FL SP135 Fuel Filter Question

I'm sure this is revisiting a well worn subject and I have searched and found some info here and at boatdiesel.com but thought I would ask anyway. Maybe someone can point me to a thread if it is too worn....

Have a new to me GB 42 classic w/ FL SP135's, 4100 hours. Went through the boat with a fairly well known guy who helped me to understand some things. We opened up and changed my primary fuel filters, Racor 500's with 30 micron elements Two in parallel, switchable, on each tank. These are followed by Lucas HDF296 5.5 microns (I think?) on-board engine filters. Starboard side primary Racors were clean as could be. Port side, forward primary filter very clean. However, the aft filter was black as could be with tar/gunk. Spoke with the PO and he explained the why of this (involved some bad fuel) but that's another subject. The guy I had onboard said that I should open up the on-board filters and see what I have going on there and replace as necessary (can't find a good tutorial on doing this so may call someone to show me the first time). Then he said I should replace the primary 30 micron elements in the Racor's with 2 microns for better protection.

Seems to me that this would eliminate the on-board filters from the equation as they are 5.5 mic. Any thoughts or comments on replacing the 30 microns with 2's? I know there is more to proper element use than simple microns but thats what I have to go on today!

Easy (cough). Shut off the fuel.
With a suitable container, open the drain at the bottom of the bowl.
Go have coffee.
When the bowl has stopped dripping, unscrew the large t-handle and by grabbing the included handle (see this on the new filter) pull out and discard the old filter.
Using a suitable wrench, remove the 4 bolts that are holding the bowl on the bottom of the canister.
Carefully unscrew the plastic parts and be careful to note which way they are assembled.
There is a silver ball inside this assembly which will jump out of your hand and immediately roll into the darkest part of your bilge. This ball is the check valve that shuts off the filter if it fills with water. Retrieve the ball from the bilge ferret that has hidden it.
Clean everything thoroughly.
Clean out the canister.
Reassemble the plastic parts and reattach the bowl, being careful with the o-ring.
Close the bowl drain.
Place a new filter into the canister and push it down. If you have the old-style of Racor, there will be a rubber doughnut included that you place at the top of the filter as some time ago Racor made the elements smaller. Cheap $&@€%#s.
Carefully opening the fuel tap, fill the canister with fuel.
When the fuel reaches the top of the canister and threatens to run over (try and not let that happen as it makes a mess) using the new supplied o-ring, screw the top back on the filter canister. Filling the bowl this way will "likely" avoid bleeding the engine.

Repeat with the other filter and the genset filter. You really wanted to play golf today, didn't you?

No golf, it's like 95 degrees and I'm not an early morning golfer!! Rather be working on the boat, AC on, hatches open so it all goes down into the ER. THANKS for the directions! I remember something about a lever to pump as well? Underneath or on the side of the filter? Is that used to refill the filter with fuel or just open up the line and let it rip?

Your first primary filter should be 30. It will trap most of the junk and should be changed on a more frequent schedule but every 200 hrs at a minimum. Second primary filter if you have one should be 10. Final secondary filter should be 10 at a minimum. 5 might be better, I don't see the need for 2 on an old Lehman.

If you go smaller then 30 on your primary then you run a high risk of clogging it at an inopportune time.

Thanks. So for right now I'm inclined to keep the 30's where they are and the 5's on the engine. Clean the tanks and fuel. Better arrangement would be to add another filter in-between them later on. Any reason for that to not be a Racor 500? A spin on would be easier to maintain but not as easy to see how dirty it is.

As mentioned in my last post, are my 500's providing centrifugal water separation? Or was the reference to the 900's not doing so simply because they are bigger and need a faster flow of fuel?

Xsbank said:

Easy (cough). Shut off the fuel.
With a suitable container, open the drain at the bottom of the bowl.
Go have coffee.
When the bowl has stopped dripping, unscrew the large t-handle and by grabbing the included handle (see this on the new filter) pull out and discard the old filter.
Using a suitable wrench, remove the 4 bolts that are holding the bowl on the bottom of the canister.
Carefully unscrew the plastic parts and be careful to note which way they are assembled.
There is a silver ball inside this assembly which will jump out of your hand and immediately roll into the darkest part of your bilge. This ball is the check valve that shuts off the filter if it fills with water. Retrieve the ball from the bilge ferret that has hidden it.
Clean everything thoroughly.
Clean out the canister.
Reassemble the plastic parts and reattach the bowl, being careful with the o-ring.
Close the bowl drain.
Place a new filter into the canister and push it down. If you have the old-style of Racor, there will be a rubber doughnut included that you place at the top of the filter as some time ago Racor made the elements smaller. Cheap $&@€%#s.
Carefully opening the fuel tap, fill the canister with fuel.
When the fuel reaches the top of the canister and threatens to run over (try and not let that happen as it makes a mess) using the new supplied o-ring, screw the top back on the filter canister. Filling the bowl this way will "likely" avoid bleeding the engine.

Repeat with the other filter and the genset filter. You really wanted to play golf today, didn't you?

Click to expand...

Hold on, those are instructions for the Racor's not the Lucas HDF296 on-board filter. I did the Racor's yesterday. How do I change the onboard filters? those look a little more complicated...

500's do a good job of water separation. They are easy to drain so I do it every day I'm on board. The filters are inexpensive, readily available, and easy to replace. (I'm a 500 fanboy)

The on engine filters are not hard to change. There is a bolt that loosens it up. You drop the bottom of the filter housing and the element will come out. The one thing that messes people up are the 2 gaskets, not O rings, they have square sides and are not O rings. When you install them they need to be seated squarely or they will leak and your engine will suck in air. I believe they may be different sizes so look closely. You should also get an O ring for the bolt that should be changed each time. After assembly you will need to bleed the engine. If you have an electric priming pump it is easy. If not you will have to use the priming lever on the bottom of the fuel pump. Mine takes about 75 strokes. You loosen up the bleed screw in the filter housing and pump away until the air is gone and just fuel is coming out then tighten the bleed screw and then my engines start right up. I use 10 micron in my racors since they are much easier to change than the on engine filters. Tha 10 micron will hold as muh debris ad the 30 micron will.

Greetings,
Mr. f. Ah. Those pesky CAV filters (Lucas on the engine). I dislike those with a passion. To the best of my recollection...

-Put a diaper under the CAV assembly to catch any drippage.
-Get a $ store measuring cup or a suitable container that will fit comfortably under the CAV assembly.
-Place above mentioned cup under the first CAV assembly and loosen the drain screw/plug. You should have a flow of fuel. If not, loosen the bleed screw at the top of the CAV element you are working on.
-Wait until flow of fuel stops.
-While holding the bottom of the CAV assembly, remove the long bolt in the center at the top. (13mm or 9/16" I think).
-The bottom and the filter may now be removed from the bracket/housing.
-Carefully remove the square profile "O ring" from the bracket/housing.
-NOTE!!!! There are 2 different diameter "O rings". Do NOT get them mixed up! I think the larger one goes back in the bracket/housing and the smaller goes on the bottom (previously removed) piece of the filter assembly.
-Replace the small (3/8" ??) "O ring" that slides onto the long bolt you that holds the bottom on.
-Place top and bottom "O rings" in their respective spots.
-Reassemble and snug up the whole works.
-Close drain plug on the bottom.
-Do second filter the same as the first.

Now. With everything reassembled and the 2 drains snugly closed, remove the bleed screws at the top of both filters. Get a teeny funnel and pour fuel into both bleed screws until they appear full. Put bleed screws back in semi-snugly.

The priming lever is on the side of the fuel lift pump.

HAH! Mr. Cd beat me to it...By pre-filling the filters through the bleed screws you won't have to pump that lever 75X. IF the lever seems to be having no effect, bump the engine over just a tad.

i took off those secondaries and remote-mounted another Racor. much easier to service, you can see the quality of fuel and they dont leak. Use a 2 micron.

i also never had to bleed my 120 after a filter change, it just fired right up.

http://www.trawlerforum.com/forums/s6/cav-filter-adapter-3405.html

http://www.trawlerforum.com/forums/s6/cav-adapter-lower-price-8738.html


Two threads about the CAV filters and adapters to spin ons which several members have done with good success.

I have CAV filter as my main and only fuel filter and from what I know there are 10 microns filters. Also there are a lot of brands selling the replacement cartridge. I am using AcDelco brand but no specific reason.
One good thing about these filters is the price, I got a bunch of replacement cartridge for 4$ each!

L.

I use Fram C1191A. Get them on Amazon, where I get all my filters.
Yes. the gaskets are slightly diffirent. I think the top is larger, but they do have a little color spot on them so you can tell the difference.

I only change them wihen I have had issues with the Racors, as you seem to have with one being black.

I use a very large diameter funnel whose curvature is allows it to be slid under each filter.
The loosen the rubber thumb plug on the bottom, fuel from filter should flow out.
Do that for both filters
Now, loosen center bolt on housing, that will realose the botton part of the housing which hold each filter on.
do that for both.
I look carefully at all the fuel that comes out to see if my filter changing strategy is working.
(In 20k miles, I've only had water or gunk in filters once, way back when)
Get new filters, open package, confuse gaskets, spend another 20 min to figure out which gasket goes where
I take the bottom housing, fit gasket, carefully place filter in the middle, and then with top gasket around top of filter, I carefully put it back in place.
Do that for the second one.
Make sure your rubber drain plugs are closed again. Don't over-tighten.

Now you only have to bleed them. There are bleed screws on the top of each just to the right of the thru bolt.
You can open both, then as you pump fuel thru (either using the lift pump lever or electric if you have installed) close the second one first (the one closest to injection pump), then the first one as fuel comes out.
Don't over-tighten.

You are good to go.

Your goal should be to never let these filters need changing.

Xsbank said:

i took off those secondaries and remote-mounted another Racor. much easier to service, you can see the quality of fuel and they dont leak. Use a 2 micron.

Click to expand...

Same here. I use 2 micron for both the primary and secondary on a Lehman 135.

I also have a simple fuel polishing system. Although I have often heard that fuel polishing is not necessary/useful, I do note that I haven't had a clogged filter in years.

The company out of Michigan stopped making the spin on adapters a year or so ago due to liability issues. Insurance would cost more the the total of product sold due to low volume.

Thanks for all the great responses. My apologies for posting this same question twice.

Wxx3 said:

I use Fram C1191A. Get them on Amazon, where I get all my filters.
Yes. the gaskets are slightly diffirent. I think the top is larger, but they do have a little color spot on them so you can tell the difference.

Click to expand...

Do the Fram's you buy on Amazon come with new gaskets? I see the filters for sale but there is no mention of gaskets or what micron these are spec'd at.

Greetings,
I am also on a Jeep Forum and no-one there has ever said anything good about Fram filters. Don't know how much truth there is in the dislike but just sayin'

I have read that in the past put have no real life experience (can you tell?!?!). Right now I just want to narrow down where to buy replacement for the Lucas Red Stripe HDF296's. I thought that would be simple to sort out but... I did find an old site that said the HDF296's were 5-7 micron but don't know if that is all of them or the green stripe or if there is a friggin difference betrween red and green. Maybe they ran out of red ink....

The spares on my boat (from the po) are Napa Gold. Not at the boat, so don't know the numbers. I used two of them last season, seem to be fine. Came with rings. Be careful putting it all back together, I don't have good access because the genny is in the way and one of the top rings didn't seat well. Caused a small messy smelly leak. Oh well, that side of the engine needed a good cleaning anyway.....

This is the one I use:
https://www.rockauto.com/en/moreinfo.php?pk=192152&jsn=311

and you have a list of cross reference models in different brands here:

MAK Filters - Oil, Fuel, Air & Hydrolic Fliters - Syria

Thanks Lou. I see the specs say these and the other replacements that I looked up are 10microns. The Lucas original is 5-7. Can't find any that are less than 10. I guess that in itself tells me it doesn't matter much.