Niles - I do not blame you. I recently had an annoying fuel leak after I replaced the filer/water separator. I had to remove the upper section and discovered that the painted surface where the upper seal rests on - the paint had fallen off making it an uneven surface. I sanded off the remaining paint with 400 grit sand paper - washed everything and re-installed it. No more leaking now or in the future. Other than cost - what is your reason to replace it?

The one advantage would be that it is a drop in filter. Changing it, especially in difficult conditions, would be quite simple. I am not sure it fits easily. I know a former owner who put in a drop in filter assembly that had to move the raw water strainer to make room. I do not know if it was this particular Racor model.

We just replaced our factory OEM Racor spin on with a 500MA. We also moved the filter from under the quarter berth and located it into the engine compartment onto the starboard bulkhead just above the access panel door with a new fuel line right back to the tank.

Replacement filter cost and availabity was one of the driving factors with this change. Addtionally I can now drain the seperator via the access door on the starboard side right into a small water bottle without having to take anything apart to access it which we felt made things a little easier.

Changing the filter will be a very easy job now with virturally no diesel spilled with the drop in style filter.

As an aside at the same time we replaced and relocated the OEM water strainer into the engine compartment with a bronze Groco one that took a bunch of hose that snaked around the engine and heat exchanger out of the equation.

Regards,

Brett

Bret
Please post photos in you can. I can not visualize what you did.

Hi Mike,

Here is a picture of the relocated filters on our boat.

Cheers,

Brett

Brett nice install. That water hose looks like fresh water plumbing hose. I don't think it is rated for use in a hot engine room though is it?

Thanks Bud. When we were working through this I ran through it all with our local Surveyor and he recommended the clear reinforced hose for the raw water side - we didn't want any issues once we were done.

We had to replace our heat exchanger mounts so we had to remove all of the raw water hoses that Catalina installed originally to get at the mounts for the Hx- so we now don't have the water lines "snaking" around the engine the way it was originally which I think is a big improvement as they were starting to chafe a little - in the areas I didn't put extra hose around. We we see how this all works out as we are leaving Toronto and sailing around to Georgian Bay at the end of the month.

Cheers,

Brett

[QUOTE=Ceiba;18075]Thanks Bud. When we were working through this I ran through it all with our local Surveyor and he recommended the clear reinforced hose for the raw water side - we didn't want any issues once we were done.

[/QUOTE]

Time to find a new surveyor...;) That hose should not really be used in an engine space nor should they be used for below water applications.. I have numerous examples of them cracking or softening in engine spaces. In one incident the interior wood work and cabin sole were ruined when a crack in clear reinforced PVC partially filled the boat with water before the owner caught it.. On another boat the hose had engine oil on it and I literally pressed my thumb through it.. Also plasticized PVC (clear PVC is heavily plasticized) does not do well with propylene glycol the stuff we use for winterizing engines as it can make it brittle...

Ideally you want at least a wire reinforced wet exhaust type hose like Trident #100-250..

Here is what most makers of clear reinforced PVC hose say about it:
[B]
NOT RECOMMENDED FOR BELOW WATERLINE THRU-HULL CONNECTIONS.[/B]