T&T: Air leak in Racors

[Faure, Marin]

>If I were you I would get at least 10 miles offshore and throw that
junk in the ocean,

Contrary to Bob's experience, everyone I know who has Racors (Model 500
and 900), which seems to be damn near every boat in our marina including
ours, has zero problems with them.

You don't say if this particular Racor is only in the fuel polishing
system or if it's also a (or the) filter for the engine itself.  If it's
in the fuel line to the engine and there are no bubbles in it when the
engine is running, and you have not had any problem with air getting
into the fuel feed to the engine (which you say you haven't), then I
would suspect the bubbles are coming from some component of  your
polishing system.

If the Racor is part of the polishing system only, and the only time
fuel is going through it is when you run that system, then the bubbles
could be an air leak in the filter from the places Bob calls out in his
post.  Or it could be another component of the fuel polishing system
like the pump, which I believe is more likely.

As far as the bubbles themselves go, if all you're doing is transferring
fuel from one tank to another I wouldn't think the presence of bubbles
in the fuel flow is any big deal since once the fuel is in the other
tank the bubbles will rise to the surface.  This situation is no
different than when you fill the tank, which puts a lot of air bubbles
into the fuel from the stream coming out the hose nozzle.  But these
bubbles are quickly gone.

______________________________
C. Marin Faure
GB36-403 "La Perouse"
Bellingham, Washington