Hmmm, I guess a gascolator is a fancy name for a sediment bowl. My 1955 John
Deere had a sediment bowl. If I had called it a gascolator I would have been
laughed out of the county.
wrote in message
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So a gascolator is simply a water separator, OK?
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More or less, yes.

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I thought it a lot more complicated -
an easy way to get lost in explanations.
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It IS a lot more complicated. The body of the Gascolator provides a
place to attach various fuel lines. On a simple airplane -- one
lacking even a fuel pump -- the Gascolator offers more convenience
than other methods..

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-) why does one want a water separator apart from the fuel filter?
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I give up. Why?
In fact, most Gascolators DO provide for fuel filtering as well as
water separation.

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In my house's heating, there's a filter cartridge in a glass bowl,
and when I ran the tank dry it sure filled up with water (and smudge).
Isn't it sufficient to mount the fuel filter at the lowest point,
and have a water drain valve on its bottom?
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Yes, a water drain at the lowest point should prevent water from
reaching the burner. But I am not familiar with the oil burners used
by many Americans. Based on your description I suspect there is an
auxiliary circuit open to the atmosphere that is only allowed to drain
when the main tank is completely empty, but that is only a guess.

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-) is there a finer fuel filter in the Ford A & T, or only the
strainer in the tank?

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No; not as a stock item. As I recall, the strainer fits down inside
the filler neck and there were a number of after-market filters that
offered a finer mesh than the stock filter.
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Do you recommend a finer filter, either
between tank and gascolator or between gascolator and carb?

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That's two questions :-)

The Gascolator has a finer filter than the one in the filler neck.
You should not need any additional filtering.

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-) why the "sintered bronze muffler" on the exit?
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Because the 'exit' of the Gascolator is the inlet to the carburetor.

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actually, what is a "sintered bronze muffler"?
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A muffler -- the types vary -- is standard equipment for pneumatically-
powered tools, which have an extremely high noise signature. Sintered
bronze mufflers do not corrode nor 'pack-up' like some other types of
mufflers.

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Does it serve as a filter, perhaps?
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See the above.

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-) for the receiver body, I should like clear plastic:
less delicate than glass, but unlike metal, it shows what's happening.
There must surely be clear plastics that resist gasoline?
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I'm sure there is but the goal here is to describe a Gascolator that
can be fabricated by the typical homebuilder. As for showing what's
happening, it would ALWAYS show full; there would be nothing to see.
As for plastic vs glass or metal, my personal preference -- and that
of many other homebuilders -- is to keep keep the amount of flammable
materials forward of the firewall to an absolute minimum.

-R.S.Hoover