Fuel system Bleed Issues

M

Morgan Jane

Active Member
Sep 10, 2010
423
Occoquan, VA
Boat Info
2008 55 Sundancer
Engines
Man 900's
I am at a total loss as to how to my fuel filters properly. Each engine has a double Racors, then a wall mounted MAN wall mounted fuel filter, then to dual Pre-filters on the engine. There is a hand priming pump between the MAN wall mounted Fuel Filter and the engine Pre-filters. Can someone walk me thru how I'm supposed to replace all the fuel filters and get everything back on line. I got it all back up and running but I don't think my method was right. I had to refill the Racors thru the top in order to get things primed back. Doesn't seem right that I had to go out and buy additional fuel to fill the Racors. The Racors are located on the wall about half way up the height of the fuel tank. The Man wall mounted Fuel Filter is located on the wall but lower than the Racors. The engine Pre-filters are basically the same height as the Racors.
The order in the chain is Fuel tank, Dual Racors, MAN wall mounted filter, then 2 MAN engine filters. Should I be able to just pull the Racors out and put a new filter back in and not lose prime? Taking the bleeder screw off the top of the Starboard MAN wall filter, fuel would flow once the Racor was filled high enough. But on the Port side, I never got flow from Racor to MAN wall filter. Used hand pump to fill engine filters up with bleeders off till fuel flowed. Still had to turn engines over for while for them to eventually start. Something just seems amiss.

Bill
 
@carterchapman This might get some better traction in the Diesel Engine threads, and hopefully some of the MAN owners will chime in here as each engine has its own procedures/best practices. If you have them both back up and running smoothly, you've done well.

As far as Racors, I refill the the Racors by hand with fresh clean diesel to get all the air out of them and yeah its a little messy. I use the hand pump on my CAT's to fill the on engine filters. Its a lot of pumping and takes a while, but works.
 
Thanks for the reply. I should have stated my issue more clearly. I too poured clean new diesel into Racors. But is that how we are supposed to do it? Can we not pull out a Racor and put in a new one without having to go out and buy some diesel at a fuel station and bring it to the boat? I'm thinking we must be able to pull the Racors out and Prime somehow from the boat fuel. Thanks again for you reply.
 
Refilling racors by hand is how I have always done it. I have heard some say if the racor is mounted lower than the fuel level in the tank, it will gravity fill. Never had mine do that.

Bennett
 
No reason you can't use the hand pump to pump the racors full. Its just a lot more hand priming. If you had to replace at sea with no fresh diesel readily available, that's how you would have to do it. Depending on your priming pump it could be a lot of pumping/work. Same goes for on engine filters. Some guys fill them up as well before installing them.

For us CAT owners, the hand pumps are a weak link and tend to leak, so the less we have to pump the better off we are!
 
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