Fuel / water separator

[Barryh]

Well finally got home last night had a chance to look over my tractor briefly ..

For the most part hoses and everything look nice and dry.. Surprisingly not much dirt in the tub.. Starting to think this guy was telling the truth and the tractor only has 631 hours on it .. Indicators I notice the bucket edge hardly any scratches on it not bent, tires are supposedly original ... Hardly worn.. Hard to believe for a 96 or 97 ...

Did notice the coalescer filter base was made of plastic and had a crack in it, when you put your finger on the bottom valve it was wet from gas.. So I need to find and order a new one. While I'm at it going to order all new gas hose and filters for the Kohler engine..

My question is has anyone by passed the coalescer temporarily or permanently. Until I can buy a new one, I would like to run the tractor around and check other areas. Has a regular filter on it . coalescer as far as I know are only there to keep out water.

Does anyone have a good source for a new one. I've found a few online for Marine engines they filter up to 10 microns for a 4 cycle engine and it looks like they will work just fine.

 

[ponytug]

A coalescer seems to me to be...overkill for a small gasoline engine. If your gasoline is clean, it should be redundant. So, you could bypass it temporarily. Water in gasoline isn't quite as damaging as water in diesel. The real issue is frozen fuel lines and a water block coalescer isn't going to help with that.

Are you sure that it is a water coalescer? Could it be a prefilter?


I have gotten my water blocking prefilters from marine supply houses, but the ones that I am familiar with are for larger engines. (The smallest that I've installed was for a 7L diesel.)

All the best,

Peter

 

[Barryh]

No it's a full blown Coalescer the size of a small oil filter and plastic housing with valve .. It appears to be installed from the factory. I may go ahead and bypass it for now. I have another one and some new gas filters on order and I do tend to agree with you, it may somewhat overkill.. But since it was already there and the engine runs so smooth. I will go ahead and install the new one..

Thanks for the reply Peter ..

 

[Marks481]

Just replace it with the typical $6 gas filter.

Agree with ponytug... that is overkill. No other machine with this class with an air cooled v-twin is rocking a setup like that.

 

[Barryh]

Agreed ..

It also has the inline gas filter. My Kubota didn't have one either, what a strange setup .. I have new gas filters and hose on the way, so I may just end up doing that.

 

[MossRoad]

Well finally got home last night had a chance to look over my tractor briefly ..

For the most part hoses and everything look nice and dry.. Surprisingly not much dirt in the tub.. Starting to think this guy was telling the truth and the tractor only has 631 hours on it .. Indicators I notice the bucket edge hardly any scratches on it not bent, tires are supposedly original ... Hardly worn.. Hard to believe for a 96 or 97 ...

Did notice the coalescer filter base was made of plastic and had a crack in it, when you put your finger on the bottom valve it was wet from gas.. So I need to find and order a new one. While I'm at it going to order all new gas hose and filters for the Kohler engine..

My question is has anyone by passed the coalescer temporarily or permanently. Until I can buy a new one, I would like to run the tractor around and check other areas. Has a regular filter on it . coalescer as far as I know are only there to keep out water.

Does anyone have a good source for a new one. I've found a few online for Marine engines they filter up to 10 microns for a 4 cycle engine and it looks like they will work just fine.

Don't have one on mine, only a fuel filter. My old IH2500b had one. But I had twin 10-gallon metal fender tanks with a cross-over tube on that. My PT425 only has a 5 gallon plastic tank and I run so much fuel through it I doubt I'd ever get a chance to have water condense in there.

 

[Barryh]

The 1425 has the gas tank built into the metal cover and has a fire proof / heat proof pad over top of the exhaust . Not sure I like that, for one it makes the cover heavy to raise and lower with a full tank of gas. It has two lines coming from the inside of the tank. One on the left one on the right with shut off valves. The one on the right is feeding the engine. The one the left looks older and has the gas line cut and it is just laying there in the tub.

I really didn't like starting out with changing the original setup so early in the game until I got to know the machine. So I was going to buy a new separator and reinstall but after seeing no one else has that setup. I'll just add a new gas filter and go with it. As mentioned here It really is overkill...

 

[MossRoad]

Well, I wonder if metal tanks are more prone to condensation than plastic tanks. Can't hurt to put a water separator on there, but most folks don't think its needed on this setup. You can always add it later if it becomes a concern.

If that left hose isn't needed, get rid of it and put a cap on the shutoff valve. Its just one more thing to go wrong later.

 

[Barryh]

You know Moss..

I believe you just hit the nail on the head. That's probably exactly why it's on there. During the winter the metal tank gets cold and then heats up running the tractor and cause's condensation to collect on the inside of the tank.. I have one on the way and was going to leave it off, I will for now.. Sometime before fall think I will hook it back up.. Didn't even think about that.. :thumbsup: Already planned on capping off the other valve..

 

[MossRoad]

Funny what we come up with while scratching our heads! :confused3: