A spare Racor 500FG diesel fuel filter and water separator
Posted By RichC on May 30, 2015
My good friend Mark replaced his old Racor 500FG fuel filter on his boat last year with one of the newer versions with a heat shield around the bowl (although Mark and Dar recently sold Zola). 
From what I can tell the heat shield” was about the only change Parker Hannnifin has made to this 40 year “tried and true” diesel filter and water separator. There is a similar filter on Encore and I recently bought the $30 rebuilt o-ring and gasket kit during my long drawn out winter/spring engine work. Whew!
Mark wasn’t planning to keep his old filter so he gave it me to haul back home on the plane (the TSA loves luggage with these kinds of things in them – #sarcasm) As filters go, this one was pretty grungy. The “bowl” was blackened enough that it was difficult to see if there was fuel … and there was a significant amount of rust and corrosion to the housing and bracket.
I bought another gasket kit and started in on the clean up. Amazing difference. The old bowl cleaned up with a little soaking and I used the sanding disk on my air grinder to clean up the rust and corrosion. A little painters tape and a can of Rust-oleum paint and I’m thinking it might be too good to sit in my “spares” locker! Thanks Mark.
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