Mr. Funnel water separator?

Z

zuunami

New member
We're replacing our inline fuel filter, and replacing the current water separator with a Parker Racor 3213 with a s/s top assembly, but we also just recently bought and received a large Mr. Funnel to add to the water removal system :) Anyone had any experience with this, positive or negative? Most of the reviews on YouTube were pretty positive.
 
I believe that "Mr Funnel" is a actual funnel with a filter which blocks water and of course debris. I have used very similar items, including several variations of the Baja Filter--however only for diesel fuel from potentially contaminates sources.

The Racor filter should serve you well--and the "extra" filtration is not necessary unless you are potentially taking aboard contaminated fuel.
 
When I flew Ultralights, I used a Mr. Funnel religiously to make absolutely sure there was no water in the fuel. I even tested it out by deliberately adding water to the fuel to see if it indeed filtered it out, which it did as advertised. It is a pretty straightforward device, and probably the only drawback would be there is always some residual fuel with the possibly water left in the top half of the funnel which need to be disposed.

If you live in an area where non-ethanol fuel is not available and your paranoid about using it, the Mr. Funnel would be a good last stage step in removing the ethanol. There are various ways a DIYer can do this with instructions out on the Internet.
 
If you remove the ethanol from E10 gasoline you will also lower the octane rating of the fuel, not to mention having to dispose of ~10% of your fuel load.

It seems to me that "washing" the ethanol out of E10 gasoline in useful quantities would be pretty impractical.

There are YouTube videos of this technique. I haven't seen any that actually test the fuel or the drainings to verify if and how much of the ethanol is actually removed. You'd need a lab to do the testing, and most of the videos are just of some guy in his garage with a homemade setup saying he's sure it works.
 
thanks, we have no ethanol free gas in our area. We'll give Mr. Funnel a try, tho I don't know how "fun" it will be at the gas pump :) I just ran across an old mercury website that recommends 91 octane, maybe we'll up the octane a bit to reduce the ethanol even more, what do most people run?
 
I have and tried those Mr. Funnel's. They ended up being a PITA! The biggest problem was the little bit of fuel remaining in the top of the funnel. It has to be disposed of somewhere... In the end I didn't feel they really performed a necessary function since all station pumps have filtration and then we also have the water separating filters on our boats. The other problem was the fuel pumps tended to pump faster than the filter could filter, thereby causing spillage more often than not. If you are using them in combination with your own small pump, they probably work a lot better. BTW, I burn the ethanol fuels all summer long in my boat without issue. I do try to make the last fillup of the season with non-ethanol fuel. But with gas prices rising, since I tend to drain all the fuel out of my boat for the winter, there's probably no need to run the non-ethanol. I do have a small 3 gal tank that I run the engines from at the end of the season while doing maintenance on them, so the fuel remaining in the manifolds is non-ethanol for storage.
 
thanks, we have no ethanol free gas in our area.
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You can only buy ethanol free fuel as Avgas at airports in Calif. Last time I took my boat out there, I waited to fill up on the water--thinking the I could still get ethanol Free gas there---false. It all has ethanol.

Don't even think about trying to remove the ethanol by adding water! That will be a disaster.

Running ethanol fuel is OK as long as you burn it all up. Just don't let it sit in carburetors. Injected engines handle it much better in general.
 
thataway":2ot2lryx said:
thanks, we have no ethanol free gas in our area.
Click to expand...

You can only buy ethanol free fuel as Avgas at airports in Calif. Last time I took my boat out there, I waited to fill up on the water--thinking the I could still get ethanol Free gas there---false. It all has ethanol.

Don't even think about trying to remove the ethanol by adding water! That will be a disaster.

Running ethanol fuel is OK as long as you burn it all up. Just don't let it sit in carburetors. Injected engines handle it much better in general.
Click to expand...
You can buy ethanol-free gasoline universally as synthetic fuel at places like Home Depot and Lowes.

https://www.homedepot.com/p/TruFuel-110 ... 913140-_-N

If you do, make sure and get the "4-cycle" version that doesn't contain 2-cycle oil. The only downside is that it is in gallon-size containers at best, and then it costs about $20/gallon. When I am going to not use my gasoline motors for a while (I have about 20), I "finish" running them with a pint or so of ethanol-free synthetic fuel. I don't know if this really helps, but it should remove all ethanol from the system. The Honda fuel filter, for instance, seems to keep about a cup of fuel in it after the motor shuts down from lack of gasoline. I drain that.

I exclusively use the 2-cycle version (with added 2-cycle oil) of synthetic fuel in my chainsaws, weed whackers, and blowers. So far, so good, but in general, I have had zero problems with any of my gasoline motors, some over 30 years old.

If you have carburators, you should still drain them before storage, of course. Bob's advice is always good. We can still get ethanol-free gasoline here in WA state, and most marinas seem to sell only ethanol-free; however, it is very expensive, and I don't like to pay marina prices. I would never consider removing ethanol from my gasoline, as it increases the octane rating, would reduce your mileage per $ spent, and ethanol doesn't seem to cause problems if you exercise a modicum of care with your motors; certainly less than going to the trouble of mixing water with your gasoline, separating it, and then disposing of the water/ethanol extract.
 
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