Fuel Polishing system

Monique

Monique

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Hello Gulls and Guys,

Posted same thread on Liveaboard forum but perhaps because of the smaller quantity of fuel on raggies, I'm not getting replies. You folks are consuming far more of the stuff and perhaps someone can offer some help....

I wish for such a system on the new boat. I looked at commercially available units but they all share one point: insane pricing.

How expensive can such a system be? Bits of piping, pump and 2 inline filters???

Has anyone designed and built such a system in this readership? Share the design?

I wish something tidy and not too folkloric ...

:-)
 
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I added a system in the winter. I have an old fashioned wooden yacht but it has a very large fuel tank (173 litres) so most of the fuel there sits doing nothing for ever. I didn't want the expense of a smaller fuel tank (although reducing the overall weight wouldn't be a bad idea). So I installed a fuel polishing system. A new pipe was fitted in the main inspection hatch to draw fuel off from the sump of the tank. That leads to a Racor 500 filter placed levelish with the tank, which leads on to a Facet pump which leads on to a return fitting on the far end of the tank.

When I opened up my tank at the end of last season I found this:



On draining the tank, I found this:

[URL=http://s217.photobucket.com/user/rgaspar_album/media/P1000824.jpg.html]

I had drained off the old fuel (85 litres) into containers and once the polishing system was installed before connecting up to the tank, I used the flexible hose to draw the old fuel through the filter and then into the tank. Result was this:

[URL=http://s217.photobucket.com/user/rgaspar_album/media/P1010044.jpg.html]

I have the fuel pump separately switched from my main panel and run it when the engine is running. So effectively it is a simple separate system. All parts bought from ASAP. No issue with priming; it self primed (albeit the pump clattered until fuel was drawn through). I did design it though to all (that's filter and pump) to be as level as possible with the tank. Parts required - tank connector and copper pipe to drop down into the tank sump. Hose tail from tank connector, hose tails on the Racor Filter and the Facet pump and on the return tank connector, fuel hose and jubilee clips.

I know my tank will not match a Mobo's for size but I can't see that matters.
 
MoodySabre and Tillergirl, you are both STARS.

Tillergirl, do you have a specific list of your components? Could you confirm a single Racor 500? I saw recommendations of 2 Racors, one with 10 micron and the second with a 2 micron filter...

My "new to me" boat has 600 liters of diesel and I do not need to cope with diesel bug or dirt from low quality suppliers. The intention is a RTW in peace... :-)
 
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From the delivery note:

Part number 301501 Racor 500FG10 diesel fuel filter
306550 Fuel pump 12v 1/8"-27 ports 121 lph
404607 Hose tails 1/8" BSPT Male - 3/8" hose BRS 2 off
305910 Fuel Hose 10mm ID ISO7840 Sold per metre - 4 metres off
301853 Racor 2010TM Fuel Filter 10 Micron (spare filter)
711480 Circuit breaker/Switch 5700 2.5 amp
404223 Hosetail 3/8" BSP Female to 10mm Hose 2 off
301992 Union 3/8" Male to 3/4x16 UNF Male 2 off
416101 Jubilee clips 11-16mm 304 S/Steel 6 off
407042 Elbow compact 90 deg 3/8 BSP MF Brass (fitted to the Racor filter because of the position I have it fitted - not needed if you can do a straight sideways entry of the fuel pipe)

Total cost was £259.34

I reckoned that one filter was enough. Could easily put two I guess but I reckoned a proper regime of regular polishing would mean that one was enough..
 
Perfect solution for me... an additional star for you Tiller Girl!!! Thank you for the parts list.

Confirm ASAP was the supplier?
 
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Thanks Trundlebug. The thread you included offers lots of information.

My system must be permanently installed; I want to go on RTW cruise.. :-)
 
I built a similar portable system to Trundlebug's, about a year ago. Last week I ran it for a couple of hours before filling the tank, the filter was completely clean after 2 hours so I am reasonably confident the fuel supply should not let us down this year. Cost of the parts was under £100. One lesson was that the cheap pumps available on ebay, which look similar to a Facet pump but half the price, don't last well. The first one I had went on fire after about 15 hours use which is not good. The new Facet pump was twice the price but clearly much more effective and I hope won't fail in the same alarming way.
 
There are two issues to consider when installing a polishing system. First, is to polish the fuel in the tank, second is to polish the tank and in particular, the base where any gunk might build up which will happen over time even if the fuel is being polished regularly.

Achieving the latter requires a powerful return pump returning polished fuel through a pipe positioned and angled such that anything on the bottom of the tank gets stirred up and therefore sucked into the polishing system for treatment.

On Play d'eau's fuel system (3,500 ltrs in four tanks) the fuel itself is sufficiently polished by the amount of fuel the engines return. It's the base of the tanks that need attention. Annoyingly, the tanks are baffled making it impossible without major surgery to fit return pipes that will create enough swirl throughout the base areas.

However, in 12 years, I've (thankfully) not suffered a dirt problem. Filters are good to go each year when I change them and almost zero dust in the Racor bowls. However, I know there's bound to be a tar/much build up, so one day, something will need to be done.

At that point I'll have return pipes fitted. Meanwhile, I treat the fuel with additives regularly, hoping....
 
Thank you Piers,

My tank is large by WAFI standards: 600 litters and it is baffled. However, the bottom of the baffles are quite open letting the fuel slosh about. This should be sufficient to swish the fuel around with careful placement of the return line. Thanks for your input.
 
Monique said:
Thank you Piers,

My tank is large by WAFI standards: 600 litters and it is baffled. However, the bottom of the baffles are quite open letting the fuel slosh about. This should be sufficient to swish the fuel around with careful placement of the return line. Thanks for your input.
Click to expand...

Excellent. It's so important to ensure the fuel is stirred up quite strongly to pick 'the bits' up. So many boats have polishers fitted but they don't get to the 'bottom of the problem' so to speak!
 
My polishing rig is just a pump drawing through a portable filter. I run each tank about an hour per month and just after a refuel in case I get any water with the fuel coming on board.

Details of the set on my boat are shown on the blogsite below. Having the dripless connectors makes the rig also useful for draining and priming the Racors and on engine filters, balancing the tanks, bleeding any air out, and back feeding into the tank to clear the pickup if I ever manage to collect a lump of muck on the pick up tube. It also allows me to shove the last dregs from one tank into the other if I ever get caught out with very low fuel levels.

The pump is a Holley with a Baldwin separator filter, but a Racor 500 would probably work even better. You need to install the pump after the filter, and draw through it, otherwise the pump tends to mix up any water too much so it is less likely to separate in the filter afterwards.

I have had this simple rig for about 6 years now, and never had a blocked filter at sea since. Cost of the bits was about £250 including the 2 male and 6 female dripless connectors.

http://turbo36.wordpress.com/improvements/

Good luck with it. If I can help further just ask.
 
Trundlebug said:
I fitted a temporary / mobile system, much much cheaper than all the above so far.

See my post here
http://www.ybw.com/forums/showthread.php?314108-Fuel-Polishing&highlight=

Credit also due to Firefly625 of this parish, who has a similar system I believe and gave me some key leads.
Click to expand...

Can't recall if I posted updated pic of system, replaced my primary fleetguard filter with a racor fg500 unit. This gave me my old housing and filter not doing anything so I fitted to my fuel polishing system replacing the previous slightly smaller racor unit that I was never that happy with. So now looks like this;
IMAGE_1628.jpg


Pick up is 90 degree elbow from top of the tank attached to 8mm copper pipe that draws right from the bottom of the tank which replaced a plastic fitting I had previously rigged up, so altogether I feel a much better system than before.
IMAGE_1630.jpg


Apologies if pics posted before.
 
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ON the subject of crude on the bottom of the tank. I have been led to believe that if you use marine 16 as a shock dose to kill the bug, which just then falls to the bottom of the tank you should then re dose maybe 2 or so more times and it will eventually clear it from the tank completely!!! To date it seems to have worked for me, as on my second dose, I cannot now pull any crude from the sump drain on either of my fuel tanks.
 
Personally I recommend using a preventative dose of a biocide with every refill, you can easily develop the bug again.

If you can drain a bit off from a sump do so and monitor fuel quality in a white paint kettle do you can see what you have ie is the fuel clear or cloudy, water content, crud, foreign bodies ie hair swarf etc
 
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