vacum gauge on prefilters/waterseparators, any use?

[Bandit]

LS

My pickup was not blocked, but I have seen it several times on other boats. By low sulphur I meant the current road fuel I meant zero sulphur and bio content.

What was blocked was the bug buster.

My Fleetguards had a clear bowl bowl and drain that was clean, all tickety boo except the filter cartridge was full of gunk and you would never know unless you cut it open.

I don't remember you seeing my boat, engines or setup?

You obviously seem at odds with the concept of cleaning up the tanks and the fuel?

In an ideal world we would all have day tanks , purifiers and multistage filtration etc but there is no room.

 

[Latestarter1]

Blocked pick up pipes can occur with certain models of VP engines if microbial growth is allowed to become rampant.

I am certainly not at adds with cleaning tanks however once clean it makes good sense to keep fuel polished. I went through a fleet of Thames trip boats some vessels had highly cyclic operation often unused for a week at a time due to weather which could lead to rapid contamination. Used multi-stage filtration based on spin on filters, constantly circulating and polishing the fuel powered by solar panel. Whole installation was compact, simple, effective and automatic. Keeping fuel moving beats the bug.

Was my crystal ball correct 1000MA's??

 

[Bandit]

Volvo Penta filter 877769 Racor type with 10 micron filters.

 

[DAKA]

LS the problem I have seen with a fleetguard is that its a canister, so unless you hacksaw the end off you cant see the contamination, I have changed to large Racor filters/elements so you can see it.

Its a bit late now I know but in the interests of completeness......................

I have used separ and spin on/off

my current boat had standard spin on and I would use any old cheap prefilters until Latestarter educated me and I researched a little to find fleetguard spin filters include a range made from stratapor ( http://www.cumminsfiltration.com/html/en/training/stratapore.html ) I was able to just spin a new filter on to replace previous poor filtration system.

Reason why I post

Initially I also used to hacksaw the filters however now I have no need, if you drain 50ml of diesel into a clear bottle it will trickle clean every time, the knack is to drain 300 ml fast, if there is any muck in the filter it will show up and you can decide to spin it off or leave it on.

I keep some 1L flasks of diesel ready to pre fill the filter so changing takes s few minutes , no fuss and I agree with latestarter , having changed separ in a slight sea in a warm engine bay I was soon sea sick.


The fleetguard filters (FS1000 in my case) hold 2-4 times the muck other cellulose filters do so you are 1/3 as likley to need to change at sea as the separ.
(note to latestarter, I know you hate the idea or prefilling a filter but I only do it with the prefilter on the basis its 1 L and the engine filter will sort it out anyway)

 

[Latestarter1]

Volvo Penta filter 877769 Racor type with 10 micron filters.

VP 877769 is simply a Racor 900MA sold at premium price.

I never use anything other than Racor 1000MA so assumed whoever advised you would do the same.

A Racor 1000 can have very acceptable capacity when used with a 300-600 HP engine in typical recreational service and is typically £260 vs 230 for a 900.

However the 900MA is skinny if vessel has 'history' of contamination and the 1000MA being not much more expensive and far safer choice than the 900. Use of 10 micron filter in as my first line of defence would leave me real concerned, and I can now see why people quickly get into fuel restriction trouble.

Remember Racor have never subscribed to be Beta ratings which I why I avoid them for commercial applications.

 

[LittleShip]

Fuel is, for me part of my maintenance regime. I change filters on a regular basis, much more often than most do !

Filters are cheap and as they take just a few mins to change out it doesn't seem worth having to do it in a seaway. One oil change is about 3 filter changes on average...... It makes me feel all warm when Little Ship is rolling around in a rough sea.

Since I fitted the polishing system I have slept better knowing that I'm removing any crud that may be starting to cause a problem for the future.

One more point....... I use Marine 16 ..... After all I'm a Lancashire lad and there is nothing wrong with belt and braces.

Tom.

 

[Bandit]

Latestarter

When you say Skinny are you refering to the flow rate or the element screen area being inadequate?

Engines 2 of Volvo Penta 63p 370 hp not common rail.

 

[Latestarter1]

Latestarter

When you say Skinny are you refering to the flow rate or the element screen area being inadequate?

Engines 2 of Volvo Penta 63p 370 hp not common rail.

If you had common rail engines my approach would be quite different.

Your 900MA's are not inadequate simply skinny. With big in-line pumps a good rule of thumb regardless of power is 1 GPM as they have far higher return rate than rotary pumps and your filters have have a maximum capacity of 90 GPH. However when it comes to filters particularly non Beta rated Racors you can never have too much filtration, and due to the fact that the 1000MA has double the capacity than the 900 for little more money.

Comments made as result of experience, not just reading spec sheets.

 

[jfm]

I'm tempted to get the gauges, but I agree that having them at the e/r where I'm NOT going to be happy to be there with engines running at 2K rpm! is an issue.

Just as a tiny point of order, any decent vac gauge will have a drag needle so you can see the max/WOT restriction when you go down into the e/room after you return to port and stop the engines

I have vac gauges on all my fuel and hydraulic oil filters. They are not the be all and end all of fuel/oil of course and as explained by others above, but they are cheap and give you a little bit of info that might be useful one day

 

[CHI]

Hi Latestarter1

Be very interested to learn of your recommendations re common rail ??

CHI

 

[david_bagshaw]

We have vac gauges installed on the wrong side of the engine room, but viewable from the correct side, easily while underway. wish I had drag pointers, however I always nip in every 2 hours underway for a quick general check any way. would not like to be without it along with the clear bowls.

 

[Latestarter1]

Hi Latestarter1

Be very interested to learn of your recommendations re common rail ??

CHI

I have looked at your profile and seen that you have VP D4's........Great engine but VP do leave us a merry dance by refusing to state what their last chance filter actually IS!

I would like to use Fleetguard FF5488 which is a nice 3 micron first pass 2.5 micron second pass filter before the VP last chance filter. Also VP put their WIF sensor in the last chance filter which is nuts for common rail, by the time you get the warning of water in fuel in your last chance filter it is TOO LATE!

Proper location of WIF is in pre-filter and I have tried getting data to allow me to do this but the VP door is locked and barred so I have given up..