I am looking into getting a flame arrestor for my boat. I am looking at the 10x3", any brand better than the other?

K&N builds a very good one.

SLP

I second K&N! Breathes well and is Coast Guard O.K.

I had a K&N on my old boat. Was really satisfied with it until I had a backfire and it lit up. The air cleaner was glowing like the end of a cigarette. A quick grab and a flick of the wrist put it out. I checked around and several other people reported the same experience. I talked to K&N and arrestor fires are not covered under their million mile warantee.

I have K&N's and have had the same fire problem
My question is , how could the Coasties approve something like this.

Gaffrig

You know it real funny how some companies put out that they are coast guard approved and it really isn't. The Coast Guard does not test them. What they do is adopt SAE and UL standard ratings for this purpose. For example: SAE J1929 (I not totally sure this is it) is for flame arrestors on marine engines. This means that this product has been sent to a laboratory and passed the tests required by SAE to pass as Coast Guard approved. Now if you take the element out, and put it in another body or housing your new component is no longer approved. So I can't see buying an element from say K&N and making to lids (top and bottom) and being approved. The main gist of the SAE and UL guideline is that a flame may not get past the enclosure, to be able to ignite gasses outside...so if your element starts to glow like a lit cigarette, I would think carefully before using it. Also, approved devices must marked accordingly with respect to the test procedures it passed. If not, then it is not approved.

As far as I am concerned, any brand of flame arrestor works fine. The bigger 3" ers are fine for most close-to-stock motors.

I know a guy who collected everybody else's throwaway Merc units and he would hack the lids open and pop rivet them together. He would stack them about 5" high and run them.
They were actually pretty cool looking from the outside and there was minimal flow restriction internally as well. PLUS they were FREE !

I put a K/N onmy 502 mag but i had to drill a hole in adapter for the breather tube i was told not to plug it up

Can anyone tell me a web site where I can get the US coast guard approved gaffrig flame arresters?

Thanks,

BT