Diesel Filter...

[pvb]

A quick visual check of any build-up of water or crud rather than havjng to drain a bit to see what comes out.

If the filter's properly installed, the fuel in the bowl has already been filtered and therefore won't ever have any crud.

The primary filter on my relatively recent AWB is in the engine compartment, and has a metal bowl. Might be CE regs?

 

[Plum]

If the filter's properly installed, the fuel in the bowl has already been filtered and therefore won't ever have any crud.

The primary filter on my relatively recent AWB is in the engine compartment, and has a metal bowl. Might be CE regs?

Hmm, i thought the fuel passes through the bowl first so the water and larger particles sink to the bottom of the bowl before the fuel passes through the paper filter. This is certainly how my Racor primary filter works.

Www.solocoastalsailing.co.uk

 

[GHA]

Hmm, i thought the fuel passes through the bowl first so the water and larger particles sink to the bottom of the bowl before the fuel passes through the paper filter. This is certainly how my Racor primary filter works.

Www.solocoastalsailing.co.uk

Apparently not.

Still reassuring to see no water but just clear clean fuel in the bowl when doing the engine checks. Impossible with a steel bowl.

 

[pvb]

Hmm, i thought the fuel passes through the bowl first so the water and larger particles sink to the bottom of the bowl before the fuel passes through the paper filter. This is certainly how my Racor primary filter works.

The common CAV filters certainly work this way. With Racor filters, I think it depends on the model.

 

[Daydream believer]

Couple of points with the CAV filter
1) they are now made by Delphi, not CAV
2) If you are paying £ 20 you are possibly buying a clone DON'T, a Delphi normally costs about £ 60-00 if you go to an engine dealer or diesel repair firm. You may get it cheaper on line, but make sure it is definitely a Delphi first.

I buy my filters from Earnest Doe @ Ulting in Essex( an agriculture supply co) & all the filters & oils are much cheaper for my Volvo MD 2020. Once I had their part numbers it meant i could go in & buy the filters quickly at 1/3 the cost of Volvo spares. Other such firms must be as cheap a source

I had endless problems with my filter & in the end I spoke to my cousin who often repaired tractors & other farm machinery in the field. To my annoyance he called me a spanner monkey & pointed out that there are 1000's of these filters & if they leaked they would not be so popular .

So first thing he suggested was to check for a clone. Sure enough Hanse had fitted a clone to my boat & as soon as I fitted the correct one It worked with no leak . Plus he told me not to tighten it too much as it distorts the O rings.

Next I put long flexible hoses on it & mounted it on a back plate with studs & butterfly nuts so I can remove it easily & move it out of the engine bay to a point over a bucket. Only about 15 inches but so much easier.

Then to prime the system I fitted a hand bellows like you get on outboard fuel systems. You can get them specifically for diesel. This goes in the line just before the last filter on the engine. When squeezed it pushes fuel through the filter & i can hear it going past the injectors back into the tank so it effectively part bleeds the fuel line as well

 

[Daydream believer]

Hmm, i thought the fuel passes through the bowl first so the water and larger particles sink to the bottom of the bowl before the fuel passes through the paper filter. This is certainly how my Racor primary filter works.

The common CAV filters certainly work this way.

I must disagree with you there
You are wrong re the CAV filter ( sorry cannot properly copy the quote you had)
Fuel goes through the filter FIRST & sediment collects in the filter first. The fuel then goes through the filter.
The filter causes the water in the fuel to form globules which separate from the fuel, sink to the bottom of the bowl AFTER the fuel has gone through the filter
The fuel then passes to the engine & in theory it should go through a finer filter before/just after the engine pump, which sometimes has its own gauze which some owners miss & can clog over time
Cannot comment on a Racor

 

[RichardS]

The common CAV filters certainly work this way. With Racor filters, I think it depends on the model.

With my Racor 500s the fuel goes around the glass bowl and then through the filter and on onwards to the engine.

Richard

 

[PetiteFleur]

I replaced my CAV filter with glass bowl with an equivalent filter, with UNF threads but a 'screw on' filter. You lose the glass bowl but it is SO much easier to change with virtually no fuel loss. Bought from SSL diesel in Scotland - the also do a Metric threaded version. I got really fed up with the original CAV filter as it often leaked after a filter change and you got diesel everywhere. Filters easily available at most motor factors, I'm using Bosch filters at the moment.

 

[Pete7]

I must disagree with you there
You are wrong re the CAV filter ( sorry cannot properly copy the quote you had)
Fuel goes through the filter FIRST & sediment collects in the filter first. The fuel then goes through the filter. The filter causes the water in the fuel to form globules which separate from the fuel, sink to the bottom of the bowl AFTER the fuel has gone through the filter
The fuel then passes to the engine.

Surprisingly but this is correct. This filter came off my home made polishing system after I used it to drain the tank down. That muck was held back by the filter before the fuel dropped down to the glass bowl.

 

[jdc]

I don't think you are comparing like for like: just how many hundred HP is your engine?

A Racor 120 filter unit is about £75, not >£200, and is good for about 57 litres per hour. This equates to 57 / 0.3 = 190 kW = 245 HP. Surely enough for most sailing vessels? (The CAV's capacity is around 45 litres per hour BTW).

 

[Daydream believer]

I don't think you are comparing like for like: just how many hundred HP is your engine?

A Racor 120 filter unit is about £75, not >£200, and is good for about 57 litres per hour. This equates to 57 / 0.3 = 190 kW = 245 HP. Surely enough for most sailing vessels? (The CAV's capacity is around 45 litres per hour BTW).

Problem with the Racor is that if one gets a bit of diesel bug or some dirty fuel on board at a strange port then that can be a lot of money up the spout in a short space of time . With the Delphi ( Ex CAV) filter it is quite affordable to have a couple of spares aboard & they are made by a variety of companies - ie Perkins, Donaldson, New Holland Delphi Etc Etc so can be obtained at lots of outlets at home or abroad if caught short somewhere

 

[Daydream believer]

If the filter's properly installed, the fuel in the bowl has already been filtered and therefore won't ever have any crud.

The primary filter on my relatively recent AWB is in the engine compartment, and has a metal bowl. Might be CE regs?

I understand that the Norfolk Broads insist on steel rather than glass as they consider glass a fire risk. That might be the same on other inland waterways, but as my yacht, when delivered new, had a glass bowl I doubt that offshore the CE regs demand steel bowls

 

[superheat6k]

I don't think you are comparing like for like: just how many hundred HP is your engine?

A Racor 120 filter unit is about £75, not >£200, and is good for about 57 litres per hour. This equates to 57 / 0.3 = 190 kW = 245 HP. Surely enough for most sailing vessels? (The CAV's capacity is around 45 litres per hour BTW).

Your calculation does not account for the spill return volume. At full power the flow rate from the tank will be considerably higher than the engine is burning.

I have been using the Racor copies from EBay for several years. Last boat I fitted the 900 size because VP advised the 500 was too small - TAMD60C 255 HP engines. I have recently installed 500 on my current boat with Cummins 6BT5.9M 210HP engines. These are made by Rongsun Headman in China. They as effective as Racor, just half the price, and the elements are just a few quid each. The Racor elements will fit though.

 

[MagicalArmchair]

I replaced my CAV filter with glass bowl with an equivalent filter, with UNF threads but a 'screw on' filter. You lose the glass bowl but it is SO much easier to change with virtually no fuel loss. Bought from SSL diesel in Scotland - the also do a Metric threaded version. I got really fed up with the original CAV filter as it often leaked after a filter change and you got diesel everywhere. Filters easily available at most motor factors, I'm using Bosch filters at the moment.

Thanks for all the advice. I am not much closer to choosing mind you PetiteFleur, what filter did you go for? One of these:

https://www.ssldieselparts.co.uk/single-filter-assembly-with-primer-large-screw-filter-p-274.html

Filters are circa 8 quid, so still easily half the price of a Racor.

 

[jdc]

Your calculation does not account for the spill return volume. At full power the flow rate from the tank will be considerably higher than the engine is burning...

While this is strictly true, at full power, isn't the spill rate a much smaller percentage of the whole? Anyway, the main point I was making stands: a sailing auxiliary engine is very unlikley to require a big Racor filter, and one of comparable size to the CAV is about the smallest made by Racor, say a 110 or 120, and so is nowhere near the £200 odd that the OP stated.

However spare filter elements remain much pricier than the CAV/Delphi parts, at around £18 each in small quantities.

 

[ghostlymoron]

I had one of these (or very similar) on my Mirage, the flow rate was satisfactory for a two cylinder Yanmar 2GM20. Easy filter replacement, cheap filters from online filters and inbuilt primer pump. What's not to like?

Thanks for all the advice. I am not much closer to choosing mind you PetiteFleur, what filter did you go for? One of these:

https://www.ssldieselparts.co.uk/single-filter-assembly-with-primer-large-screw-filter-p-274.html

Filters are circa 8 quid, so still easily half the price of a Racor.

 

[doug748]

Might be worth mentioning these:

http://separfilter.com/video-tutorials.htm

Which certainly are about 200 quid. they do seem to work ok though and are quite clean to attend to.

 

[PetiteFleur]

Thanks for all the advice. I am not much closer to choosing mind you PetiteFleur, what filter did you go for? One of these:

https://www.ssldieselparts.co.uk/single-filter-assembly-with-primer-large-screw-filter-p-274.html

Filters are circa 8 quid, so still easily half the price of a Racor.

Hi, I used the standard replacement screw on head without the built on pump - I have UNF threads so was a direct replacement.
This what I used https://www.ssldieselparts.co.uk/filter-assembly-sfa11-p-718.html
If you have Metric threads then yours would be better.

 

[sjdtuk]

CAV do a bigger one too. 796 - I got mine from SSL as well. Filter are cheap.

 

[ip485]

I have a Racor with glass bowl.

My only issue (and there maybe a good solution) is that having know fitted one of their excessively expensive brass taps under the bowl I can easily drain any water, but I still need to remove the top plate and top up with diesel. I can only imagine there must be an easier way of going about this? When I asked the question before it was suggested inserting a rubber pump (aka as on an out board engine) in the fuel line before the Racor to draw fuel into the Racor (which I think would work) but perhaps there are other ways?