Fuel filter choice

[Stephen Oliver]

Following on from my fuel line questions

I have purchased locally the only fuel filter heads I can find, the have a 1″ -14 thread bosses on them. I’m proposing to use a FS1218 primary and an FS1000 secondary. As they share the same thread the same heads can be used. Is this an acceptable combo for a 6bta 330.i have clean tanks, do about 70 ish hours a year so assume my filter change intervals may be quite long?

Current setup is a single racor 500 (yes you read that right) and after a year there is barely any muck in them. They are obviously woefully inadequate even though they have been operating for 20+ years, but starting to weep here and there and messy as hell to change

I’d appreciate your thoughts on the filter combo anyway..

Steve

Topic

[Stephen Oliver]

Well I spent the day yesterday ripping out the piping, hoses etc.. it was a close call whether I carried on pulling them out or drilled a hole in the bottom of the hull!

It turned out that they had used copper flare fittings and no adaptors to the tanks – and then epoxied the flare fittings to the valves… at the bottom of the tank which is aluminium.. lots of heat, cursing and skinned knuckles.. I finally got all 6 out!

As for the piping – well.. its been royally screwed by a previous owner.. I had returns back to crossovers, genset feed from the engine return (unfiltered) etc etc.. how things havent got really screwed up I do not know.

Today I have cleaned one of the Racor 500’s out. Now if anyone is in doubt about replacing racors – just do it! I’m reusing one of mine on my generator as it should suffice for that and stripped it down. I used a parts washer to get the crap out (the only visible stuff was a pancake about 1.5″ diameter and 1/4″ thick in the glass bowl – hard and black – so assume dead bug and other stuff) however when washing the inlet out I noticed there wasnt much flow through if any which surprised me. I removed the turbine device and the inlet side of it was plugged solid around the ball and all the outlets to the centrifugal section were blocked too.. I have NO IDEA how the engine was running.. Fair enough a gauge would have shown it.. but there was nothing obvious externally..

All cleaned up now and air flow (ie me blowing through it) is good through it. Now off to the boat to try and start putting the new hoses in!

Steve

[wayne]

Looks good mate

[Stephen Oliver]

So it’s getting to the hose stage now. I’m going to be hooking up directly to the engine, not the combo block. I’m assuming I’m going to have to clamp the fuel feed and return to a point on the engine to stop damage / vibration to the fuel connections, particularly the return which is fairly vunerable. Has anyone got any tips for hose routing and clamping when skipping the combo block? The SB engine I’m going to be running the hoses under the engine or across the timing gear end at the bottom.. the port will be along the stringer and straight onto the engine

Pictures would be even better 😁

Steve

[Stephen Oliver]

OK finally got the filters installed – just need to pipe them up and rip all the old piping (copper and hose) out – Its not going to be a fun job but i hope to complete it in the next week or so. I’m hoping my brackets are strong enough (6mm steel) they dont seem to move much but i’m hoping they dont resonate with the engine. Mounted high enough to get a container underneath to catch any spill.

Once thats done i can return the remote last chance filters back to on engine.. to tidy things up further. Any ideas what fittings are required for the last chance filter at engine / filter end?

Pictures attached – please ignore the wiring – its going to be ripped out after I have finished tidying the hoses up!

Oh and before anyone points it out the vertical section of brass has a curve to it for some reason! Crappily made fittings no doubt – Still it missed the filters..

Steve

[Stephen Oliver]

Hi rbecker

Yep they are big things.. Lucky you can get brass fittings in most of the sizes you need – In aus Brass is hard to find in the larger fittings so I have to go steel in most places. The heads have 7/8 ORB (called UNO here) Ports and I have used swept fittings with a combo of JIC and BSPT threaded fittings. I dont have heaps of room so will be running the priming section vertically down past the FS1000. For some reason the boat only has one bulkhead which is forward of the engines, so these are being mounted on that.

I couldnt find the fleetgaurd heads locally – so ended up with some donaldson ones.. they were very cheap and with the 1/14 spigot – which left me with no choice than the 1218 and 1000

I pondered over the electric priming pump, but found decent hand bulbs thanks to Rob.. one less bit of wiring to do for me as i’m doing this exercise to clean things up wiring / piping wise.

I’m hoping to get started on the install this week so should have some pictures to share soon..

Steve

[rbecker]

Here’s the picture

[rbecker]

Hi Stephen this is the set up I’m working on for my boat this is the same filters you want to use 1218-1000 I’m using Baldwin for now as I get them for almost cost I’m using a carter fuel pump rated for diesel max psi 6 to prime, the tee coming out of the top is for a vacuum gauge and bleeder the filter heads are a Fleetguard/ Cummins part number with 1/14 and 1/2 inch npt, it is big 26” long 16 tall , I have about $500 in making 2 of these

[Stephen Oliver]

I’ve just realised that on mounting the bulb on the tank side has the disadvantage that you dont know when the filters are primed. On the Engine side with clear hose you can see clearly when diesel is running through. i’m going to try and make room!

Steve

[Stephen Oliver]

Hi Rob

Already had a response from the place. Double 90, 3/8 barb’s and Delphi branded made specifically for diesel only downside is cost… 60aud each.. but I guess buy quality buy once..

Will post pics once I’m there.. struggling for time though as work is busy

Steve

[Rob Schepis]

Great. Some advertised as double 90 ends and then ended up being single 90, which turns out to work real well too. Since this is going in parallel with isolation valves, and Quality bulbs with one or two 90s are not that easy to come by, don’t worry about the barb fitting size, as you said: just change your tubing and upper barbs to match. Also, don’t bank on the advertised barb size, it’s all about how it will fit on available tubing so get what they have and then let that dictate your tubing. Keep this thread updated with pics and info as to what you end up with.

[Stephen Oliver]

Thanks Rob

That helped immensely – I found someone 6 miles away selling them with a double elbow delphi branded – I’m just waiting to hear what size barbs as some are saying 12mm – 1/2″ which would be too big although I could swap the 3/8 barbs I have for 1/2″ then the whole system would be 1/2″ including the valves which are full size bore

Thanks again for your help. Hours of searching came up with nothing. 5 seconds and a local supplier with your info!

Steve

[Rob Schepis]

The smaller one with the single 90 I used has a part number 9001-270. If you google it with the words fuel or primer you’ll get plenty of hits to sort through… But if you have the room why not use the larger priming bulb?

No issue putting the priming bulb away from the filters back closer towards the tanks. Being closer to the tanks you could hear the fuel returning to the tank as you pump it through.

[Stephen Oliver]

Thanks Rob

I have the opposite issue – Lots of height.. but very little in the way of length as i’m mounting these on a forward bulkhead. I think I have resigned myself to the fact that i’m going to have to have the filters as one assembly and the valves / Bulb as another located upstream of the filters (tank side) It would be nice to keep them all together.. but its not going to work.

Re the bulb – I’m trying to source one of the right angle ones or one similar to yours but cannot find one apart from chinese specials which I dont want to risk. Has anyone used a small electric pump? Or too much potential issue for damaging the lift pump?

Steve

[Rob Schepis]

I was limited with vertical space so I flipped the bracket and went with the shorter filters, that was easy. For squeeze bulb I would need to have the bulb sideways, not vertical, to stay within my height constrains. So I found some double 90 squeeze bulbs on the web and they were a good fit but Chinese made and they did not stand the test of time due to the barbs being pressed and glued into the end pieces. I tried to remove the barb and reset with epoxy but it was a no go. So I switched to a vertical bulb with single 90 (eliminating the tubing loop under the bulb) and this worked out for the best. If your size issues are vertical maybe this helps?

I understand your logic. But the squeeze bulb supplies ample pressure to do the full system right through the IP check valve and return line back to the tank.

[Stephen Oliver]

Rob

Just looking at your setup – Do you have a squeeze bulb on yours or just a drain line after the filters?

I’m thinking to keep mine reduced in size – I could get away with just a tee with a drain and as the tanks are higher than the filters, I could fill the filters by just opening the drain tap. If I have valves either side of the filters there should be little need for much priming when I change filters?

Interested to hear your thoughts

Steve

[Stephen Oliver]

Further to the rudder thing I think the photo angle makes it worse than it is. I don’t have any full side on pics, but the following video (again prior to a lot of work) shows the side profile at about 1m 21s. The rudders are not really far forwards, but certainly not back as far as they could go. With the integrated swim platform the rear swings a bit when turning but it’s not too bad to deal with.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/mLQ1QqJ6K4DcdF1o9

Steve

[Stephen Oliver]

Again thanks Rob

Yes she was extended at the factory we think. We also think it took a big hit at some point early in it’s life and the factory repaired it and extended at the same time. As far as I know the rudders were moved back along with everything else. The extension was about 3 to 4 ft just to the rear deck.. which in itself caused some issues.. side exit exhausts have wierd spray pattern which pushes soot all up the rear quarter of the integrated swim platform.. another thing on my list to sort… They should have just done rear exit..

The silver disk’s I will have to confirm, but I think they are just an oil spec info disk ie telling you to use 15w50 or whatever… From memory anyway. I didn’t pay much attention

Thanks for confirming the mixed material should be ok. Just didn’t want to end up with rust everywhere! Also didn’t want to go bankrupt buying stainless! I’m already looking at close to 600-700aud for fittings and pipe excluding heads and filters. Stainless would be several thousand…

Steve

[Rob Schepis]

I see no issue with the combo of fuel fitting materials (unless you run a lot of seawater in your fuel!)

Thanks for the boat/engine pics. I notice the rudder placement in quite a bit from the transom, was she extended?

What are the silver discs on the rocker covers? (no. 3 cyl port and no. 2 cyl stbd)

[Stephen Oliver]

Sorry Guys

Another question. What sort of fittings are you using? ZP steel, brass or a combination. I’m finding it hard going finding non ZP steel fittings for anything other than tees and adaptors. I guess as long as the fittings stay dry and non salty the ZP steel should be ok?

Steve

[Stephen Oliver]

wow that really isnt deep V! Looks very much like a riviera shaped hull and layout inside (full floor access to the engines) but definitly flat at the back!

I could probably open up access on mine but would involve a lot of cutting propping etc and making brackets to suit the beams being dropped in. I’d also need to reroute the gas line (for cooking) as that runs along the beam as the aus standards state it has to be a single piece. Certainly not worth the hassle yet… I have a million jobs I want to do first.

Ours is about 18 Deg at the rear.. need it for the general seas we get here. Surprisingly she has a very smooth transition onto the plane (at around 11 knots ish) and seems to be pretty efficient. I’m averaging a little under 60L/h for both engines cruising between 2200 and 2400 rpm (16-18kts) – boat is 11t dry – 1/2t water and .8t for fuel so a shade over 12t all up.

Talking about this… we really should have a section on here for people to intro themselves and their boats 🙂 I know its not the usual technical stuff.. but I find it fascinating seeing others boats and what they have done / doing to them…

Steve

Pictures – Engine bay – old one from when we were buying – lots fixed / repaired / cleaned since then, but still working on the risers.. ! Underside from last october when we last antifouled.. this was just prior to antifouling and we were just primering the patches in the antifoul.

[Author]

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