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Should I add a Racor filter or do FASS?
- Thread starter JStieger
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JCleary said:
You're on to something...
I looked in my engine compartment and took some quick measurements. I honestly don't know where the Racor will fit unless I want to dismantle it everytime I want to disconnect my boxes or work on the top and driver side of the engine! I may just relocate my Holley as close to the tank as possible and then the Racor on the frame rail with perhaps a bracket to tuck it up above the frame rail line and then to the stock canister then to the CP3 (since I have all the lines laid already from the canister to CP3 with the original Holley Blue install). The Racor literature says that the heater will turn on automatically when the fuel temp is 45 degrees or less. The Fleetguard 10 micron filter could be retained in the stock canister as a safety net I guess should the 2-micron Racor blow out...
Throwing out ideas...
jwduke said:
The wires are for the heater. There's another 1/2" port on the bottom for the WIF sensor, but I didn't get that option.
I still need to find a place to mount it. I haven't opened the hood yet to see if it would fit where Ryan mounted his filter (driver's side of block next to intake manifold pipe). Even though the assembly is 11" tall, I still need about 4" more clearance below it so that I can unscrew the filter and have it clear the mounting head. It looks like under the hood there is some vertical clearance between the hood and valve cover (for example) and guys do manage to fit twin turbos in there too... so we shall see. The main difference between Ryan's and my truck is that I have some performance boxes with their wiring harnesses taking up some space where Ryan mounted his filter.
In case anyone is interested, I ordered the filter from usdieselparts.com
690R122 fuel filter/water separator $215. 60
RK11861 heater relay kit $142. 61
Shipping $ 11. 79
---------------------------------------------
TOTAL $370. 00
Tax = $0 from Montana
Deciphering the Racor part #:
690R = non-primable filter head at 90 gph (490R = primable head)
12 = 12 volt heater (200 watts activated <45* and shuts off >75*)
2 = 2 micron
In hindsight, the relay kit is just a heavy duty relay so the electrically inclined could have made one for a lot cheaper (without actually trying it for myself).
Also, the total cost + holley blue pump ($100) + fittings/hose is at most the same price as a FASS, but probably (a lot ??) less with parts one can get from any auto/marine/heavy diesel shop... only drawback will be my time to fit everything together.
This will not be happening soon. It's cold outside and I don't have a garage or shop and I am kind of sick of working on my truck as of late after all the high pressure fuel system issues I've finally resolved. However, once completed I'll be sure to post a write-up and, who knows, maybe someone else will read this and get some ideas and save me tons of time (hint. . hint... hint!)
Update!
After finding that the RACOR will not fit in my engine compartment without being a major maintenance access nightmare, I decided that the fuel line routing will be stock pickup at tank via Dorman 3/8" quick connect -> 3/8" hose -> Holley -> RACOR -> 3/8" hose -> stock fuel filter canister. I'll may or may not keep the stock filter in the canister even though it will not do anything located after a 2 micron filter. I guess I am just kind of hoping that Fleetguard will come out with a 2-3 micron filter for the stock canister so that I can change the RACOR to say 10 micron. Anyhow...
I made up a wiring harness for the Holley and RACOR fuel heater today. In my current setup the Holley is pretty close to the stock wiring harness so I just increased the leads to fire up the Holley. This time around the Holley will be moved back about 13 feet so I am going to use separate relays for the heater and the Holley to ensure adequate volts and amperage gets to them. The relay harnesses will use the same Weatherpack connectors that I used for my earlier Holley pusher pump install to again ensure quick and easy circuit swaps.
The Holley relay will be activated via the stock lift pump harness to still ensure normal, stock-like operation. Does anyone know if the stock heater is fired off the lift pump harness too? Or should I go off a separate ignition hot source? Note that I had bought a Painless Cirkit Boss for this project, but its fuses are rated too low for the heater and might be marginal for the Holley... I was also a little worried about running a bunch of circuits off one 30-amp relay as in the Painless Harness. Oh well, the Painless Harness will find a use for... lights... mark my words!
I took tons of measurements and then, with duct-tape and a stapler ( :-laf ), made up a cardboard template for the bracket. One of my friends then made up the bracket for me. The bracket is going to hang off a bed mount like the FASS as suggested by TDR member "jvjump" earlier. Behind the Racor are 2 ears that are 4" x 4" with 2 holes @ 3/8" in each ear to attach to the bed mount. On top of the Holley portion of the bracket is a horizontal brace that goes from one 4" ear to the end of the bracket and is welded on all edges. The Holley mount part of the bracket is lower height than the RACOR mount part of the bracket in order to clear the fuel tank fill hose and to ensure that I can tuck this mount as high up as possible.
Below is a picture using an old Holley Blue pump. All fittings are 3/8" JIC or NPT using 3/8" diesel rated hose with the fittings being as gentle of a curve as possible to minimize flow restrictions. I had my friend weld on "captive" nuts onto the back of the bracket to mount the RACOR and Holley so I don't have to monkey around with loose nuts and bolts in the field for replacement. The way the Holley is sitting in the picture is level to slightly below the bottom of the fuel tank and slightly above the bottom frame rail to ensure adequate suction feed (and inadvertent "bump" protection) for it. Everything to the left after the Holley is all uphill to the fuel filter canister. BTW, yes the bracket was made out of scrap steel, but I don't care how it looks because it will hold and it is under the truck anyway :-laf !
Looking ahead I might decide to fab up a protective shield around the bracket to protect the RACOR and Holley, but looking underneath I do not see a lot of road debris coming up to this area and I haven't heard of any FASS systems having catastrophic shearing off of their filters in this location anyway.
All I'm waiting for now is a fuel pump relay harness and a new, spare Holley Blue from Summit as well as for this snow and slush to disappear for a day...
After finding that the RACOR will not fit in my engine compartment without being a major maintenance access nightmare, I decided that the fuel line routing will be stock pickup at tank via Dorman 3/8" quick connect -> 3/8" hose -> Holley -> RACOR -> 3/8" hose -> stock fuel filter canister. I'll may or may not keep the stock filter in the canister even though it will not do anything located after a 2 micron filter. I guess I am just kind of hoping that Fleetguard will come out with a 2-3 micron filter for the stock canister so that I can change the RACOR to say 10 micron. Anyhow...
I made up a wiring harness for the Holley and RACOR fuel heater today. In my current setup the Holley is pretty close to the stock wiring harness so I just increased the leads to fire up the Holley. This time around the Holley will be moved back about 13 feet so I am going to use separate relays for the heater and the Holley to ensure adequate volts and amperage gets to them. The relay harnesses will use the same Weatherpack connectors that I used for my earlier Holley pusher pump install to again ensure quick and easy circuit swaps.
The Holley relay will be activated via the stock lift pump harness to still ensure normal, stock-like operation. Does anyone know if the stock heater is fired off the lift pump harness too? Or should I go off a separate ignition hot source? Note that I had bought a Painless Cirkit Boss for this project, but its fuses are rated too low for the heater and might be marginal for the Holley... I was also a little worried about running a bunch of circuits off one 30-amp relay as in the Painless Harness. Oh well, the Painless Harness will find a use for... lights... mark my words!
I took tons of measurements and then, with duct-tape and a stapler ( :-laf ), made up a cardboard template for the bracket. One of my friends then made up the bracket for me. The bracket is going to hang off a bed mount like the FASS as suggested by TDR member "jvjump" earlier. Behind the Racor are 2 ears that are 4" x 4" with 2 holes @ 3/8" in each ear to attach to the bed mount. On top of the Holley portion of the bracket is a horizontal brace that goes from one 4" ear to the end of the bracket and is welded on all edges. The Holley mount part of the bracket is lower height than the RACOR mount part of the bracket in order to clear the fuel tank fill hose and to ensure that I can tuck this mount as high up as possible.
Below is a picture using an old Holley Blue pump. All fittings are 3/8" JIC or NPT using 3/8" diesel rated hose with the fittings being as gentle of a curve as possible to minimize flow restrictions. I had my friend weld on "captive" nuts onto the back of the bracket to mount the RACOR and Holley so I don't have to monkey around with loose nuts and bolts in the field for replacement. The way the Holley is sitting in the picture is level to slightly below the bottom of the fuel tank and slightly above the bottom frame rail to ensure adequate suction feed (and inadvertent "bump" protection) for it. Everything to the left after the Holley is all uphill to the fuel filter canister. BTW, yes the bracket was made out of scrap steel, but I don't care how it looks because it will hold and it is under the truck anyway :-laf !
Looking ahead I might decide to fab up a protective shield around the bracket to protect the RACOR and Holley, but looking underneath I do not see a lot of road debris coming up to this area and I haven't heard of any FASS systems having catastrophic shearing off of their filters in this location anyway.
All I'm waiting for now is a fuel pump relay harness and a new, spare Holley Blue from Summit as well as for this snow and slush to disappear for a day...
Or, you could do this similar to what I did for my Duramax. These two filters, feed into the stock unit, and then finally into a Kennedy Diesel Mega Filter, which is a mammoth 4 quart fuel filter (2 microns).
I figure after 4 filters, the fuel has to be clean. Probably will do it to the Dodge soon as well.
I figure after 4 filters, the fuel has to be clean. Probably will do it to the Dodge soon as well.
Mr. Hasselbach,
That's one impressive filtration system, you have!!! Did you install an auxillary fuel pump to help the fuel flow through that much filtration? I've been wondering if I need an auxillary pump in my situation.
In 2004, I had an auxillary fuel tank (115 gal. , Dually Depot) installed in my '03. It came with a Fleetguard FS-1212 fuel filter (6-1/2" long). I believe these filter at the 10 micron level.
After reading about the Kennedy Diesel Filtration System (Cat "High Efficiency"Filters,2 micron's, 10-1/2" long), which, has become popular with the Duramax crowd, I decided to give the Cat filters a try. Cat's part #1R-0749 matched with the filter head mount that the Fleetguard filter used.
I installed the Cat filter in March '05 & it has worked flawlessly. My biggest concern was that it would be too restrictive along with the stock filter. I have never noticed any indication of a loss of fuel pressure but, I do not have a pressure guage, either.
I've towed with this set-up, in the mountains, & recently installed a Van Aaken C-3. 2 box, set on the 130HP setting & have still not noticed a loss of fuel pressure.
Since the auxillary tank is the only tank that is benefitting from the finer filtration, I thought I'd buy another filter mount head & mount the Cat filter ahead of the tank switching valve & re-install the Fleetguard in its original location. That way, I'd benefit from the 10 micron filtration, before, the 2 micron, at least from the aux. tank which is about 2/3 of the trucks fuel
capacity, and get the finer filtration for the main tank, also.
My question is, am I putting too much stress on the stock lift pump with this much filtration? I sure like the idea of the 2 micron's & it seems to work well, so far. Just wondering if I would be "over-doing-it" with the third Fleetguard filter, even though it's, physically, a rather large filter.
BTW, the Cat #1R-0749 was $17. 07 + tax at the local Cat dealer. Didn't seem like a bad price for that kind of filtration.
Joe F. (Buffalo)
That's one impressive filtration system, you have!!! Did you install an auxillary fuel pump to help the fuel flow through that much filtration? I've been wondering if I need an auxillary pump in my situation.
In 2004, I had an auxillary fuel tank (115 gal. , Dually Depot) installed in my '03. It came with a Fleetguard FS-1212 fuel filter (6-1/2" long). I believe these filter at the 10 micron level.
After reading about the Kennedy Diesel Filtration System (Cat "High Efficiency"Filters,2 micron's, 10-1/2" long), which, has become popular with the Duramax crowd, I decided to give the Cat filters a try. Cat's part #1R-0749 matched with the filter head mount that the Fleetguard filter used.
I installed the Cat filter in March '05 & it has worked flawlessly. My biggest concern was that it would be too restrictive along with the stock filter. I have never noticed any indication of a loss of fuel pressure but, I do not have a pressure guage, either.
I've towed with this set-up, in the mountains, & recently installed a Van Aaken C-3. 2 box, set on the 130HP setting & have still not noticed a loss of fuel pressure.
Since the auxillary tank is the only tank that is benefitting from the finer filtration, I thought I'd buy another filter mount head & mount the Cat filter ahead of the tank switching valve & re-install the Fleetguard in its original location. That way, I'd benefit from the 10 micron filtration, before, the 2 micron, at least from the aux. tank which is about 2/3 of the trucks fuel
capacity, and get the finer filtration for the main tank, also.
My question is, am I putting too much stress on the stock lift pump with this much filtration? I sure like the idea of the 2 micron's & it seems to work well, so far. Just wondering if I would be "over-doing-it" with the third Fleetguard filter, even though it's, physically, a rather large filter.
BTW, the Cat #1R-0749 was $17. 07 + tax at the local Cat dealer. Didn't seem like a bad price for that kind of filtration.
Joe F. (Buffalo)
Actually, both of the Stanadyne units (FM 100's) are lift pumps as well.
They combined give me 8 psi at idle and drops to about 6 at full throttle.
The duramaxs don't have lift pumps at all, which accounts for the banding at the stock filter (it only is about 50% used). Similar to sucking on a coke through a straw. The entrained air turns from liquid to gas, which is why when you take the stock filter off, it was always less than 50% full of diesel.
So far works great.
They combined give me 8 psi at idle and drops to about 6 at full throttle.
The duramaxs don't have lift pumps at all, which accounts for the banding at the stock filter (it only is about 50% used). Similar to sucking on a coke through a straw. The entrained air turns from liquid to gas, which is why when you take the stock filter off, it was always less than 50% full of diesel.
So far works great.
Mr. Hasselbach,
Do you, or anyone else for that matter, think I am jeopardizing the health of my trucks HPCR fuel delivery system by using the fuel filtration system I described in my last post?
Should I be considering the addition of another fuel pump to compensate for the restrictions caused by the extra filtration?
Thank You.
Joe F. (Buffalo)
Do you, or anyone else for that matter, think I am jeopardizing the health of my trucks HPCR fuel delivery system by using the fuel filtration system I described in my last post?
Should I be considering the addition of another fuel pump to compensate for the restrictions caused by the extra filtration?
Thank You.
Joe F. (Buffalo)
Buffalo said:
Always better to push fuel through a filter than pull it. When you pull fuel through a filter, you will see the fuel level drop within the filter, and you will only use part of the media for the filtering.
Good advise to get a gauge too. The cp3's like positive fuel pressure at the inlet so I am told.
relay wiring ???
I am going to use the stock lift pump harness to trigger a relay for the Holley.
The question I now have for the electrical experts is, "Can I use this same ignition hot signal to trigger another separate relay for the fuel heater via a splice and still be safe electrically?"
The Racor heater is temperature controlled like the stock factory heater BTW.
Thanks!
I am going to use the stock lift pump harness to trigger a relay for the Holley.
The question I now have for the electrical experts is, "Can I use this same ignition hot signal to trigger another separate relay for the fuel heater via a splice and still be safe electrically?"
The Racor heater is temperature controlled like the stock factory heater BTW.
Thanks!
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Issue 128 – Digital Version
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TDR Test Drive - Digital Edition
Renew
Subscribe
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Back Issues
Subscription Status
Address Change Form
Buyer's Guides
Ram Diagnostic Trouble Codes
The Perfect Collection
The Perfect Collection Vol. II
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What Makes Us Tick?
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