Racor 1000

I have Dual Racor 1000's. (Single Yanmar 6LPA-STP2). The previous owner left a 2 Micron filter in a parts box. I can't even find a 2 micron 1000 filter anywhere and will need to order them online.

This has me thinking. 2 micron seems extremely restrictive and the racor 1000 seems like overkill. I'm wondering if the PO installed the Racor 1000 in order to get the volume to be able to use a 2 micron filter?

I would hate to find out there are 10 microns installed and the 2 micron was an incorrect purchase left behind by the PO.

Any thoughts on what I should be installing for filters?

Are you sure the 2 micron is not the engine mount (final) filter? May not be for the Racors atall.

Element should be readily available. I think it is a 2020 blue or 2mic. As big as that thing is compared to your engine, the 2mic should be fine.

Chrisjs said:

Are you sure the 2 micron is not the engine mount (final) filter? May not be for the Racors atall.

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I'm absolutely positive. The secondary fuel filter on the engine is slightly smaller than the size of a standard oil filter (And is a Yanmar part). The form factor for a Racor 1000 filter is very specific. There is no way to confuse the two.

I'm sure they can be found. I found many online. None of the chandlers carry them in stock and need to order one.

The root of my question is more along the lines of. Does a 2 micron as a primary filter in a Racor 1000 make sense?

Same here, 2 mic in the spares locker but 10s and 20s in use.

Simi 60 said:

Same here, 2 mic in the spares locker but 10s and 20s in use.

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Yes, this is what I'm concerned about. Sitting with a fistful of 2mc, halfway through a filter change to find that there are 10 - 20 mc installed, and I'm perpetuating the mistakes of the PO, but now with a bigger pile of 2mc filters.

Or start the process and find I do need 2mc filters, and now I'm tied to dock with a half-finished filter change waiting for a UPS truck to arrive.

I believe that the 2 microns will flow the full rated gph. They will just clog up sooner. I run 10 microns as primaries since my secondaries are a pain to change. I would rather change the 10 micron Racors several times instead of changing the secondaries once.

I’ve got 30’s in mine, followed by 10, then 2 with the final two on the engine.

Shrew said:

Yes, this is what I'm concerned about. Sitting with a fistful of 2mc, halfway through a filter change to find that there are 10 - 20 mc installed, and I'm perpetuating the mistakes of the PO, but now with a bigger pile of 2mc filters.

Or start the process and find I do need 2mc filters, and now I'm tied to dock with a half-finished filter change waiting for a UPS truck to arrive.

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Depending how your Racors are setup, you should be able to take the top off the filter canister and see what is actually installed.

You can run 2mic on that engine without issue. Does not matter what is in there now. Might clog sooner, that is only possible issue.

I run 2 micron Racor filters on my two Yanmar 6LYA STPs without a problem. But, I've been thinking about going to 10's. It just came with lots of 2's.

As others have said fast clog on 2mic.
Engine probably has a 2mic spin on anyway so better having something courser uphill IMHO.
Ours had 10s installed but others with same engines/filters said 20s so I got a box of each.

Have the same racor system in my trawler connected to a 135 HP John Deere. I use 2 micron filters and ran 2,000+ gallons 8,000+ miles on them in the last 12 months. Will change the one filter on annual maintenance schedule even though there is no increased vacuum on the gauge.

2 micron filters are readily available. Last case I bought, the tops were tan / brown colored.

Ted

You can buy 2 micron filters for all Racor housings I know of. Most diesels are originally setup to run a 30 micron primary and 10 micron secondary. I run 2 micron in my primaries. There are benefits to running clean fuel - longer life for pumps and injectors.

If you have a vacuum gauge on the filters, put in the 2micron filters and keep an eye on the gauge.

2020-sm is the 2 micron
2020-tm is the 10 micron
2020-pm is the 30 micron.

If you get in a bind call your local cat dealer. We use tons of them in gens. Most likely they will stock the 30's but may have the 10 and 2's depending on the dealer.

Our Detroit pumps mucho fuel thru the filters and usually returns most of it.

After a bit of operation the fuel is as clean as it gets , so a 2 is just fine .

On engine is probably a 10 , so it needs changing less often than the 2.

All are changed annually ,or before a big cruise.All are gravity fed , so changing is EZ.

With a swing valve to select the primary filter , there is no problem should a load of crap fuel be taken on.

Select the second filter while returning to the foul fuel source,as you change out the first .

I might have a very different approach with an engine that returns almost no cleaned fuel to the tank.

Thanks folks. I really appreciate the feedback. This helps a ton.

Check with your engine manufacturer. Fuel filter micron levels should be based on what manufacturer recommends. For example, my non-electronic 6BTA Cummins has a 30 micron primary Racor, and a 20 micron Fleetguard secondary on the engine, which is the Cummins recommendation for this engine. If I had an electronic "Q" series Cummins, they require higher filtering rates, and the primary would be a 10 micron Racor with a 2 micron secondary on the engine.

Puffin_NT32 said:

Check with your engine manufacturer. Fuel filter micron levels should be based on what manufacturer recommends. For example, my non-electronic 6BTA Cummins has a 30 micron primary Racor, and a 20 micron Fleetguard secondary on the engine, which is the Cummins recommendation for this engine. If I had an electronic "Q" series Cummins, they require higher filtering rates, and the primary would be a 10 micron Racor with a 2 micron secondary on the engine.

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I generally agree that using what the manufacturer recommends is a good solution. I have a Cummins QSB and use the 10 micron primary, 2 micron secondary that Cummins recommends.

I have the 900 turbo Racor series on my boat. The max fuel flow of those is 90 gph. The max fuel flow of the 1000 series is twice that. While I am not sure, I would imagine that the resistance to flow of a 2 micron filter in the 1000 series is actually less than the resistance to flow in my 900 series with the 10 micron filter. As such, I would be very comfortable running 2 micron in a pair of 1000s in my engine. However, I would be very cautious about changing my 10 micron filters to 2 micron filters.

Many old fuel systems don't need the utla clean fuel like today's common rail systems. But with that said. The fuel being overly clean is not going to hurt anything but your wallet in the additional cost for filters. And as stated above consult the o&m manual for the engine before selecting the micron size.