Air filter / silencer YANMAR eating dirt

[jfkal]

My Yanmar 3GM30 comes with, what most tell me is a silencer rather than a filter. A foam thing wrapped over metal cage inside the air intake. The foam stuff crumbles (so does a new spare in an air tight bag over time), the metal cage rusts and feeds therefore foam crumbs and rust particles into the engine.
Now the bright ones tell me, that sea air is soooo clean I do not need a filter!!!!
Sea air may be clean but not the inner sanctum of my engine room (i.e. rubber dust from the fan belts and whateverelse is in the air inside the boat (bread crumbs, dust mites, cockroaches, cigarette buts etc [kidding].
So I thought I rip out the foam and the cage and stuff a proper air filter (K&N) inside. But non of the stock filters fit however.
My solution would be to get one of those external motor racing cone shape filters and strap it to the intake nozzle of the silencer housing.
Good idea or not. Please let me have your feedback. /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif

 

[sarabande]

Those KN filters do the job well, are easy to change/clean if they get contaminated, but normally last for ages.

There is also a need for a flame arrestor if intake filters are used on petrol engines. KN do this too in their range designed for marine use.

 

[boatmike]

Not quite sure which type of silencer you have but if there is a metal gauze to stop anything big being sucked in, a good solution is to stuff one of the stainless steel pot scourers in where the foam stuff used to be. Be careful of petrol engine cardboard filters as they suck in salt laden air and go damp and soggy. Diesel engines don't like to be strangled! You are right that on a boat there is usually no need for automotive type dust filters anyway and they will cause more trouble than they are worth. I ran an old Perkins in a fishing boat with a bean can stuffed with ss pot scourers. Worked great!

 

[rob2]

Another vote for the K&N type - used one on a quasi 2GM - straight on the end of the pipe. Couldn't get an "air filter" but used a breather filter, same thing but simpler. Actually the technical details said the 1" dia version was good for up to 30hp as an intake. Slid onto pipe end and fastened with a Jubilee clip.