Be wary of this boat! You are in for a rough time if the tanks are in bad shape. From personal experience I can tell you that if there is enough crud in the tanks the Racors WILL fail and pass the crud to the block mounted filters. Even with fresh filter elements. Once the crud is in the block mounted filters they too will fail and gunk up the works. The engines are now running very poorly and awaiting service. A shame, very low hours John Deeres.
The stuff in the 5 gal white bucket is what came out of the block mounted primary filter when I dumped it into the bucket, that's crud and water mixed. The stuff in the plastic water bottle is the first draining of the Racor bowl. The Racor bowl is self explanatory. I no longer trust Racors.
For those who are curious this wasn't my boat, it was a delivery. About 18 hrs from the dock we slowed for heavy weather. At about 33 hrs from the dock the John Deere 4045T engine panels reported water in the fuel. There were no vacuum gauges installed on the Racors to indicate their status. 2.5 hrs of struggling with Racors and block mounted filters later we limped into port at low speed. We cleaned everything as well as we could, sea trials, lots of spare filters and off we went again. For the remainder of the delivery in sloppy weather the Racors were drained every hour, every 3 hrs in good weather. The block mounted primaries were drained twice a day. The block mounted primaries showed no more crud but did show small amounts of water.
The owner had an offer on the boat but is now facing considerable expense getting it ready for sale. The tanks are original 1981 steel tanks. The seller has decided to accept a lower offer in lieu of opening and cleaning the tanks. I wish the buyer luck.
Putting money into a boat that you're not 100 percent on is a serious risk. Kind of makes it hard to walk away if something else is a no-go. Personally I would not do it.
I think the point that may be missed here is that the racors are very good seperator filters, but there is a limit to what any filter system will handle. Poor 5 to 10 gallons of water in most any of our fuel tanks, and it will pass through all the filters and shut the engine down.
Not to be to critical of you, but any old boat that I'm running for the first time, I will be checking the Racors regularly for contaminated fuel. When you get into heavy weather, you have to know everything in the bottom of the fuel tanks will be getting stirred up. If you're not going to stop, hourly Racor checks would be a priority.
Ted
JDCAVE,
Thanks for that.
How long did the job take? I need to do the same on IRENE - once the fuel is burned off a bit towards fall.
Did you need to replace the gasket under the cover you removed?
In my nearly 5 decades on the water as both a professional and recreational boater I have never felt that Racors are the best. What they are is the most common, meaning filter elements and parts are easily available nearly everywhere in North America.
For an expert's opinion on effective fuel filtration read this often posted link. Marine Fuel Filtration “The Seaboard Way”
Did they just paint the engines? What a difference from your fist post in this thread. They look great now.
I was thinking the same thing. I’m not sure, but I’m going to find out.
In my nearly 5 decades on the water as both a professional and recreational boater I have never felt that Racors are the best. What they are is the most common, meaning filter elements and parts are easily available nearly everywhere in North America.
For an expert's opinion on effective fuel filtration read this often posted link. Marine Fuel Filtration “The Seaboard Way”
..... I’ve got some reading to do. I have no idea what a a Racor is
The problem with the Racor system is the ABYC recommendation for the heat shield. It makes it pretty much impossible to see if you have water in it. The PO put petcocks on them but he gummed them up with pipe joint compound. I drain them when I replace the filters by siphoning out the fuel and tossing it in the disposal tank.
I believe that the boat the OP is looking at has a dual Racor system? I could have gotten lost in the thread though.
In my own ignorant opinion, a Dual Racor system is quite good as long as it is used properly. Sure the tanks should be cleaned and the fuel should be externally filtered before being used (or given away and fresh fuel be used after the tanks are cleaned). I would still expect some crud to get kicked up at first.
Running a dual Racor on one filter and having a vacuum gauge installed means you should be able to avoid any problems. However, the operator has to use it properly. I’d be checking the bowl on the active filter hourly at first looking for water and vacuum rise. If so, switch to the other filter and drain and change the first. Keep doing this until the problems don’t recur. A case of filters will do wonders for staying out of trouble.
The problem with the Racor system is the ABYC recommendation for the heat shield. It makes it pretty much impossible to see if you have water in it. The PO put petcocks on them but he gummed them up with pipe joint compound. I drain them when I replace the filters by siphoning out the fuel and tossing it in the disposal tank.
No mess in changing the racor. Just drain the housing through the petcock in the bottom of the bowl before removing the element.Visual inspection is somewhat overrated in my opinion concerning the Racor's and definitely not worth the trade off of the mess they create when changing, especially underway. If you have vacuum gauges with a drag needle and solid filters that have drains, it's a simple process to open and drain a few drops into a tupperware container and examine for water and crud. I removed my racor and replaced with filter heads and run solid spin on filters now with drains.