PM-Fuel Filter Change
We had some incredible weather today. Now was a good time to finally get that Fuel Filter changed out. I've had the truck a couple years and have put this on the back burner for what ever reason. I think since the truck was running so well, I didn't want to screw it up. I've been reading about issues with guys getting air into the fuel system causing all sorts of issue. I basically freaked myself out of this project for the past 24 plus months. Well, today was the day to hit this perceived issue head on
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I know many of you have already done this so no read to continue on. If you haven't, it's no problem as long as you don't get in a hurry.
First order of business is draining the fuel/water separator canister. If you're having issues with nothing coming out then you're experiencing what I had. At first I had absolutely nothing coming out of the petcock. I thought the canister was filled with rust and all kind of goodies from the fuel tank. I simply hooked up an air attachment and blew air into the filter with low pressure! That's all it took to get the flow going. At first I had a nice When I reached the half gallon mark, I loosed up the canister mounting bolt on top of the housing. I loosed it up enough so I could shake the canister around if the petcock got plugged again. Continue to drain until she's done.
Second step is removing the old filter, filter gasket and the mounting bolt gasket (yes remove this gasket and clean the bolt and the top of the canister really well to prevent air into system!) You'll have all kinds of goop and caked on yuck that you'll need to clean out the bottom of the canister. Take your time and get all that crap out of there. Once done, I inverted the canister and shot her with some high pressure air to free up any stubborn junk.
Third step is adding your fresh filter, new filter gasket, and the mounting bolt gasket. I screwed on the canister very loosely so I could lean the canister to the side to filler her up with diesel. I was without a funnel so I used a spare bottle of Lucas Fuel Treatment. I simply filled up the bottle and added fuel to the canister. Once you fill up the canister then simply spin the canister ever so slowly until it comes into contact with the big gasket. From there, tighten the top mounting bolt but don't tighten it up too much.
Fourth step it bleeding off the excess air out of the system. Now this step can either go very easily or be the biggest pain in the backside. I cracked open the small bleeder valve near the primer pump. Gave the primer pump two pumps and tightened up the bleeder valve.
Fifth step is firing up your truck and checking for any fuel leaks......you're done...hopefully
Pics:
1) Shooting some air up into the petcock to unplug her. Use low pressure only!!!
2) Drain the fuel out of the canister
3) Fuel Filter, main gasket, mounting bolt gasket
4) Typical problem gasket that causes air leak into fuel system
5) Without a funnel I had to fashion this fuel filler bottle
6) Insert bottle tip into the housing and start filling her up
7) Open the bleeder valve and pump the primer pump a couple times to bleed off the air.
Hopefully the truck starts up and you're good to go. Give yourself a thumbs up!!!! See that wasn't so bad was it