I decided it was time to change the primary Racor fuel filters and
the secondary fuel filter on the Perkins 4.236. They didn't need
changing but I was concerned they were getting old. I hadn't changed
the fuel filters since I bought the boat three years ago. It took me
a few hours to do this and three days to find what I had done wrong.
The secondary fuel filter on the Perkins is a cartridge element open
at the top and bottom. There is a top housing bolted to the engine
with a bolt which screws into a bottom cover. The replacement filter
came with two flat rubber washers, I naturaly put one on the top and
the other on the bottom. After much verbal consternation I finally
discovered that the top housing already has a smaller rubber washer
recessed into a groove in the top housing. The flat washer I had put
on top of the filter element had covered an open area between the
filter canister and the filter itself. The flow back up out of the
filter was completely sealed off by the washer! Everything was fine
after I removed the washer.
There were several lessons here for me. First is that when something
doesn't work trying over and over again isn't fruitful. The second
is that when something doesn't work is to undo what you did and then
do it over again watching carefully what you do. I isolated the
secondary filter by disconnecting the inlet fuel pipe and observing
fuel spurting out when I pump the priming lever on the fuel
pump. Reconnecting that line and disconnecting the inlet to the
injector pump revealed that no fuel came out when the priming lever
was pumped. A third lesson is not to put in more new washers than
old ones you removed. The final lesson is to replace that type of
fuel filter with a regular canister filter using an adapter kit.
The good news is that now I am intimately familiar with the engine's
fuel system and how to prime it.
Phil Keys
Kathy K Willard 36, hull #34
Port Hadlock, WA 98339
philm@keysfamily.org
I decided it was time to change the primary Racor fuel filters and
the secondary fuel filter on the Perkins 4.236. They didn't need
changing but I was concerned they were getting old. I hadn't changed
the fuel filters since I bought the boat three years ago. It took me
a few hours to do this and three days to find what I had done wrong.
The secondary fuel filter on the Perkins is a cartridge element open
at the top and bottom. There is a top housing bolted to the engine
with a bolt which screws into a bottom cover. The replacement filter
came with two flat rubber washers, I naturaly put one on the top and
the other on the bottom. After much verbal consternation I finally
discovered that the top housing already has a smaller rubber washer
recessed into a groove in the top housing. The flat washer I had put
on top of the filter element had covered an open area between the
filter canister and the filter itself. The flow back up out of the
filter was completely sealed off by the washer! Everything was fine
after I removed the washer.
There were several lessons here for me. First is that when something
doesn't work trying over and over again isn't fruitful. The second
is that when something doesn't work is to undo what you did and then
do it over again watching carefully what you do. I isolated the
secondary filter by disconnecting the inlet fuel pipe and observing
fuel spurting out when I pump the priming lever on the fuel
pump. Reconnecting that line and disconnecting the inlet to the
injector pump revealed that no fuel came out when the priming lever
was pumped. A third lesson is not to put in more new washers than
old ones you removed. The final lesson is to replace that type of
fuel filter with a regular canister filter using an adapter kit.
The good news is that now I am intimately familiar with the engine's
fuel system and how to prime it.
Phil Keys
Kathy K Willard 36, hull #34
Port Hadlock, WA 98339
philm@keysfamily.org
