I have some questions for your collective wisdom: what is the best fuel filter setup?
First of all, I have to admit I just bought a Sabre 38 (1986). We are en route home from Essex CT to Bass Harbor ME. We were going through fairly rough seas yesterday entering Buzzards Bay and the engine died - backed off on revs over a minute or so, then stopped. Restart would not go to high revs, and died. I figured it was the fuel filter, but we took a TowBoat US tow into New Bedford rather than mess around. I changed the filter and all seems fine.
The filter is a Racor 2010. Engine is a Westerbeke 33. Diesel tank was half full.
It turns out the PO had installed a 2 micron primary (there is no secondary). It looked fine - so no major crud. I have a 10 micron installed now, as I had a couple of these as spares. The local yard recommend 30 micron.
I could not figure out how to bleed the air, so I filled the housing to the top with diesel, and poured more in the top before inserting and tightening the top screw. I would not fancy doing that in rough seas.
So questions:
1) What micron rating filter?
2) Are there better new designs? I see Racor have spin-off models. Are these easier to change and bleed on the fly?
3) Should I have primary and secondary filters?
4) How best to bleed the air?
5) The Westerbeke W33 manual says it's self bleeding and essentially not to mess with the pump. What do you know of this?
Thanks,
Damian
Damian Greene
1982 C&C 34 Ghost (for sale)
1986 Sabre 38 Serenity (new name TBD)
Bass Harbor ME
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