Fuel Polishing system anyone build one?

Has anyone here built there own fuel polishing system? What did you use and does it work?

There's been a lot of discussion about this topic. There's a recent thread in the engine section from a member who built one last Winter and documented his project extensively. Some people swear by such a system, I am more inclined to think they are not worth the trouble and the expense in most cases. But maybe you have a specific situation that would benefit from a F/P system.


-- Edited by Fotoman on Tuesday 7th of June 2011 01:35:23 PM

Here is the one I put in a few years ago -

[url]http://tinyurl.com/3bpfutt[/url]

I built one for Delfin, which given her fuel capacity seemed like a pretty good idea. *I needed pumps to transfer fuel between 7 tanks anyway so the polishing was a bonus. Here's some poop on what I built. *The only difference is I have replaced the 24vdc pump in favor of the much quieter and more efficient 120 vac pump. *The carbonator pumps seem like the way to go to me...

http://delfin.talkspot.com/aspx/m/556668

Fotoman wrote:
Some people swear by such a system, I am more inclined to think they are not worth the trouble and the expense in most cases. But maybe you have a specific situation that would benefit from a F/P

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*Fuel polishing systems are also capable of moving fuel from one tank to another and to prime the engine.* They also increase the impressiveness of the engine room with the additional valve levers.

Delfin wrote:


I built one for Delfin, which given her fuel capacity seemed like a pretty good idea. *I needed pumps to transfer fuel between 7 tanks anyway so the polishing was a bonus. Here's some poop on what I built. *The only difference is I have replaced the 24vdc pump in favor of the much quieter and more efficient 120 vac pump. *The carbonator pumps seem like the way to go to me...

http://delfin.talkspot.com/aspx/m/556668

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Delfin- Awsome job!!

markpierce wrote:

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*They also increase the impressiveness of the engine room with the additional valve levers.

* * * ** That's pretty much the case with my FP system. After confirming what fuel was**

******** returned to the tank by the engine, more filtering by a FP system seems to be

******** overkill. (It does look good, though.)

its an overkill till you have a bad load of fuel and you motor stops while at sea I travel the icw in the fall and the northern most part and the chesapeake are lonely that time of year Not sure help can be found quicky By nature many fuel problems occur when the water is kisk ass rough bad bad time to lose power It is worth the over kill to me if I never need it all the better

Fuel polishing does ZERO for most boats problem , dirty contaminated tanks.

IF the system could keep up with the filth shaken loose in heavy weather , it might work.

Simplest, low risk and cost would be a new Day Tank, that was properly designed to be servacible.

Then cleaned fuel from filthy tanks could be used , while the filters supplying the day tank are serviced.

motion30 wrote:
its an overkill till you have a bad load of fuel and you motor stops while at sea I travel the icw in the fall and the northern most part and the chesapeake are lonely that time of year Not sure help can be found quicky By nature many fuel problems occur when the water is kisk ass rough bad bad time to lose power It is worth the over kill to me if I never need it all the better

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*True enough. *Sloshing in bad weather is usually when the price of crud in the tanks comes into play. *I mostly agree with FF that most boats who have currently filthy tanks won't benefit that much from adding on a fuel polishing system, but if you start with clean tanks and polish the fuel you will keep the tank clean and it never will get contaminated. *

when I find myself in bad weather I try and remember to run my polisher set up I believe it cant hurt

FF wrote:
Simplest, low risk and cost would be a new Day Tank, that was properly designed to be servacible.

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*That's exactly what I did. The fuel goes through a first primary filter before going into the day tank. When it's picked up by the fuel pump*on the engine it goes through another filter/water separator and then*to the two filters on the engine. I figured if I ever get bad fuel I can easily empty the day tank and fill it manually with fresh fuel to keep going. The day tank can also be inspected and serviced easily. Total cost about $300.

I built one based on Captain Will's system and love it.

http://www.trawlersandtrawlering.com/howto/captnwil.html

I saw your page and am going to build one similar to it. Where did you get your valves? Will the ones at Home Depot work as well as the others? Any other issues that you would have changed?

Keith wrote:
I built one based on Captain Will's system and love it.

http://www.trawlersandtrawlering.com/howto/captnwil.html

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*Keith, that's a great article. *The only observations I would make is that the design has greater complexity due to the lack of a day tank. *If you have that, a simpler arrangement can be made and you eliminate the need for a check valve, which is a source of potential problems, as Wil points out. *I also don't think there would be much agreement on the exclusive use of 2 micron filter, which I think is what he is recommending. *With a polishing system, you have an opportunity to clean the fuel to 'factory specs', which I believe is 30 microns. *If you pass through 2 filters before the OEM unit, then a 30 followed by a 10 is nice. *If three, then you have the best of all worlds with 30/10/2 filtration ensuring that what hits the OEM is very clean to start with. *With a day tank, and as Wil points out, a filter downstream from that tank is needed, and on Delfin, that is where a 500 series 2 micron unit sits. *We also use two 1000 series for polishing, with one dedicated to 30 micron polishing for a single tank, and one with a 10 micron for transferring fuel to the day tank or boiler tank. *Since we have lots of tanks, we use the belly tank under the engine as a staging tank into which we pump 30 micron polished fuel before transferring at 10 microns to the day tank. *Sometimes, I'll 10 micron polish the belly tank, especially when the tank level is low and sloshing.*

I would also respectfully disagree with Wil on De-Bug units. *I have used them on another boat with a serious bacteria (not algae as Wil references) and it solved the problem, so I have them on Delfin as well.

Wil recommends a Walbro pump, which is a great unit, but if you have 120 vac available, you might find that a 1/4 - 1/3 hp electric motor turning a carbonator pump is a quiet, efficient and effective way to go. *


-- Edited by Delfin on Thursday 9th of June 2011 07:39:11 AM

99% of*our "need" for fuel polishing syatems on high speed low HP engines can be dealt with by installing a 3 stage filtering setup ala boatdiesle.com. On many diesels, fuel polishing occurs via the fuel recycling systems. For those who feel the need for* fuel polishing, proper tank pickups are a must as noted by FF, Delfin etc. Without these invisible pickups, you*never get the "bad stuff"out - but you can at can at least post pictures of valces and pumps!



-- Edited by sunchaser on Thursday 9th of June 2011 09:21:25 AM


-- Edited by sunchaser on Thursday 9th of June 2011 09:21:54 AM

Sunchase and Delfin:

I'm with you 100% on this one.

I'm a firm believer in multi-stage filtration. My polisher filters also serves as the three filters that my engine running fuel flows through: 30, 10, and 2 micron before getting to the on-engine filter.

Right now, last week I noticed the 30 micron filter is showing some increase in vacuum whereas the 10 and 2 are still down to nearly zero.

Because I use all Racor 500's, and plus one also for the genset (by itself), I have the flexibility of using any filter cartridge in any filter should I ever run out of a particular micron size cartridge.

http://www.alphacompservices.com/Boat/VisioDrawings/Visio-FuelFilteringSystemSAYGOODBYEv7.pdf

Third Degree wrote:
I saw your page and am going to build one similar to it. Where did you get your valves? Will the ones at Home Depot work as well as the others? Any other issues that you would have changed?

Click to expand...

*If you were asking about capn will's, I used fuel rated ball valves from the marine store. I wouldn't use ball valves rated for water or gas.

I just did a big one with the help (and opinions) of everyone here. I used a 120v pump (WAY quieter and has a infinite duty cycle) and all the fitting and valves were from Grainger (3/8"NPT sealed with threadlok blue). I was ready to nail down a system, but then RickB swooped in and totally changed the design and it was a way better design. I had to adapt it a little due to need and based on the parts I already had in my hands. The new design used about 40% fewer fittings. Anyway, here are some pics of the process.

(New Window Links)

This was the original design thread: http://www.trawlerforum.com/t40858124/the-fuel-system-upgrade-project/

This was the FINAL design thread: http://www.trawlerforum.com/t41132459/the-fuel-system-upgrade-project-episode-ii/

Pics

1) Original drawing

2) First mockup

3) Rick B's drawing

4) Final Mockup

5) Final Install

6) Me and my underpants

7) Close-up of pump

I have a ton of pictures of the process and have been wanting to do a final parts list and blog entry on the process, but I have been so glad with the results, I haven't found the time.... YET! Still, regardless of what any of the old coots here say about fuel polishing doing nothing, I say that it can do no harm, it can keep a clean tank clean, and what I learned about my boat's fuel system was a skill that has no price tag.

Let me know if you have any questions. Love to help.


-- Edited by GonzoF1 on Friday 10th of June 2011 01:45:19 PM

I have included a polishing system with my restoration project. After a trip to the Bahamas a number of years ago and getting a load of bad fuel, causing engine to quit
approximately every 25 hours, I thought it might be handy to have. The system is also a transfer pump to move fuel from side to side as well. The pump is a 12V gear pump
from e-bay but works quite well. I used it to empty the fuel from my tanks when I started this part of the project and did right fine. Having 3 Racors simplifies stocking of filter elements.
Here's a description of the system. Fuel enters the L and R manifolds at the bottom of the panel. The 4 lever ball valves select which tank is feeding the engine and which is
feeding the filter/transfer system. The return of the filter/transfer system is via the 3 way valve on the yellow pump to the right of the pix. The little box between the two Racors on
the left is a small electric pump to feed/prime the engine when necessary. Normally off, it just passes fuel drawn by the engine driven pump. The small 1/4" copper line at the bottom
of the pix is the engine fuel retun line.

Gonzo-

That's a really nice looking polisher you built. Looks similar to my own, using 2 Racor 500's. Except yours is a neater, cleaner layout and you have all of your filters nicely mounted on the white back board. Good job !

Are you also using the same multi-stage filters to runthe fuel through to the engine? That is what I did.

*

....and Dude - ya gotta start wearing a belt. It aint pretty ! !


R.

Ralph,

The dual 500's on the left are only for the engine and genset supply (30m and 10m). I only polish thru the single filter on the right (30m). I didn't see the need to scrub it all the way to 2m, so mine is and either/or rig. You scrub or filter to engine. I can't switch over to a backup filter while running. I still need to install a 2m filter before the genset, but I'm not in a hurry to do that. It can deal with 10m fuel for a while. Come to think of it, it's the same with the main. Only sending it 10m fuel for the time being until I can get a 2m for the CAV filter. I guess I found my project for next weekend. :-(

Thanks for the props... I had a good time building it. Yours looks quite complex and I'd like to see some pics of it. TBH, it's very much like how my own designs looked in the early stages until Rick intervened and neatened it up greatly. Complex is bad.

It might be just me, but are you only dumping the returns from both engine and genset into one tank? My OEM rig was like that and I thought that was screwy, but once I routed it thru a selectable manifold, it gave me the ability to use the scrubber as a fuel transfer system as well. That's another reason to go with a 60gph AC pump. That Walbro pump has a shorter duty cycle before it needs a rest. The AC pump/motor I am using can run for days if I need it to.


BTW... Those are my "work-on-the-boat" jeans. They are old, tired, and stretched out. With all the bending, stooping, ducking, twisting and general contortionism, wearing a belt is uncomfortable for me in the engine bay. Sorry... Hey, at least I had ON underwear! Consider yourself lucky.

charles wrote:

My experience has shown that if I changed my fuel filters every two hundred hours, at the same time as oil changes that I would not have a clogged fuel filter......* Oh , I did build a fuel polishing system and used it ONE time.......

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* * * * My experience pretty much coincides with Charle's statements except I change oil and filters annually, no matter what the hour meter says.

Gonzo

I return fuel from polishing to both tanks. Originally my boat was plumbed to provide the Lehman 120 return only to one tank. Not a problem since the Lehman 120 returns a mere 1/2 pint in 10 hours of running.

But when I put in the 60 gph polishing pump, I split the return line and feed both tanks.

If I want to transfer fuel, all I need to do is shut off the valve of one of the return lines.

Note that I also have a shut off valve on the return line at the engine. I shut that off when polishing so as to not push fuel under pressure back to the engine. It is supposed to be able to withstand it but I want to be safe.

R.