LARGE sediment-bowl type fuel filter

[OM617YOTA]

Anyone know of a large fuel filter that uses a sediment bowl and drain? Something similar to this:

Goldenrod Water-Block Fuel Filter — 1in. Fittings, Model# 496 | Oil Filters Fuel Filters| Northern Tool + Equipment

For onboard usage? I have lots of room to mount it under my flatbed, and can easily build a protective housing around it.

I got another bad tank of fuel and am going through prefilters like crazy.

As an aside, do not EVER buy diesel at the Shell station near Roth's in Silverton, Oregon.

Thanks all.

[interzonearts]

I have this:

Kabota Fuel Filter R12T Parker Racor 120AT | eBay

[JB3]

biggest one for on road you are gonna find is going to be a Racor 1000FH turbine series. (think they updated the name, but we are talking a 2.5 foot tall fuel filter, they even come in triples for really big stuff)
smaller with same size huge sediment bowl is racor 900FH

a nice convenient size is the 500FG. All three are toploaders and super easy maintenance, plus can come with internal heaters. They are also big money though

Ive had a 500FG in more than one diesel, great filter, and the elements are cheap for long term savings

[OM617YOTA]

Originally Posted by interzonearts

I have this:

Kabota Fuel Filter R12T Parker Racor 120AT | eBay

Thank you! I like that.

Attached are pics of the prefilter I just removed, along with the current prefilter that was installed YESTERDAY, ~30 miles ago. I didn't get a shot of the bottom, but it's got about 1/4 the gunk the removed filter does, and is obviously discoloring.

I've also talked with the diesel burning guys here at work, they were in agreement on stations to avoid. One of them even went "You bought fuel at the Roth's Shell station, didn't you?"

Thanks for the suggestions and insights, everyone. I appreciate it.

[JB3]

here is what a racor 500FG looks like installed. This is in a 1.6 diesel mk2 vw

[OM617YOTA]

Originally Posted by JB3

here is what a racor 500FG looks like installed. This is in a 1.6 diesel mk2 vw

I like that, I could mount a couple of those under the flatbed real easy. Looks like around $200/ea for genuine Racor, $125 for an "aftermarket Racor Equivalent" and $100 for a China knockoff that's probably exactly the same thing as the "Racor Equivalent."

This bears further investigation. Thank you!

[JB3]

Originally Posted by OM617YOTA

I like that, I could mount a couple of those under the flatbed real easy. Looks like around $200/ea for genuine Racor, $125 for an "aftermarket Racor Equivalent" and $100 for a China knockoff that's probably exactly the same thing as the "Racor Equivalent."

This bears further investigation. Thank you!

no worries!

I have one in my van conversion under the hood. Ive been a big fan of the toploaders if you can get to the top easily where you intend to mount something like that. I ended up doing a big shutoff valve though to prevent fuel from draining or filling during a filter change

[mach4]

Originally Posted by OM617YOTA

Anyone know of a large fuel filter that uses a sediment bowl and drain? Something similar to this:

Goldenrod Water-Block Fuel Filter — 1in. Fittings, Model# 496 | Oil Filters Fuel Filters| Northern Tool + Equipment

For onboard usage? I have lots of room to mount it under my flatbed, and can easily build a protective housing around it.

I got another bad tank of fuel and am going through prefilters like crazy.

Racor makes a wide variety of water separator/filters. I used one on my Perkins-Vega swap years ago when I was burning the Mexican fuel ($0.18 per gallon) that was brown and milky with crud. Worked quite well.

At the other end of the spectrum, I'm pushing 50k miles on my prefilter and spin on filter on the SL - obviously pretty careful where I fuel up...it makes a difference.

You could also hook up a simple aux filter assembly using a remote oil filter housing and cheap PH8A filters and run that in series with a water separator. I might be inclined to include an electric boost pump which was dash operated for when the filters started to get clogged and the lift pump was having trouble, just to prevent getting stranded before being able to swap the filters.

In another application I used two tanks. I would fill the 80 gallon tank with fuel then pump it into the regular tank through a PH8A filter using an electric fuel pump to get out the big hunks and then use the polished fuel to feed the engine through the regular filters.

[funola]

Biggest killer of injection pump is water, not crud, which will just shut your engine down when your filters are appropriately clogged. If you are unfortunate enough to fill up at a station where you get inches of water at the bottom of your tank, the only thing that will save your IP is a functional water in fuel alarm or a floating pickup in your tank (until the pickup drops to the level of the water).

[JB3]

Originally Posted by funola

Biggest killer of injection pump is water, not crud, which will just shut your engine down when your filters are appropriately clogged. If you are unfortunate enough to fill up at a station where you get inches of water at the bottom of your tank, the only thing that will save your IP is a functional water in fuel alarm or a floating pickup in your tank (until the pickup drops to the level of the water).

the racor stuff at least will strip water. 3 stage filters for water removal. Pretty amazing how effective they are in removing water

[funola]

Originally Posted by JB3

the racor stuff at least will strip water. 3 stage filters for water removal. Pretty amazing how effective they are in removing water

Some filters use centrifuge action (must have high pressure fuel for it to work) to separate the water and drop it to the bottom bowl, some use corn starch impregnated filter elements to absorb water. The centrifuge will separate a lot more water than the corn starch, neither will help when there are gallons of water in the tank, only a water in fuel alarm will tell you you have water and shut the engine to investigate before damage to the IP begins.

[JB3]

Originally Posted by funola

Some filters use centrifuge action (must have high pressure fuel for it to work) to separate the water and drop it to the bottom bowl, some use corn starch impregnated filter elements to absorb water. The centrifuge will separate a lot more water than the corn starch, neither will help when there are gallons of water in the tank, only a water in fuel alarm will tell you you have water and shut the engine to investigate before damage to the IP begins.

seems to work just find on the turbine series. The spec for those filters is pretty darn low pressure. best result is to combine everything, I think most of these filters plus a WIF would be the best option

[Diesel911]

Originally Posted by OM617YOTA

Anyone know of a large fuel filter that uses a sediment bowl and drain? Something similar to this:

Goldenrod Water-Block Fuel Filter — 1in. Fittings, Model# 496 | Oil Filters Fuel Filters| Northern Tool + Equipment

For onboard usage? I have lots of room to mount it under my flatbed, and can easily build a protective housing around it.

I got another bad tank of fuel and am going through prefilters like crazy.

As an aside, do not EVER buy diesel at the Shell station near Roth's in Silverton, Oregon.

Thanks all.

Where I worked they bought a used Fuel Tanker Truck with the Large Tank that has scaly rust inside of it. It was used to drive around and fill the Fuel Tanks of the Refer Unit Diesel Generators.
We used a pair of the Golden Rod Filter that had what looks like the same Housing. However, we did not use the Water Blocking Elements we use something like 20 Micron Elements.

The Elements worked well but I dislike the Plastic Bowel.
In repeated Filter Changes (which I had to do a lot due to the rusty Fuel Tank the Fuel was coming from) the Plastic Bowel gets grabby when you unscrew and screw the Bowel in back in place.

If anything is gritty on the treads of the Bowel or the threads of the Housing things get worse fast and eventually.

After some use they do not seal well and because the Bowel is Plastic you cannot use like an Oil Filter Wrench on it to tighten it and when the Treads are worn enough that it gets grabby it will start go get hard to remove. And, as I said you cannot use a Wrench on it without the risk of cracking the Bowel.

In the application it was used in with Fuel Under Pressure (Due to like 1000 Gallons of Fuel above them) they eventually leaked and you could not tighten them to stop the leak.

When the Drain Petcock gets old and leaks you cannot tighten the Wing Nut on it hard as the Plastic Housing will Crack.

I think most of the Big Companies make a Similar Filter housing and they all make the Elements though I don't know if they make the Water Blocking Element.

Because the Tank Truck drove around in 40 Acres of Dirt and Dust the outside and crevices of the Filter were always filled with that. When you changed the Filter Element particles of rust got everywhere on the Housing making it difficult to keep grit out of the threads of the Housing or the Bowel.

Maybe they are great in a clean environment but I had no experience with them in a clean environment.

[OM617YOTA]

Originally Posted by Diesel911

Where I worked they bought a used Fuel Tanker Truck with the Large Tank that has scaly rust inside of it. It was used to drive around and fill the Fuel Tanks of the Refer Unit Diesel Generators.
We used a pair of the Golden Rod Filter that had what looks like the same Housing. However, we did not use the Water Blocking Elements we use something like 20 Micron Elements.

The Elements worked well but I dislike the Plastic Bowel.
In repeated Filter Changes (which I had to do a lot due to the rusty Fuel Tank the Fuel was coming from) the Plastic Bowel gets grabby when you unscrew and screw the Bowel in back in place.

If anything is gritty on the treads of the Bowel or the threads of the Housing things get worse fast and eventually.

After some use they do not seal well and because the Bowel is Plastic you cannot use like an Oil Filter Wrench on it to tighten it and when the Treads are worn enough that it gets grabby it will start go get hard to remove. And, as I said you cannot use a Wrench on it without the risk of cracking the Bowel.

In the application it was used in with Fuel Under Pressure (Due to like 1000 Gallons of Fuel above them) they eventually leaked and you could not tighten them to stop the leak.

When the Drain Petcock gets old and leaks you cannot tighten the Wing Nut on it hard as the Plastic Housing will Crack.

I think most of the Big Companies make a Similar Filter housing and they all make the Elements though I don't know if they make the Water Blocking Element.

Because the Tank Truck drove around in 40 Acres of Dirt and Dust the outside and crevices of the Filter were always filled with that. When you changed the Filter Element particles of rust got everywhere on the Housing making it difficult to keep grit out of the threads of the Housing or the Bowel.

Maybe they are great in a clean environment but I had no experience with them in a clean environment.

Re-reading the replies to this thread, I can't believe I missed yours! Thank you, this is VERY good information! My service won't be nearly that severe, but with what you've posted, I don't think Goldenrod is the direction I want to go. My new fuel tank should be here any time now and that should solve most of my fuel contamination problems.

[OM617YOTA]

FJF 500FG30 Diesel Marine Boat Fuel Filter Water Separator | eBay

Another option I found, these things are getting good reviews all over the web. Genuine Racor for roughly twice that cost.

So, new fuel tank, the filter linked above, and the CAT filter mod. I should be good to go for a very long time.