Oil & Fuel Micron value of OEM fuel filters on Kubota

[bulldog69]

A person can't filter to much in my book. I filter all my fuel before in even goes in the tractors. All my storage tanks have 10 micron filter/seperators on them.

 

[jonyyuma]

A person can't filter to much in my book. I filter all my fuel before in even goes in the tractors. All my storage tanks have 10 micron filter/seperators on them.

Agreed, I want the least problems possible. He whom has the Cleanest fuel wins???

 

[V1Rotate]

On the BX series there are two inline filters, both with the same part numbers.
That doesn't make a lot of sense to me.

 

[hugho]

I went thru this years ago. If I remember right the factory Kubota filters are 15 micron.

Help me out though, what's the purpose of putting a filter with a higher micron rating? What will that do for you?

I went the other way with mine. I installed a Dahl filter in front of the factory filter with a 2 micron rating. I wanted mine to catch more trash, not less. Been using it for 10 or 11 years with very good results. I'm all for better filtration but I don't understand adding a filter system that does less work.

I'm open for new ideas though so school me.

You don't need schooling. You are spot on and could teach the course!. I am a former Alaskan commercial fisherman and we had horrible fuel on the remote Alaskan coast 30-50 years ago, sitting in drums and rusty tanks over the winter so we were OCD on fuel. The ones that had expensive boats filtered all fuel thru centrifuges before it hit the tanks. Some had small centrifuges on board. Most of us had fuel "polishing systems" which filtered the fuel coming from the tank to the engine continuously. We had a main engine and gen sets so losing one or the other could ruin a fishing season since our "openings" to fish sometimes were only a few weeks. Clean fuel was the #1 priority. We used RACOR filters exclusively on our fleets. Nothing else. Racors come in coarse, medium and fine filters and some are huge and designed for large marine engines. If memory serves you can get them in 20 or 30, 10, 5(?) and 2 microns. I kept all my racors and the filters when I retired and I have racors with 2 micron filters on our 2 cummins pickups, our 3 mercedes diesels, our VW tdi diesel and all 3 of our tractors, a big AC, a Kubota L:45 and a M6040. That is a lot of filters and they are all standardized to 2 microns. Makes maintenance and inventory a breeze! I also have a CAT 1 or 2 micron on the shelf, an extremely good spin on. I mount them where they are accessible. Clean fuel saves injection pumps and injectors. You can decide if you want to use them as primary or secondary filters. I use them as primary filters because our local fuel is very clean. Obviously I never bother to change the Kubota filters if they are secondary. If the racors are secondary I just change the kubotas. I also run my fuel into my own storage tanks and filter it going in. I hardly ever change filters and we used to put pressure gauges on our lines to aid in monitoring our filters. You can get chinese aftermarket Racor knockoffs which I have used but I use ONLY genuine RACOR filters. The best!!

 

[finn1]

The two filters are probably parallel flow, which would double filter life.

Filtering to a micron rating below the manufacturer specifications isn’t always best either. Remember that pressure drop and filter life are part of the trade off factors a manufacturer takes into consideration. A lower micron rating filter will be more susceptible to jelling at low temperatures (flow restriction)

 

[Industrial Toys]

Without knowing the filtration, substituting filters is Ify business. And generally the OEMS won't tell you. It's why I have given up getting cheaper filters and just go with OEM. Don't some (or all) filters bypass if they plug up? That would worry me with too fine a filtration. How would you know?

 

[fried1765]

"How would you know"??

Vacuum gauges on the top of each filter housing!

I used them for years on a diesel motor yacht.
Start pulling a higher vacuum?....replace filter.

 

[Industrial Toys]

Another reason I only go with OEM. I have seen a bundh of videos where various filters are disected. One major brand (Think it was the "F" brand) was utter and total paper garbage inside. Recently I saw a video where a guy opened up several Car Quest Fuel ilters and found steel inside already rusted, conceivably introducing rust into the fuel system. Like, you can't trust anything these days. All about marketing and making MONEY!

 

[MHarryE]

Filters on any equipment I have been an engineer or I have owned have never bypassed dirty fuel. Plug and engine dies, that’s it. At Cat, we had one engine very sensitive to dirty fuel. Mechanics frequently fill filters with fuel in order to save time priming. It will take only one filter full of dirty fuel to damage the injectors. Engine group came out with a new filter mount to solve the problem. Two filters on one base, one filter upside down. That was a crutch to get by until the injectors were redesigned to be more dirt tolerant but the hints one finds everywhere advising people to pre-fill filters makes engine designers cringe.

 

[hugho]

Very true that restriction of a lower micron filter can happen but jelling will shut down all filters no matter the micron rating. The key is to avoid fuel gelling. I also use large filter housings to increase the filter area and put a pressure gauge ahead of the filter to spot impending restriction. I am assuming I AM CUTTING WEAR ON INJECTORS AND INJECTION PUMPS BY SUPPLYING SUPER CLEAN FUEL. Who knows if that is the case.