I can get a good flow when draining/rinsing crud from the transparent bowl. I had the black plastic racor drain on my previous boat if I remember right the flow is not very fast with them. Anybody done this? Now to drain the clear bowl I need to remove the plug (with the bowl full) which can be messy. It's not a big problem but might make filter changes smoother.
Click to expand...

Just take the metal bowls off and put the plastic drain valves in.

If you really want to keep the metal bowls just replace the drain plug with a petcock valve.
 
Steve, the Parker web site says use. Drain valve part # 19493 Rev B which is Coast Guard approved and used on filter bowls with threaded plugs.
Love the room in the newer Monk 36 engine rooms, ours had a Perkins 135 that filled the space.
Bill
 
HiDHo said:
Steve, the Parker web site says use. Drain valve part # 19493 Rev B which is Coast Guard approved and used on filter bowls with threaded plugs.
Love the room in the newer Monk 36 engine rooms, ours had a Perkins 135 that filled the space.
Bill
Click to expand...

Yes, thanks! that drain valve looks like what I want to use, I'll check pt out at the local Parker H. branch.
We do have excellent access to the engine and other components in the
Monk 36 I can sit on either side of it to do maintenance.
 
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