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From: (no name) (no email)
Date: Mon May 16 2005 - 11:09:39 EDT
In a message dated 5/16/2005 7:48:37 AM Eastern Daylight Time,
writes:
>
> ahhhhh,
> thats good to know Norm, thanks for the tip. I am having some work done
> on the boat, I will check to see if the pickup is too high, and have it
> lowered if needed.
>
> thanks!
>
If possible, have a well made on the bottom of the tank that will allow water
to collect in it and then suck fuel from the bottom of this well. Otherwise,
do whatever it takes to suck the fuel from the bottom most part of the tank.
Whatever the suction line leaves behind will be the demon in the tank waiting
to get you just when it will do the most damage.
I never have any trauma when the boat starts tossing around because there is
no reservoir of glop in the tank to get stirred up and suddenly foul the
filters.
I vividly recall the shrimper I talked to on the VHF years ago when I was on
a tanker in the Gulf of Mexico. He was dead in the water because of fouled
fuel filters and a consequently dead battery from priming the fuel system with
his starter motor with each filter change until the batteries were flat. This
is a story that is repeated often and needlessly.
Big lesson: Suck your fuel from the very bottom of your tank to minimize
glop in the tank and install an electric priming pump to use when changing
filters.
I presume you have two fuel filters, a primary such as a Racor, and a
secondary on the engine. Use the tightest filter elements available in each one.
Some folks use a looser one in the Racor and a tight one in the secondary (the
one on the engine) but then you have two filters to change.
I use the engine-mounted filter as a backup to catch any debris released when
changing the Racor element. I travel about 3,400 miles per year, which is
1700 gallons of fuel, and find I change my Racor (I have the 1000 size) three or
four times. The engine mounted one I change when the engine tells me to. It
rarely fouls because all it picks up is the debris released when I change the
Racor.
I have gauges, (zero center, plus and minus 15 psi), on the input and output
of the Racor to be able to see the resistance, the amount of fouling, of the
Racor. This allows me to change it, if needed, before it affects the engine,
like before we enter a dicey area such as the East River and Hell Gate, but not
until then.
Norm
S/V Bandersnatch
Lying St Augustine
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