We have a Beta 60 with nearly 1000 satisfactory hours on it over 3 years use
Recently it started misfiring and dying. After some investigation we found that the fuel feed pump was plugged. History is as follows.
At initial installation we installed the pump sold by Beta in Norway, since the lift with a nearly empty tank is about a foot more that recommended.
It has a switch so that it can be off, on full time (for filling filter etc), or on automatically only when the engine is running. We discovered that the engine runs fine, even when the fuel tank is nearly empty, with the pump switched off, so have used it only to push the air out when we change fuel filter elements
We have a large twin pre-filter with 2 micron paper filters (75500MAX2), installed downstream of the fuel lift pump
There has been some biological growth in our tanks. After 50 hours or so the vacuum gauge on the filter rose to about 10" and we changed the MAX filter elements, which had visible gunk on them, and cleaned out both bowls.
About 20 hours later the engine started missing, then died. We found the tiny passages in the fuel pump plugged.
It seems illogical to me to have such a tiny pump (Facet Purolator) upstream of the filter.
At the moment we have installed an outboard fuel line bulb in place of the original Beta fuel feed pump, which serves well to fill the filter after changing etc. The vacuum is under 1" mercury, whereas it was never less that 3" with the pump installed but switched off.
Should the fuel feed pump be downstream of the pre-filter? (if so it has to be able to pull several inches mercury vacuum) If so, which pump?
Should we install a pump strong enough to pump any bio-gunk as far as the pre-filter? If so, which pump?
Your system is actually correctly plumbed as all these lift pumps (including the low pressure Facet) push fuel much better than they suck.
Your main problem is that you have still not got to the bottom of of your fuel contamination.
I suggest the following.
1) Clean the Facet pump and then install it after the Racor filter and keep it switched on while the engine is running
2) fit a 10 micron element in the Racor instead of the 2 micron
This will allow you to run properly with a lot of fuel element changes until you can have the fuel tank cleaned properley.
Our fuel is clean now. After I took the Facet pump out, the vacuum dropped to 1" and has stayed that way for months. I guess the circulating fuel has polished it. We have had the same 2 micron filter in for months with only a tiny rise in vacuum
My desire is to have a powerful enough pump to move some contaminated fuel to the filter, thus avoiding engine shutdown unless contamination is sufficient to plug the filter. Our experience so far is that the Facet pump plugged before even our 2 micron filter did.
I like the idea of he Facet being protected by a filter.
Given our experience of running a couple of thousand hours with the Facet switched off, do we even need an electric pump at all. (We have the outboard motor bulb to fill the system after changing the filter elements.)
I was unsuccessful the first time I tried to clean and unplug the Facet pump. Perhaps I should try again. Any tips?
Thanks for all the time and know-how you put into this board
You have really answered your own questions in your latest post.
You do not need an electric pump but is is a nice bit of security to help with polishing fuel and in the event that the mechanical pump decides to fail. However I suggest that you dispense with the one that you have and get a new low pressure one.
