Fuel lines (copper vs. USCG approved A1 rubber)

[Parrot Adventure]

Hi all -- I need guidance on our 1981 36 DC's fuel line configuration. Please see the attached rough drawing I made of our boat's fuel line systems. I was talking with the folks at American Diesel last week about a related fuel line part, and I explained our current fuel line system layout goes:

From the tanks to a tee, to a Racor 500 primary fuel filter, then to another tee, one line of which supplies the Ford Lehman and the other line supplies the smaller Racor filter ahead of the 3.5 KW genset. American Diesel was concerned the genset would starve the Lehman, could introduce air into the system, and the Lehman and genset should EACH have their own dedicated fuel lines rather than the genset teeing off of the mainline which supplies the Lehman. All of the existing fuel lines are original 5/16" copper tubing and exhibit some green patina corrosion. In the very least, I'm thinking of replacing the existing copper tubing downstream of the Racor 500 primary fuel filter with 5/16" USCG-approved fuel line to the Lehman fuel lift pump.

Looking ahead, and to have the Lehman and genset on their own fuel lines, I am tentatively thinking of re-plumbing the fuel lines to have the port fuel tank pickup supply only the genset, and the starboard fuel tank only supply the Ford Lehman. Both the port and starboard tanks have a common 5/16" copper line which links them at the bottom of each tank, so even if I run the Lehman solely off the starboard tank, fuel from the port tank would automatically transfer to the starboard tank, and vice versa from the starboard tank to the port tank (when I only run the genset).

Any thoughts or feedback is most welcomed. Thanks, Mark

[jleonard]

My genset has been teed into the main engine supply since 1983. 4500 engine hours 2400 gen hours. Never been a problem.
My ex boat was that way also.

[mike66]

My single engine 40 is plumbed the way you are thinking of.

[psneeld]

I am with Jay on this one...I put a manifold between 2 Racor 500s which feed both engine and genset ....essentially tank to Racor to manifold to whatever. Never a problem.

Also because I replaced my fuel tanks with poly tanks and didn't have easy returns from the engine and genset, I just plumbed them back into the manifold as the Lehman and Westerbeke has such little return fuel I didn't see it as an issue.

I now just swap between tanks and filters and can easily change one while running off the other.

System has worked fine for 3 round trips from Nj to Fl and return.

[mike66]

I like that idea...fuel has already been filtered, so sounds good.