Jump to content

Fuel polisher


Guest

Recommended Posts

Parker/Racor are selling a fuel polishing module.Seems to me its just a fuel pump that circulates your tank through your existing prefilter anytime you are not using the engine.Seems to me you could do this yourself with a suitable pump and a valve or two.Has anyone done it?What might be the pitfalls?Air in the fuel line?

Link to post
Share on other sites

It's being totaly over the top for most of us, but I know a few in the US that do this. :roll: But yes, it is simply a fuel pump and two filters and a a couple of valves that you can bypass the fuel line and circulate the fuel around through the filters back to the tank.

If you have a clean tank to start with, add a little diesel conditioner which should have a Biocide in it and you only have to check your ordinary filter bowl for water as you normally would and replace your filter each year. You should have no problem.

For very large commercial veesels, it can be handy, but waaay bigger vessels than ours.

Link to post
Share on other sites

Hi I have seen a couple of live aboard ex diesel mechanics running this setup, another benefit if its plumbed in correctly is that you can switch between racors while motoring to change a filter, as they say you filter is only going to block up if you tankls are being really shaken about, which is exaclty when you dont want to change the filter loose power....

 

I dont think its overkill at all, and its probably cheaper then a good sea anchor setup, yet you can use it all the time.

 

The guy said his fueal may have been polished several times before use.

Link to post
Share on other sites

So what size engine installations are we talking about RnB??

Starting at around $600 and going much higher, per unit and being fairly large in size for even the smallest one, it's not going to be something most Sailing vessels will need. Which by the way, those proper commercially available fuel polishing systems can be anywhere from $4K to $6K.

Plus most sailing vessels get their tanks stirred regularly and so they should not be full of crap anyway. Thats the kind of thing you find on old stinkpots that has a skipper that can't be bothered with maintenance. The guys that do install these things, tend to be on top of maintenance and so don't need them anyway. Where these installations come into good use is in large vessels, both Sail and power, with huge fuel capacity and multiple tanks where the polishing system is part of the filtering system and control of tanks.

The filter elements in Racors can be changed while engine is running. So you don't need the sophisticated change over system.

So hence my view of overkill for most of us.

A simple rule of Fuel bug, no water, no bug. Keep the water out of the tank. Which means keeping an eye on the filter bowl, draining it when needed, and replace the filter once a year.

Link to post
Share on other sites

Wheels,tell us how to change the racor element without stopping the engine.Seems to me,when I extract the element,the fuel level will fall and the electric pump will suck air.

Link to post
Share on other sites

My under standing of diesel motors, is quite limited, but I thought the fuel pump pumped much more fuel than the motor needed and so the extra fuel that is pumped though cools the injectors, so you are already getting the fuel "polished"

Link to post
Share on other sites

The Fuel Inlet is at the top and it flows down the center and is then "spun" as it comes off a plastic "unbrella" looking thing. That swirls the fuel, which is supposed to help sperate the fuel and water.The water drops to the bottom and the Fuel then goes through the filter and exits someways down the housing. You can shut the fuel valve at the tank, remove the filter top, withdraw the old filter and without too much messing around, insert the new filter and fit the top, and open the valve before the fuel has been exhausted from the filter. The only engine that this would not work on is the 2stroke GM, as they are cycling a huge amount of fuel.

Which to answer w44, it depends on the engine. But most of the engines we will find in sailboats do not return a great deal of fuel. The return is a means of getting rid of fuel that did not quite make it through the injector before the valve seated again. Some makes just dribble a bit of fuel. A couple of engines have a little more complex injector and the fuel ends up in the wrong side of the seat. The result is that it then hydraulicly keeps the seat closed and the injector won't open an the engine stops. And then you have the GM which has a completely different system again. They do not have a seperate injector pump. Each injector is also its own pump and so the fuel is also cooling and lubricating the injector.

Link to post
Share on other sites

Allan, what is your recommendation for a good diesel conditioner / biocide. I have noticed some black gunge collecting in the bottom of my filter. Iv'e kept the tank topped up and havn't had any water collecting in the bowl but so far havn't used any conditioner. What are your thoughts on the magnetic system of killing fuel bugs?

Link to post
Share on other sites

Just to add my two cents, iv worked as an engineer aboard big cruise ships in the med. We have very complex fuel filtering systems including centrifugal seperators as the filters and the like.. But thats talking large scale fuel systems - we burned through 120 tonnes of HFO a day on the high speed runs... For a small scale yacht? Dont even think about it. Diesel is highly highly refined compared to crude HFO, why do you think you pay so much for it?

Link to post
Share on other sites

Steve, BNT have a good one. The biocides are usually all the same ingredient, so anything will do as long as it has the Biocide. The conditioner is a little hokus pokus, so don't buy into that so much. I am pretty sure Chemtech do a very good one, in that it is a high concentration. So a small dose does a big tank. And I am pretty sure Supercheap stock Chemtech products.

 

As for the magnetic thingamyjig, it's the biggest piece of crock you can find. The so called inventor should be hung from a pole and the sellers of these things are either Nieve or just as unscrupulous. If a magnetic field can disrupt a Cell, then those of us that have an MRI are doomed to be torn apart in a really nasty horrific way. In fact that would make a great Horror movie.

Link to post
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...