I have a Yanmar 1GM and put about 80 hours a year on the engine. I changed both fuel filters (Fram and Yanmar) last spring. The old filters were completely clean. Filled the tank for winter storage. Is it necessary to change the filters this spring? It's a messy job and the hours on the engine are small. What do others do?
thanks
jim
james.jamieson@yale.edu
Fram Filter Change Frequency
Moderator: Jim Walsh
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John MacArthur
Re: Fram Filter Change Frequency
I put a small vacuum guage on the top of the cannister (much cheaper from Graingers), and now change the filter when the vacuum reaches about 5 psi.jim jamieson wrote: I have a Yanmar 1GM and put about 80 hours a year on the engine. I changed both fuel filters (Fram and Yanmar) last spring. The old filters were completely clean. Filled the tank for winter storage. Is it necessary to change the filters this spring? It's a messy job and the hours on the engine are small. What do others do?
John MacArthur
CD-30 "Stork"
Taos, NM
jmac@laplaza.org
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Randy Bates
Re: Fram Filter Change Frequency
Please explain the use of the vacuum guage. Vacuum, psi? Ones a vacuum, ie inches of mercury and the other, psi, is a unit of positive pressure. I'm confused, so please clarify as I have a CD25D with the 1GM10 and am interested.
randy.bates@baesystems.com
John MacArthur wrote:I put a small vacuum guage on the top of the cannister (much cheaper from Graingers), and now change the filter when the vacuum reaches about 5 psi.jim jamieson wrote: I have a Yanmar 1GM and put about 80 hours a year on the engine. I changed both fuel filters (Fram and Yanmar) last spring. The old filters were completely clean. Filled the tank for winter storage. Is it necessary to change the filters this spring? It's a messy job and the hours on the engine are small. What do others do?
John MacArthur
CD-30 "Stork"
Taos, NM
randy.bates@baesystems.com
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Larry DeMers
Re: Fram Filter Change Frequency
Not really. PSI and inches of Hg are measuring the same thing in this instance anyway -pressure. Both can be used to measure pressure or or the lack of it (vacuum).
That is the idea here. A sensitive vacuum gauge on the Racor filters top will tell you when the engine is drawing a vacuum due to the filter being plugged with debris in it's media. If the media were new, there would be little to no vacuum showing on the gauge, as the incoming fuel will relieve that vacuum. When the media gets plugged up, less fuel will get through the media, allowing some vacuum to be measured. This number will climb as the media continues to clog up..ergo, it's time to switch filter elements. It is a pretty useful indicator of the state of the filter media's condition.
Cheers,
Larry DeMers
s/v DeLaMer
CD30 on Lake Superior
demers@sgi.com
That is the idea here. A sensitive vacuum gauge on the Racor filters top will tell you when the engine is drawing a vacuum due to the filter being plugged with debris in it's media. If the media were new, there would be little to no vacuum showing on the gauge, as the incoming fuel will relieve that vacuum. When the media gets plugged up, less fuel will get through the media, allowing some vacuum to be measured. This number will climb as the media continues to clog up..ergo, it's time to switch filter elements. It is a pretty useful indicator of the state of the filter media's condition.
Cheers,
Larry DeMers
s/v DeLaMer
CD30 on Lake Superior
Randy Bates wrote: Please explain the use of the vacuum guage. Vacuum, psi? Ones a vacuum, ie inches of mercury and the other, psi, is a unit of positive pressure. I'm confused, so please clarify as I have a CD25D with the 1GM10 and am interested.
John MacArthur wrote:I put a small vacuum guage on the top of the cannister (much cheaper from Graingers), and now change the filter when the vacuum reaches about 5 psi.jim jamieson wrote: I have a Yanmar 1GM and put about 80 hours a year on the engine. I changed both fuel filters (Fram and Yanmar) last spring. The old filters were completely clean. Filled the tank for winter storage. Is it necessary to change the filters this spring? It's a messy job and the hours on the engine are small. What do others do?
John MacArthur
CD-30 "Stork"
Taos, NM
demers@sgi.com
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Bob Dugan
Re: Fram Filter Change Frequency
Jim,
My Yanmar diesel class notes are on the boat, but I think you are supposed to change both fuel filters at the end of every season. More frequently if you are putting a lot of hours on your engine. There's a really good reason for this because bad fuel is one of the main sources of problems for a diesel.
The engine probably isn't going to crap out on you on a calm sunny day as you are motoring up to a mooring... it's going to quit when you are motoring through pounding wind and waves, getting tossed around so that the fuel in your tank is mixing with debris that may have settled at the bottom. It's in this scenario that you want to have a very nice clean pair of filters to catch the crud before it stalls your engine.
I don't think that putting a pressure gauge on the fuel line to see when the filter starts clogging up is a good idea if your intent is to reduce the frequency of filter changes. If it's the end of the season, you should replace the filters regardless. If you are putting a lot of hours on the engine in a single season, then you should do it more frequently. You want to be proactive and replace the fuel filters before they start clogging up.
Since you are putting 80 hours on your engine a year, you should also probably check the engine maintenance schedule which comes with the 1GM. There's a bunch of stuff that you are supposed to do at 50 hours as well.
Good luck!
bdugan@stepzero.com
My Yanmar diesel class notes are on the boat, but I think you are supposed to change both fuel filters at the end of every season. More frequently if you are putting a lot of hours on your engine. There's a really good reason for this because bad fuel is one of the main sources of problems for a diesel.
The engine probably isn't going to crap out on you on a calm sunny day as you are motoring up to a mooring... it's going to quit when you are motoring through pounding wind and waves, getting tossed around so that the fuel in your tank is mixing with debris that may have settled at the bottom. It's in this scenario that you want to have a very nice clean pair of filters to catch the crud before it stalls your engine.
I don't think that putting a pressure gauge on the fuel line to see when the filter starts clogging up is a good idea if your intent is to reduce the frequency of filter changes. If it's the end of the season, you should replace the filters regardless. If you are putting a lot of hours on the engine in a single season, then you should do it more frequently. You want to be proactive and replace the fuel filters before they start clogging up.
Since you are putting 80 hours on your engine a year, you should also probably check the engine maintenance schedule which comes with the 1GM. There's a bunch of stuff that you are supposed to do at 50 hours as well.
Good luck!
jim jamieson wrote: I have a Yanmar 1GM and put about 80 hours a year on the engine. I changed both fuel filters (Fram and Yanmar) last spring. The old filters were completely clean. Filled the tank for winter storage. Is it necessary to change the filters this spring? It's a messy job and the hours on the engine are small. What do others do?
thanks
jim
bdugan@stepzero.com