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| Tony's Tips |
ARTICLE DATE: 09/01/2007 |
| Marine Fuel Filtration - "The Seaboard Way" |
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| Upgrades for new Common Rail Fuel Injection
& Problem Fuel Systems |
| Earlier, I mentioned "Common Rail" fuel systems, so I'd
like to point out some issues that will now become important for all to understand..
First is that this fuel delivery design is now being used in many production
hi-performance diesels for both on and off highway use. The design and idea
has been around for decades, but it's use and current development has taken
a major leap in the last year or so. With COMMON RAIL fuel pressures going
well above 20,000 PSI from the pump to the "common rail" and all the way to
the injector itself, a small amount of contamination, or especially water,
that makes it to the pump and/or the injector will take on a whole new meaning. |
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| Multi-Stage
Common Rail Fuel Injection protection - FF 5013 and FS 19596 with WIF Sensor |
Complete
On-engine Multi-Stage system with WIF Sensor and 2 mic "Last Chance"
filter-required for Common Rail Fuel Injection specs - We prefer to call
your "on-engine" factory supplied fuel filter as a "Last
Chance" filter, as that's what it really is !! |
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In the past, many injection pumps have survived a teaspoon
of water over an hour or so of operation, and still continue to march (although
they may not be 100%). An injector may or may not have survived this water
(usually not) , but typically, only a tip would go with no or minimum of damage
to the engine and/or your pocket book. Let that teaspoon of water (or even
1/10 of a teaspoon) or the smallest amount of contamination get to the new
common rail pumps, and it will most likely be an instantaneous major mechanical
component failure ( your $2000+ fuel pump), along with a good chance of having
an injector stick open that instantly starts dumping vast volumes of fuel to
the cylinder or cylinders. This leads to everything from a major fuel / engine
overload , scuffing cylinders, cracked/melted pistons, etc, all happening in
just a few seconds. You could think of it as a serious engine run-away. Talk
about why fuel filtration needs to be reevaluated with this new technology.
And , that's why re-education is needed and why you'll will find that all companies
that use common rail are requiring new and very strict filtration criteria.
One way Cummins has addressed these new filtration requirements is by requiring
a WIF sensor "WATER IN FUEL" (two supplied per engine), that MUST be installed
in the primary fuel filter (s) or "primary system" of the vessel for each engine.
Besides that, they require a 10 MIC (minimum) primary filtration (meaning that
you must use a 10 mic filter BEFORE the engine and this filter MUST meet certain
minimum requirements: |
| Primary Fuel Water Separator Specifications |
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10 micron filter rating. |
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Separator must have a 36 gram minimum
capacity per SAE J1905. |
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98.7% efficiency using ISO A2 test dust
per SAE J1985 test methods. |
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Filter must remove 95% (or more) coarse
water droplets over the life of the filter, per SAE1488. |
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BTW, these are the MINMUM requirements
- Ask yourself, is that what you really want??
And, the new requirement for "last chance" fuel filtration
on the engine is now 2 mic and this filter must also meet very strict requirements.
Currently, Cummins is using a Fleetguard FF 5488 on all of the QSB's, QSC's
and QSL's as the on-engine final fuel filter. A quick check w/ Fleetguard yielded
this info: 2 mic Stratapore high performance media w/ 19 grams of dirt holding
capacity, .95" Hg pressure drop/100 GPM clean w/ a 203PSI burst pressure rating.
In case you don't know much about filters, that's a "filter" that doesn't let
much past it, but then again, it needs to be supplied w/ a specific quality
of pre-filtered fuel. In fact, and this point must be understood. These systems
are so particular as to fuel quality, you must NEVER pre-fill these filters
before installation. You must let the pre-filtered fuel from your off-engine
fuel system do that for you thru the priming mechanism built in the engine.
So, where does all this leave us at this point?? Will this scare away many
from this technology because these new engines are so particular as to fuel
quality? It may, in some cases, because many out there are perfectly happy
with their current era of engines, and "new" stuff is just too scary or expensive
to deal with. But for anyone buying new engines, they need to be aware of these
upgraded requirements and have a thorough understanding of what needs to be
accomplished with fuel filtration.
And just like before, these requirements are a minimum to
get by (typical boat builders usually supply the "minimum" in order to just
meet requirements). The basics are easily met and can easily be engineered
into a new boat or repower, but to add that extra level of security, extra
measures need to be taken so there is plenty of room for error ( like getting
a lousy tank of fuel, or having water drip thru a deck fill or down a fuel
tank vent) and still not have any problems.
Another filter we are using as the primary bulk separator,
are elements specifically designed for water absorption. "Cimtek" http://www.cim-tek.com/index.asp have developed filtration products specifically for problem systems and where
extra protection may be needed.
Good technology, good reading on their site,
and they also private label their filters for many large companies including
Parker (Racor). That speaks volumes to me. We will typically add a third filter
to the primary or Multi-Stage system using a water absorbing bulk separator
if some has large amounts of water in his tanks and needs extra protection. |
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| Basic
Common Rail Fuel Multi-Stage system with WIF sensor - 100% Cummins, 100%
simple, and 100% effective |
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| Water
Absorbing Filter Media |
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