Fuel water separator Diesel

[dgetswet]

Quick question I'm sure any diesel mechanic can answer. Something I am not.
I have a Racor 900ma with a 2040-30 filter for my 2004 Perkins Sabre M300TI. On the motor I have a Wix 33547 fuel/water separator

Now I was told to only replace the 2040-30 with a new 2040-10 along with the rubber gaskets. I was told to fill the reservoir to the top and seal it This person said not to change the Wix filter this year. He also said I will have to bleed the system if I change the Wix filter not the racor.

Can anyone lend some advise on this manor. The 2 filters were changed in 2018 and the boat did not get many hours on it last year at all.

Thanks to all in advance for giving any knowledge I can get. Always trying to do things on this boat right.

[RobS]

That wix part number is for a 150 micron rating. Are you sure it is the filter Perkins recommends? At that rating it is not doing anything useful and it's all about your Racor so I agree to switch down to the 10 micron in the Racor. Learn how to do this yourself and keep spares on board.

[cdsailor]

Does your on-engine filter look like this?:

If it does, that's a 5 micron filter that cross references with what appears to be the original Perkins part number, which seems to be Perkins 35412. Check this out: https://www.fleetfilter.com/filter/33546.html

You should, of course, verify this, but maybe this gets you headed in the right direction - if it's not the exact info you need.

Often, on-engine filters are rated no higher than 30 microns. Installing 10 micron filters in your Racors was a good move. Now you need to find out if the fuel system is adequately protected by whatever filter is on the engine. If it doesn't meet Perkins specs for micron rating, you should replace it with the proper filter. Even if you have to bleed the fuel system, a skill worth acquiring anyway.

[RobS]

Just to avoid some terminology confusion - your "primary" filtration is the off-engine filtration that is installed in the boat, such as a Racor or a multi-stage setup. It's considered primary because that is the first line of defense and the one you want to be doing basically all of the work. If you have a single Racor or such then the on-engine filter would be secondary and is often referred to as your last chance filter.

[cdsailor]

Thanks, Rob S. I've simplified the language in my post to avoid confusion. Somewhere/Somehow I learned that all engines come with factory-supplied, on-engine primary filters, to which many builders/owners like to add a secondary filter. But, absolutely, those add-on filters - Racors or whatever - generally perform the primary filtration, leaving the on-engine "primaries" left to do little work. That said, if Don's on-engine filter is 5 microns and he's running 10 microns in the Racor, then those on-engine filters are, indeed, primaries.