Boat mounted fuel water seperator replacement

[Skin diver]

Manual says to replace at 50 hours maximum. I just saw this now and I'm at 60 hours on my engines. I'll be changing them now but wanted to know at what hours do you guys replace this? Since it states 50 hrs max. Seems like they don't last very long.

[Sequoiha]

Every 50 hours or six months, very cheap maintenance item,

[fairdeal]

i would call 50 hour replacement VERY conservative,

but given the horror stories of some owners' fuel system problems,

understandable for yamaha to recommend.

In reality, how long the filter "lasts" is completely a function of the character of the fuel going into it.

Good fresh fuel consumed regularly, clean sound tank, undegraded hoses?

Keep particulate & water out of the fuel and that filter will "last forever"

Boscoe has suggested the most elegant approach -

install before & after vacuum gauges, - CORRECTION - "one vacuum gauge" and change based on increased resistance across the filter

[boscoe99]

If changing filter elements on a straight hourly or calendar basis then you may be throwing away a perfectly good filter. Or, if you get a load of crap in your fuel you may be operating your motor using a clogged filter that got clogged before 50 hours.

Install a vacuum gauge in the outlet of the filter head. You can then readily determine if and when it is time to change the filter. Yamaha provides values for various types of motors. Just stay under the value for you motor and you will be just fine.

I ran a Racor two micron filter element with my Yamaha F200 and it did not need to be changed for several years. By the way, I changed it only because the shell was rusting and not because it was getting clogged up with debris inside.

[TownsendsFJR1300]

Manual says to replace at 50 hours maximum. I just saw this now and I'm at 60 hours on my engines. I'll be changing them now but wanted to know at what hours do you guys replace this? Since it states 50 hrs max. Seems like they don't last very long.

Are you talking about the YAMAHA UNDER COWL FILTER(as you mentioned manual)

OR an aftermarket transom mount spin on filter (as your header states) "Boat mounted fuel water seperator replacement"

Two different beasts...

[robert graham]

I dump my Attwood filter in a clear container a couple of times a year to check for water/debris....then either just screw it back on or replace it based on type/quantity of trash in it....usually replace cartridge about every 3 years anyway just to feel good about it. Each time I've replaced it I hacksaw the old cartridge and remove/inspect the paper element....and honestly it's always looked pretty much like new each time...but I'm confident there's very fine particles of debris caught in the paper element that are almost invisible that could be capable of plugging a carb jet, so I'm O.K. With the $8 for a new cartridge....

[Skin diver]

Are you talking about the YAMAHA UNDER COWL FILTER(as you mentioned manual)

OR an aftermarket transom mount spin on filter (as your header states) "Boat mounted fuel water seperator replacement"

Two different beasts...

Boat mounted Yamaha 10 micron filter. Manual is owners manual.

[Skin diver]

Which brand fuel vacuum gauge would you recommend? Is there one that's better or are they all about the same? Thanks

[zenoahphobic]

Vacuum gauge before and after needs to be weighed against them rusting etc and introducing leaks.

[boscoe99]

A vacuum gauge only needs to be installed after the filter. It can be mounted into the alternate output port of most filter heads. It will indicate the degree of clogging in the filter since the vacuum will rise (pressure will actually drop) as the filter offers more resistance to flow. When the resistance gets to a certain level, as indicated by the needle on the gauge rising, it will be time to change the filter.

The gauge will do more than monitor the filter. Anything that restricts the flow of fuel will show up. Could be a clogged screen on the pick up tube, a failing anti-siphon valve, a kink in a hose, a hose failing internally, breather vent to the tank becoming clogged, etc..

Here is the gauge that is offered by Racor, the filter maker.

TDS Industries - Racor RK11-1676E Vacuum Gauge

There are many, many choices available. It just depends upon what your budget is and what you want to do.

[TownsendsFJR1300]

That's pretty slick, tks for the link. Just have to make sure I have room for one!

[DennisG01]

I like this idea! Thanks, Boscoe. I'm putting this on my "to do list" for next year.

[zenoahphobic]

The more guages one has the more uses one thinks off, then the more we want.
I remember many decades ago, people convinced me that I needed an oil pressure guage, so I ripped out the simple pressure switch and put in a good well known brand of guage and merrily watched as it went up and down as the revs changed.
This was good I thought until I realised That I did not have a clue what I was supposed to see.
It became just another fancy thingy on my dashboard.
But after a couple of years it nearly ended my life!
The hose connection failed squinty oil at high pressure out of the engine, including my windscreen, and by the time it took me to stop, all 5 litres of it was out obscuring my vision and caught fire!

I did not put another new oil guage in my following new car.

With hindsight I realised that we were reaching the age of: "the more put into automobiles, the more can go wrong with it" era.

That era and associated paranoia lasted some forty years, although it is still said we now completely accept more and more complexities with everything, and that era has gone.

Where the moral to the story is that the OP wants to save some of the $8 for a filter having suggested to him to spend heaps more installing a guage ( or two if he did not know what readings he should expect ), and that doing this he will be able to detect a number of other various faults that will lead him into a frenzy needing to further questions of whether he has other problems.

Just throwing food for thought, I have never found pressure and vacuum guages reliable in the long term without eventually causing trouble. How do you bleed out the air in these lines.
There probably is though a future for semiconductor sensors.

[rodbolt17]

probably used that cheap kit with the plastic oil pressure line.

yep was a common autozone waste of money.

had you gone with a PROPER copper line with a strain relief it probably would have lasted much longer.

my 2500 4X4 chevy made it from 87 to 2005 (294K on the odometer) with no issues.

my choice would have been an electric sender/gauge with no oil line.

[DennisG01]

I like the idea of a fuel pressure (vacuum) gauge at the filter mount head because I can use it as a tool to help diagnose a fuel supply issue (on the supply-side, anyways). Granted, if I was having an issue, I could then hook up a gauge - but this way it's right there, directly mounted, all the time. I don't really care about saving the $10 per filter every year, but I would call it a nice "bonus". However, I do care about not wasting filters and changing them "just because". Not that I'm one of those big tree-hugger kind of people, but why waste it if you don't have to, you know?