Looking for a sea strainer
 

The price tag on these things kill me, $200, $300, even $350. I found a perko 1.5" unit over at BoaterEd for $70 plus fittings. It's made of brass and plastic and is a proven strainer. Why are the pretty strainers so expensive? Yes they are SS and anodized but what else demands that kinda' scratch??

I was thinking of the same thing? Are they worth the $$ why doesn'tthe factory install them on all performance boats if needed? what exactly do they do?

Shiney is good! Seriously though, you're right they are expensive. I put two Gils on my boat. One on th sea water pick up and one on the intercooler pick up. It's kind of amazing to see the crap they stop from getting into your engine. They don't stop a lot of sand, just seaweed and small bits of wood. I though the one on the intercooler was the most important due to the small size of the tubes.

Craig

They do look gorgeous, but I can't do it. Especially on a budget and all. I hope it can help my sand situation, actually it's mud and lots of it. When I hit bottom the mud just fills up the lines till they are rock hard. I hope the strainer can fill up fast with mud and block up. I'd rather see the temp guage rise and clear out 1 hose then scrape mud out of 4 hoses along with the manifold drains.

I don't run one but I do have one I got from west marine that I did not install. it is all plastic which is only go to 5 lb. pressure and If you spike it the pressure could go higher than that. it has inch and quarter female npt fitting.paid 80 bucks for it you can have it for shipping cost.If you decide to go with one I think Keith Eickert and outhers make one with pop off to keep pressure spikes down to with reason and will hold more pressure without bursting.not trying to be funny but I think you need a depth finder more than a strainer.

I had the depth finder installed awhile ago. Sure it helps, but there are certain places, restaurants, hangouts, etc where the water is shallow and I just deal with it. I'd love to relocate the pickups, that would solve everything. Thanks for all the comments. Dan

I have a similar problem with sand with my low pick-ups on my bravo drives when I back off sand bars on the river. I was thinking of going to transom pick-ups but I'm wondering if they will get enough water with the step bottom. Any one try this?

I put a GIL strainer in my Formula 271 with a HPP500EFI (low water pickups). I had twice the summer before blocked up the water hoses with sand and shells from days at the beach and the late season shallow water at my dock. The strainer does not do a lot of good on filtering the sand out, just being more careful to get pushed off the beach to deeper water before starting took care of that. Where it has really helped is blocking the shells, small rocks and debris that were getting sucked up in the shallower waters where I run. It's been two years since I put in the sea strainer and I have not had a cooling problem since although I have had to clean out the strainer a couple of times each summer to get the rocks and shells out (anything bigger than about 1/8" is blocked)

It may help some with the sand and mud also but only because of the swirling action in the strainer that helps mix the stuff up and make it pass through the engines cooling system.:)

i have known of people buying the strainers used on skie boats such as Nautique andothers.
Heard they are great and cost ALOT less the the SS ones.

I bought a strainer that was painted yellow - looked like a Graco. Bronze with plastic "bowl". I do the occasional roto-till - but I try to avoid it with a labbed Bravo 1. Does not stop sand, but shells and other crap. I bought it from KAAMA on this board, he gad two, might want to ping him. I'm still trying to figure out if it poses a restriction or not. I have a "HP525SC" and temp is fine until I run it under boost at higer speeds. I have a SS crossover too. I can't determine whether the extra heat is just normal for the blower or the strainer might poses a slight restiction. I'm keeping it, though. BTW - avoid the all-plastic ones light the plague.