Water in Racors -

Hi All.

I've done about 1400 miles in the last year in SE US and Bahamas. I've not had any problems with fuel but after my last run up from Ft. Pierce to Savannah, upon arrival one of my racors was nearly full of water and the engine has a separator too which was ~1/2 full of water. That engine was running fine when I arrived.

The last two marinas I bought gas at were on nice end of the spectrum and no comments of bad fuel per active captain.

Orings for deck fittings looks fine. I will confess I probably haven't actually looked at the racors prior to leaving the bahamas so its possible i got it there.
(got fuel in west end and marsh a few times)

So I suppose the ultimate question is, what amount of water would cause you do try to do damage control e.g. fuel polishing, and am I missing anything in terms of cause of contamination deck fitting or marina fuel itself.

thanks in advance

What kind of fuel polishing you ask?

First things first. Buy a good supply of spare filters and start changing them, frequently - did I say frequently - until the visible water drops way off. The key at this point is to keep the water from hitting the injection pump and injectors. Do you have vacuum gauges on the Racors? If so any vacuum showing up?

Sounds like the filters are doing their job. Now time to frequently retire these tired rascals. What engines?

Do not have gauges... but do have 3 sets of elements so will change thusly.

Engines are Hinos (Toyota Heavy Industries), old school mechanical system circa 1987.

This is exactly why I feel the water alarms are more important to install than vacuum gauges in Racor.

Water can get in the system and you'd never know it till it was to late.

Were as in the majority of cases filter elements that clog up will tip you off before it's to late.

As to your question, as noted buy extra filters run the boat while monitoring the filter bowl on a regular basis to see how fast water builds up in it.

You very well be able to "polish" your fuel by just changing Racor a few times.

To answer your question regarding polishing, it depends on how low the fuel pickup tube goes in the tank. If the tube is 2" off the bottom, you could be dealing with water for years as a lot will remain below the tube. Btw, the interface between the fuel and the water is where the bugs like to grow. If the fuel fill pipe is a straight shot into the tank, I would consider making a vacuum suction device to suck as much water off the bottom of the tank as possible.

Ted

I would start with water paste test at your tanks. No use adding new Racors until you determine that you don't have several gallons of water in fuel tank. Verify and pump off as necessary.

If you feel you have quite a bit of water in the tank you can hire a company to pump the water out and polish you fuel at the same time for not much money.