I bought my boat in May. First time I have had a boat in 30+ years. Dealer I bought the boat from said he had just replaced the main external fuel filter (in the bilge). I decided to change it today just for insurance. When I pulled it out it was a SEASENSE brand that crosses over to a Sierra 18-7850 however, the specs on the SEASENSE showed it to be a 21 Micron. The more common Sierra 18-7944 short filter or 18-7945 long filter are direct replacements that are 10 Micron filters. I bought a Sierra 18-7944 to put on the boat. Same fit and length as the one I took off.

Questions I have is: The SEASENSE one that I took off had two sealing gaskets. One on the normal inner circumference, same as the Sierra that I bought., and one on the very outer edge circumference. The guy at West Marine where I bought the Sierra said he had never seen one with two gaskets like that.

Soooo, should I just chunk the outer gasket or put it on the Sierra before installation? The tops of both filters seem to be identical meaning that the inner gaskets are identical and the groove for the outer gasket is present on the Sierra filter but there is no gasket in there.

Wayne