Racor filter application

My M-25 block mounted fuel filter has a broken bracket. Rather than replacing it with another that will break again, I am thinking of a Racor. The question is, which one? W M, Marine Diesel Direct & Defender on-line don't really address the appication. Which Racor is appropriate for these little diesels? This engine only uses about 1/4 to 1/2 gallon per hour. Does anyone know the cheapest supplier?

Keith
E-33

http://www.ericsonyachts.org/infoexchange/showthread.php?t=359&referrerid=28

This is link to one of several earlier filter threads on this site. You might want to try a Search using [ Racor Filter ] .

In 1988 the factory was installing a Racor filter ahead of the spin-on engine filter, BTW.

Hope this is of some help,

Loren

My thoughts on filters is that it is very hard to have too big or too many filters. The larger the filter the better it will deal with a bad load of fuel or just the normal use. If you have the room consider two primary filters in parallel with 3 way valves to control them. Setup like this you can change one filter while running on the other if neccessary. A large 2 micron filter will take a long time to plug. RT

The Racor on my 25XP is a R24S and is a screw on filter with a bowl that screws into the filter. The bowl collects sediment and is clear so you can see the sediment and is not replaced like the filter, but is reused. This was the stock set up on my 34 and has worked flawlessly. My suspicion is that the filter mounted on the block is almost redundant, but I change it when I change the Racor. When you say you broke the bracket, you don’t mean on the engine do you? I suppose you mean the filter mounted somewhere on the engine bulkhead.

Filter

Loren & Rob,
Thanks for the advice. There are a couple of good threads on the subject.

Paul,
The filter (the secondary) which is mounted on the block is the one with the busted bracket.

I found a Racor model 230R2 for $79 at http://www.marinefilters.com/
I think I will get one & mount it on the bulkhead adjacent to the engine to replace the other.
thanks
Keith

Keith,

Doesn't that bracket have to be replaced and the filter fitted in order to close the system? I believe my block mounted filter screws directly into the block on my 25XP. Are we talking about the same engine, or have I missed something important in this thread

Rule of thumb I have been told is 2 micron on the engine and 20-30 micron in the racor primary. I have had my tank cleaned after clogging few racors. The E-38 came with a 60 gallon fuel tank which is insanely huge. I cant use that much fuel in a year so it ends up spoiling even with treatment. I dont keep as much fuel in the tank now and just live with the condensation issues. At some point I plan to pull the tank and replace it with something around 20 gal. but thats low on my list...

Racor filter

Paul,
The M25 I have is a different animal than your M25XP. I am not sure how different, though. This has an L shaped bracket mounted on the port side of the block that supports the filter mechanism and it cracked and broke at the "L" junction. I haven't removed the broken base from the block, so I'm not sure it exposes the engine innards if I do so, but I don't think it will. It sounds like yours is different. I have temporarily bypassed the secondary filter as it was "adrift" in the engine compartment. I simply bypassed it with existing fuel hose as I removed it.

Ted,
I will soon have a Racor secondary (2 micron), but retain the old primary. I'm confident it will work fine - belt & suspenders.

Now, time to get down to the boat & escape the 110 degree heat!

Keith

Keith,

Yes different animal. My 25XP does not have that bracket. The filter screws directly into the block. Sorry for the confusion

New Racor / new lines

I just rebuilt the fuel supply system to our '88 M25 XP. After the original Racor R24S developed an air leak on our vacation, we bypassed it to get us home, leaving all the filtering to the spin-on Universal filter on its bracket. On our engine that bracket is mounted on the rear side of the injection pump with a couple of bolts, starboard side of engine.
Since the R24S is out of production, it seemed better to replace it than try and fix it. The leak, as far as we trouble shot it, is in the hand pump on top of the housing, and we have no use for that pump anyway because of our electric lift pump.

I now have a new Racor 230 model with a 2 micron element. The whole filter is about an inch taller than the old one, but tolerably fits in the same place.

Our mechanic advised me to replace the original-equipment copper supply line -- quarter inch -- which looked like it was pulled through the bilge and under some interior moldings by an excited person...

It was visibly corroded and looked bad to me -- part of the trouble shooting when on vacation involved blowing air back through that long piece of tubing to check for clogging and finding only our old Zodiac dinghy pump had the umph to do this! Our mechanic buddy explained that old tubling gets crudded up inside kinda-sorta like arteries in us...
Jolly thought, that one. Wonder what my heart "tubing" looks like inside?

Interesting enough, the original return line was heavily-reinforced hose, with more layers and wall thickness than the new stuff I bought. Go figure.

I ended up re-rerouting both lines, away from the bilge... and pioneered a new route around some interior cabinets and moldings... Like a Viking exploring new lands, only with a 7/8 hole saw instead of a sword and spear...

Pricing: We$t Marine wanted around $2.60/foot for diesel-rated hose; the local Universal dealer wanted 2.10, and a local industrial hose supplier wanted $1.62. It took just under 40 feet total for both lines. BTW, there is more printing regarding all sorts of specs on this "diesel wonder hose" than you can read in ten minutes!
:nerd:

I got the new Racor installed Friday with all connections and all the old hose/copper extracted in pieces. We took the boat on a 20 mile cruising race yesterday and motored home today. No leaks so far.

The original Facet electric pump is still there and working fine, but is quite corroded on the outside. I am not sure if the internal screen filter could even be accessed without harming the pump.
My thinking is to look into replacing it this fall and refurbish the current one to keep as a spare (?).

FWIW, it took two tries of running the lift pump until I thought I heard fuel splashing inside the tank before the engine would stay lit. Having everything in the system "dry" really intensifies the fuel bleeding process!

Loren in PDX
Olson 34 #8

hang to what you've got...

ted_reshetiloff said:

...At some point I plan to pull the tank and replace it with something around 20 gal. but thats low on my list...

Click to expand...

Ted,

FWIW - In case you haven't considered it, if you do pull that big 60 gallon tank hang on to it and try to make the new installation easily reversible. The 20 gallon tank could be an obstacle to re-sale one day.

Tank thoughts

I like Neal's take on the future desirability of a "large" tank. Potential buyers always have some of that "sailing over the sunset" dream when looking at a 38 footer. Even when their cruising plans will probably keep them close to home waters or fuel docks, they like to have "good tankage."

How about changing out the original 60 tank for two tanks in that same area? What with room for some piping and a small manifold, you might still have room for a 20 and a 30 gallon tank. One for every-day use and the the other for longer distance cruises (or) isolating questionable fuel you might buy. This would challenge you to come up with a second fill line, too.

Maybe too much hassle... but if you are keeping the boat for ten+ years and having the kind of cruising plans that a 38 footer encourages... this would add both usefulness and even future resale value.
I know of several distance cruisers that have done this for their boats.

Just a thought, and of course YMMV.

Loren in PDX

I would sure agree with the idea of keeping the large tank around. The tank on our 38 was 54 gal (not 58 as shown in the write up) and we often made use of its capacity, motoring as much as 180 nm in light air on non-stop overnight deliveries. For us a 20 gal tank would have been a real limitation.

Go Cartridge Filter !

After extensive research and actual experience from Dock Mechanics the
Filter to use is the RACOR 500MA Series-2 Micron.
The filter is multi-stage with Turbine centrifuge-water collection-filter.
The element is a $10 cartridge vs 20+$ spin-on. The filter change is
contained in the filter body without a spin-on spilling all over the place.
I have the spin-on 120R and will switch to a Dual 75500MAX prior to serious
Cruising with the Beta 902-25HP (very similiar to the M-25XP)
Check out www.parker.com/racor for the FULL STORY

Happy Fueling

Hi Ken

I have same engine onboard my 82 E33 and broke the same bracket this spring. I did just what you are planning except I removed the broken L bracket from the block and have left it off. I believe I replaced the primary filter with a small racor water separator and reused the bracket from the engine minus the broken L piece which was reused to mount on a bulkhead next to the primary. Now both units next to each other and much easier to service. Hope you can figure out what I did, boat is coming home next week and I can take a picture if you need.

The problem with keeping the old tank around has issues as well. I recently had to replace the tank in my '83 E38. It corroded through and was leaking into the bilge. It is quite likely that most tanks of this vintage will have some corrosion unless they are fresh water boats.

The other problem is removing the tank from the boat. The stock 56 gallon tank would not fit through the companionway. It was too wide. If I had the time to remove the dodger, traveller, companionway hatch cover, etc. then it would have come out. A Sawzall was used to "prune" the tank down so it could be removed. My new tank has 39 gallon capacity and is 10" shorter fore-to-aft and just wide enough to fit through the companionway. A quick survey of common boats in the same size range revealed 30-40 gallons to be the norm so I feel 39 gallons will be just fine. The new tank created enough space to double my house bank capacity which was what I needed anyway. RT

:0305_alar A bit off-subject, but make sure your replacement fuel lines are compatible with the newer fuel mixes. The bio-diesel requires you to have hose made out of Viton. Harold I just got through changing fuel hoses on a friends boat AFTER they disintegrated.

tank pruning

rwthomas1 said:

...A Sawzall was used to "prune" the tank down so it could be removed. My new tank has 39 gallon capacity and is 10" shorter fore-to-aft and just wide enough to fit through the companionway. A quick survey of common boats in the same size range revealed 30-40 gallons to be the norm so I feel 39 gallons will be just fine. The new tank created enough space to double my house bank capacity which was what I needed anyway. RT

Click to expand...

A few months ago I saw a thread where someone with one of the E38 models only had to chop less than two gallons off. Perhaps that was a 200 model.

I'm planning to remove/inspect/replace our fuel tank this winter based on all of the leaky tanks I've heard of in this forum and from various late 1980's slipmates. Fortunately it looks like the E34 27 gallon tank will slip out intact. Before someone corrects me there's already an E34 thread where it's been pretty well determined that the usable E34 tank space is only about 22 gallons...

Racor changeover / new Facet pump needed

Here are the pictures. The "old" Racor is shown without the short connecting piece of copper tube that went a few inches to the Facet pump.
(We did the second half of our vacation with the old copper supply line re-bent to connect directly to the Facet lift pump.)
The new longer Racor filter has all connections done with hose and barb fittings. If you look closely, the new hose (both supply and return) come in from the port side of the compartment rather than up from under the front of the port side aft berth top. Total re-routing... and no longer inside the bilges at all. "It's an Olson thing."


The two pictures of the new Racor show two slightly different views -- I was holding the camera inside the access opening for the engine compartment with a flashlight to help the camera get the focus depth right and then invoking the built-in flash. It still took some "added light" in Photoshop Elements to make it more clear and sorta-natural.

Yesterday I noted that the original Facet pump is now damp with fuel around its base. Must be time for new one. Oh well -- that's the last piece of the old fuel system still there anyway -- 18 years is a good run.

Of course I would like to find a low price source for one of these pumps. The local Universal dealer wants $211.60. Seems high, to me.
(Facet 574A). I shall try a call to Featherman Ent., per a reccomendation from Ericson owner David from another message thread. I note that their web site shows a pump like mine (!?) for $85.

As always, thanks for all your help.
Loren in PDX

Walbro - do research

Loren Beach said:

...
Of course I would like to find a low price source for one of these pumps. The local Universal dealer wants $211.60. Seems high, to me.
(Facet 574A). I shall try a call to Featherman Ent., per a reccomendation from Ericson owner David from another message thread. I note that their web site shows a pump like mine (!?) for $85.
...

Click to expand...

I was about to just suggest Walbro again, but then I did a search of this forum and found some recent trouble by TorMar with the Walbro 2401 pump. Anyway, here's a Walbro link FWIW http://www.autoperformanceengineering.com/html/6000_pump.html.