One is the Loneliest Number

[pullquote]THIS SOUNDS GOOD UNTIL YOU CONSIDER THAT THIS FINE FILTER WOULD LIKELY BECOME CLOGGED IN RELATIVELY SHORT ORDER.[/pullquote] So why don’t you just install a 10- or 20-micron fuel filter by itself. Obviously, this would provide exceptional filtering protection. A 10-micron filter would ensure that any particles larger than 0.4 thousandths of an inch would not be passed through. This sounds good until you consider that this fine filter would likely become clogged in relatively short order. As the filter media became plugged up, fuel filter restriction would be seen with larger pressure differentials before and after the filter. To maintain 45 psi of pressure after the filter, the fuel pump might be working at 55 or 60psi as the filter clogs and restricts flow. These higher fuel pressure loads reduce the flow output from the pump. When the fuel flow is choked off in such a manner, the proper amount of fuel may not be able to be supplied under high-boost, full-throttle operation. A fuel lean condiiton can result and damage the engine.

Multi-Stage Advantage

By using two, three or four-stages of successively finer filtration, the capacity of the filter system is multiplied while pressure losses are minimized. Let’s assume that there are an equal amount of 150-, 75- and 35-micron contaminants in the fuel being used. If you had a two-stage filter system with a 100- micron and 60-micron filter, 33-percent of the contaminants (all of the 150-micron sized particles) would be captured in the 100-micron filter. Another 33-pecent of the contaminants would be captured at the 60-micron filter (all of the 75-micron sized particles). Ultimately, the particles smaller than 60- micron (in this case the 35-micron particles) would not be removed from the fuel. In this example, the two-stage system would offer twice the service life and less than half the restriction of a single 60-micron filter.

[pullquote]THE TRIPLE-STAGE SYSTEM WOULD DELIVER THREE TIMES THE CAPACITY OF THE SINGLE FILTER AND ALSO JUST A THIRD OF THE POTENTIAL RESTRICTION.[/pullquote] If even finer filtration was desired, a threestage or four-stage system could be employed. If we were using the same fuel as in the above example and we wanted to filter out the 35-micro particles too, we could simply add a third stage with a 20-micron filter. In this case, each stage would capture 33 percent of the contaminants. Thus, the triple-stage system would deliver three times the capacity of the single filter and also just a third of the potential restriction.

Different inlet/outlet sizes, ports for fuel temp sensors and shortand long-style filters are all options on the XRP filter systems.