Dirty fuel in racor

[salmonkiller01]

My engine has been idling rough and rpm fluctuating. It is going to the shop in a couple weeks.
Today I changed my racor filter and it was crazy how dirty it was, drained the fuel out and it was cloudy with suspended particles. No water. Installed my new filter and fuel in the bowl now is clear as can be.
Can dirt get past my racor? I replaced my engine filter a few weeks ago and should have done both at the same time however my racor fuel bowl at that time was clean and I forgot to pick up the filter. I change my racor once per year
Anyone have dirt get past a racor?

 

[wolf]

Anyone have dirt get past a racor?

Not dirt but water!!! killed my main and wondered WTF I got bad gas ...from a fuel dock I wont name and showed them the glass jar full of water and RUST , I asked them to pay for new filters and engine fuel filter they said cant be our gas.
I said really well I only put 2 jerry cans in so I could come and fill here and its a BRAND new tank with brass fittings so where did the rust come from???
Do you have the racor with the clear bowl? any **** in bottom drain away
if so watch it next lil bit if it contnues I see a tank clen in your future

 

[salmonkiller01]

Not dirt but water!!! killed my main and wondered WTF I got bad gas ...from a fuel dock I wont name and showed them the glass jar full of water and RUST , I asked them to pay for new filters and engine fuel filter they said cant be our gas.
I said really well I only put 2 jerry cans in so I could come and fill here and its a BRAND new tank with brass fittings so where did the rust come from???
Do you have the racor with the clear bowl? any **** in bottom drain away
if so watch it next lil bit if it contnues I see a tank clen in your future

I have the clear bowl, just found it weird I got so much dirt in my filter. Tank was cleaned 2 years ago. I have a feeling the marina has dirty fuel as I am sure my bowl was clear last time I went out before fueling Saturday. The motor issue has been going on for a bit

 

[wolf]

keep cleaning that racor , you may have to replace that filter again though. if the fuel is that bad

 

[Sharphooks]

My engine has been idling rough and rpm fluctuating. It is going to the shop in a couple weeks.
Today I changed my racor filter and it was crazy how dirty it was, drained the fuel out and it was cloudy with suspended particles. No water. Installed my new filter and fuel in the bowl now is clear as can be.
Can dirt get past my racor? I replaced my engine filter a few weeks ago and should have done both at the same time however my racor fuel bowl at that time was clean and I forgot to pick up the filter. I change my racor once per year
Anyone have dirt get past a racor?

You didn’t say what you’re running for power. Might not be a bad idea to replace the low pressure filter(s) one more time if you had that much foreign material in the Racor. You probably know that a soiled fuel/water separator filter will cause fluctuating RPM‘s and rough idle—-you might get lucky and find with new filters that the rough idle and fluctuating RPM’s disappear.

I just went through this same drill with bad gas and ultimately made the decision to get the bottom of both my tanks vacuumed out by a professional.

There was just no way I wanted to go into the summer boating season knowing that stuff was sloshing around in my tanks. I had both water and foreign material

The benefit of having it done by someone with the right equipment: there’s a glass sight-bowl in the suction hose. You can physically see the crap passing through the glass bowl. When it clears up, you know you’ve gotten most or all of it. I let the boat sit idle for a couple of days to make sure the stuff had settled then got a few people in the stern of the boat, pulled pickup tubes from the rear of both tanks, and got the hose in to get at the junk

Although I pulled both fuel senders, that was a wasted effort because they were at the middle of the tanks and the fuel was clean at that position, evident by clean gas flowing through the glass sight bowl

 

[salmonkiller01]

Definitely going to plan on another racor element in the next few weeks. Just picked up a replacement filter for the engine. 2020 merc 200 four stroke.
The engine lope at idle has been going on for a while, so it is going in for a check up. The 200 has always been a bit rough at idle and needs to get checked. I compared it to my old Verado and just thought nothing is as smooth as an in-line 6. Apparently these are supposed to be smoother
I get 99% of fuel from my marina and up to this point filter has been clean, no water. I did not have water in my filter now either