What Micron Fuel Filter to use

[TKarnas]

I am relatively new to diesels and I had to change my fuel filter once but I cant remember if it was a 2 micron or 7 micron filter. Any suggestions.

 

[GaryOwen]

Stock filter is 10 micron, but recommended premium filter is 7 micron. Get the premium filter - cost is only a little more.



Fleetguard FS19856 - Premium (7 micron)

Fleetguard FS19855 - Standard (10 micron)



Get mine from Geno's Garage online. Usually get the 4 oil filter/2 fuel filter combination to save a little.

 

[JDiepstra]

2 micron would be great if you could find it!

 

[KHousworth]

Anybody know what micron a WIX filter is? Or Baldwin? I can get both.

 

[Joseph Donnelly]

Fleetguard offers a 7 micron filter as an upgrade from the stock 10 micron filter for the stock filter canister, as can be found in your Geno's Garage catalog. Be very careful not to get any dirt into the canister—clean around the lid carefully. If you add fuel instead of using the lift pump to fill the canister after installing the new filter, remember that this fuel is unfiltered so much be very clean. FASS offers a 3 micron rated Fleetguard filter for their fuel filter/pump/air separation systems. The more rail pressure you are running, the better (smaller micron) filter you need, as even tiny particles become abrasive under high pressures. Typically, higher pressures are related to heavy accelerator pedal positions and some power-adders, either external “boxes” or engine control module programmers. As a rule of thumb, I like to keep rail pressure (as can be monitored with the TST PowerMax-CR or the diPricol rail pressure gauge) around 8000-15,000 psi on the highway. More rail pressure may help economy by atomizing the fuel better, but very high pressures are hard on the injectors, even with clean fuel.

 

[foolkiller]

baldwin pf7977 is supposedly a 5 micron and goes in the stocker housing. those whove tried it seem to be happy. i've been running the 7 micron from fleetguard with no complaints other that it doesn't fit correctly with my geno's filter housing cap, not an issue if you have the stock cap. i am switching to the baldwin next time i do maintenance.

 

[sag2]

I would not suggest anything smaller than the OEM 7 micron filter unless you plan to change to dual filter setup. The 7 micron single gives the best of water stripping and filtration in one filter. Going any smaller may filter out debris, but lets more water pass through.

 

[seafish]

I would not suggest anything smaller than the OEM 7 micron filter unless you plan to change to dual filter setup. The 7 micron single gives the best of water stripping and filtration in one filter. Going any smaller may filter out debris, but lets more water pass through.

Sag2, I am curious why you think the oem filter separate out water better then the Baldwin 5mic? I have been running the Baldwin and it seem to be working great. (I do however almost always run fuel from my own tank which is equipped with its own 10 mic Goldenrod/water separator . )

Thanks.

 

[Matt400]

Going any smaller may filter out debris, but lets more water pass through.

Does not compute, please verify?

 

[DPKetchum]

SAG2 more info. I use the Baldwin 5mic filter also.

 

[jelag]

We had a billet alloy bracket manufactured to handle a 10 micron filter with water trap, and a second filter that is a 2 micron filter to trap the small stuff... We have this set running on 6 trucks, 1 - 10L Cat, 1 - 6. 7L Cummins and the rest 5. 9L engines. . at the present the 6. 7L has in excess of 33K miles with this set up, I don't have a clue on the 10L Cat... but we've tested the truck for volume and it still pumps over 100 CC per second and there has been some water drained from the water trap... but we expect to never to have to change the engine filter...

These filters are physically the size of the oil filter on our engines...

 

[sag2]

Water molecules are able to pass through the filter media easier on a smaller micron size filter. A larger size (10-20 micron) media has better water stripping ability. I don't know the technical reason why, but it is well known to the Cummins/Dodge community, and I'm sure all other diesel manufacturers. That is why the best filter set ups are dual stage, the first stage usually being a 20 micron prefilter, and a 2 micron second stage. The job of the pre filter is to remove large debris and to strip the water from the fuel. Then the second stage is able to remove the small debris that got by the first stage. Cummins/Dodge used the 10 micron filter for years as the best of both worlds, good water stripping and good debris trapping. Then came the HPCR engines and what was found was the very high pressure made the 0-9 micron debris that got by the filter more abrasive to the fuel system. So the result was the 7 micron Cummins/Dodge that was better at debris, but not quite as good at water. Again, a good trade off for what the average customer would experience. That is why Cummins/Dodge stresses the need to maintain your fuel system and filters. Also trying your best to buy good quality clean fuel helps a great deal. There are tens of thousands of trucks running around with 10 micron filters that work great assuming you follow the points above.
If you looked in the shops that are replacing fuel system parts, many of the trucks are farm/commercial that have a fuel tank in the bed, or get their fuel from a secondary bulk source, and those fuel systems contain large amounts of debris and water as compared to the average fuel station supply. So I'm a believer in maintaining the fuel system to prevent expensive failures in the future.
So unless you are going to spend a bunch of money on a dual stage set up, my advise is the use OEM products and maintain them properly. Your engine will still last hundreds of thousands of miles.

 

[Matt400]

Water molecules are able to pass through the filter media easier on a smaller micron size filter.

Didn't know that, thanks for all that info.

Seems a good low cost upgrade then would be the Baldwin 5 micron drop in and to add a water separator down on the frame.

 

[sag2]

Actually that would make a nice little dual stage setup, and at a reasonable cost.