Fuel Pump Pre Filter

[unclebilly]

I couldn't find any posts on putting a filter before the fuel pump so here's one... what do you guys think?

When I bought the car, it had been sitting for a few years in Ohio. Shortly after I got the car, I noticed that the fuel pump was quite noisy so I replaced it with a Holley pump (I had to make up a fitting on the lathe but got it to work OK). It was sad because the old pump had virtually no miles on it.

Anyway, I bought a new accumulator and bosch pump for the car this week - I doubt whether the holley had a check valve in it. I'm sure that I must have some sediment in the tank and am wonding if anyone has put a pre filter in the line between the pump and the tank to keep the crap from damaging the pump again. I bought a little chrome filter like this one - over all length is around 2" and some fuel line.

What issues do you guys think I'll run into? Has anyone else done this?

[unclebilly]

bump

[Noel]

Pull the fuel level sender out of the tank and use a flashlight to see if there is any sediment in the tank. If there is, just drain the tank using the drain plug. The plug also has a small filter in it that you should clean out.

If you do this you won't need a second filter.

[jmohn]

Just a general comment that that filter seems way too small with way too little (and perhaps too restrictive) filter material for a high volume fuel pump.

Jerry M
'78 SC

[Rot 911]

You should have a screen filter over the inlet pipe from the gas tank. As for that filter, I agree with Jerry, way too small.

[silverc4s]

If that filter gets clogged, it will allow your pump to run dry, causing premature failure.
Any filter in place between fuel tank and fuel pump should be very large capacity, or easily visible sediment level.
Thousands of late model Mercedes ML owners learned this lesson the $1000 hard way...;-(

[unclebilly]

Thanks for the input. I'll pull out the sending unit and see how bad the tank is before I do anything rash.

Here's a funny story about crap in the gas tank anyway...

I have an 88 4Runner with 80,000 kms on it and have owned it since it had less than 6000 kms. I bought it as a write off and slowly rebuilt it (including replacing the entire frame) while I was going to university and it sat for a number of years with 6000 kms on it. I had to change out the fuel pump because it was rusted solid before I could get it to run.

When I finally did get it going, it was just like a 10 year old new vehicle. I decided to put some of that injector cleaner in the tank to clean things up a bit. That was where things went VERY wrong.

The injector cleaner did a great job of removing the scale from the inside of the tank which would plug up the fuel filter within 50 or so miles. The filters cost $35 from the dealer and I went through a few of them before I decided to clean out the tank.

Initially, I was removing the crap from the tank by removing the sending unit on a nearly empty tank under the back seat and scooping it out with a yogurt container. I filled 2 ice cream pails the first time.

My dad had a fuel polisher for his large commercial fishing boats at the time with 3 big Racor folters on it but it took nearly a tank of fuel to prime the system so that didn't work out too well either. Then I got a great idea...

I took the truck to the carwash with a nearly empty tank and removed the sending unit - I got pretty quick at this by now. I ran the vacuum hose in through the back window and stuck it into the tank and began vacuuming the crap out of the tank (where I was unable to reach wth my hands). Within about 15 seconds, there was a very loud bang and then the vacuum caught on fire. There was flames shooting out of the top of it about 3 or 4 feet. I jumped out pretty quick and pushed my truck as far away from the flaming vacuum as I could and quickly reassembled everything, poured the gas back into it and took off home to change my shorts.

While I was pushing the truck away, some guy who was washing his car there came over and pointed out that the vacuum was on fire and that someone must have sucked up a plastic bag.

THe bad part was that with the coin op vacuums, you can't shut them off so the thing kept feeding the fire with air until the time ran out. I drive by a few days later and that vacuum had a sign posted on it that sadi 'Out of Order' and it appeard to have much of the piant charred off. I won't do that again. I ended up taking it home, removing the tank and cleaning it out with water and then splashed a gallon of methyl hydrate in the tank to inhibit the water. I also switched the fuel filter to a small Racor setup with a water seperator and removable filter cartridges.

[Jim Sims]

Additional Fuel Filter

[silverc4s]

Be careful, they give out Darwin Awards for stuff like that...;-))