I Replaced the Racor filter
I bought my boat used and it had a Racor filter before the fuel pump. I noticed that it had the plastic bowl and was concerned about the safety of a plastic bowl. The surveyor said that he thought it was OK even though Racor and other sources said only metal bowls should be used on inboard gas engines.
While checking for gas leaks due to an odor in the cabin, I found that the plastic bowl was somewhat loose fitting. I turned the bowl to tighten the fit and found, to my great surprise, that the bowl fell off in my hand! The plastic threads had become quite soft (probably as a result of some fuel additive). I'm glad that didn't happen while the engine was running!
After removing the bowl and filter element, I decided to replace the entire Racor unit with a new filter mount and single-piece metal spin-on water-separator element. I did not like the look of the Racor element, which keeps fuel in the filter by means of an o-ring on the top and bottom of the element. More joints = greater leak potential in my opinion. Plus, Racor replacement elements are far more expensive than other filters I researched.
I bought my boat used and it had a Racor filter before the fuel pump. I noticed that it had the plastic bowl and was concerned about the safety of a plastic bowl. The surveyor said that he thought it was OK even though Racor and other sources said only metal bowls should be used on inboard gas engines.
While checking for gas leaks due to an odor in the cabin, I found that the plastic bowl was somewhat loose fitting. I turned the bowl to tighten the fit and found, to my great surprise, that the bowl fell off in my hand! The plastic threads had become quite soft (probably as a result of some fuel additive). I'm glad that didn't happen while the engine was running!
After removing the bowl and filter element, I decided to replace the entire Racor unit with a new filter mount and single-piece metal spin-on water-separator element. I did not like the look of the Racor element, which keeps fuel in the filter by means of an o-ring on the top and bottom of the element. More joints = greater leak potential in my opinion. Plus, Racor replacement elements are far more expensive than other filters I researched.
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