Fuel Water separator

[DRH1175]

What are others doing? My f115 Yamaha has a small one built inside the cowling. I have been looking at adding a bigger external in my boat. What are others running, and which brand is best?

[harvey lee]

I looked into putting one on my boat and called Mercury. They told me I could if I wanted to but I have 3 fuel filters on the motor and as long as I service them, no need for the water seperator. I did not put one on the boat.

[BartmanMN]

When I was looking for videos on this regarding mine Fuel Filter for my Mercury, I did come across a few You Tube video's of Yamaha guys adding the external filters. I think most of them were running in Salt Water though. Do a search on you tube and you should find them.

I just replaced mine on my optimax yesterday.

[leechlake]

I have a 175 Yamaha HPDI, non 4 stroke and four years ago I brought it in for routine maintenance and there was some miscommunication between the guy and myself and he put a water separator on it by accident. We ended up splitting the difference on price when I picked the boat up and it was installed on it.

From everything I observed I didn't see one benefit of having it on it.

I did get a pontoon a few years later with a Yam 60 4 stroke and it had it installed when I bought it. Maybe there's a reason for having it with a 4 stroke but for my other motor I didn't see a benefit.

[Wayne Ek]

After having water in the fuel problems 3-years running each fall I finally put an external separator on last spring... no more problems at all. I'm running a 75 Merc. 4-stroke on a pontoon, with an external fuel tank.

[Transporter]

Quote:

From everything I observed I didn't see one benefit of having it on it. Maybe there's a reason for having it with a 4 stroke but for my other motor I didn't see a benefit.

Water separating filters are a lot like fire extinguishers, you hope you never need them, but sure are happy they are there when you do. I have Racor filters on my Optimaxes, these engines are equipped with separating filters w/water sensors under the hood already, but you can't look at them easily as they look like an oil filter. The Racors are in the bilge under a hatch and they have a clear bowl allowing you to see small amounts of water possibly alerting you to a problem before it becomes serious. 2 stroke or 4 stroke, neither will run very well on water diluted fuel.

[CaptainMusky]

Any motor with injectors better have a water separator of some type on it. Many dealers don't install them as part of dealer prep and the owner has problems down the road many times. Cheap insurance. I just replaced mine. Should be done minimum yearly but every 100 hrs is a good idea. $10 for a filter is nothing. $500 to replace ruined injectors is not.