Second Fuel Filter or not?

[Dale Reed]

Got a question.



About 100,000 miles ago my truck was smoking so the mechanic replaced(or repaired, I don't remember) the injectors and added a second inline fuel filter. A fancy larger one that is mounted in the engine compartment(of course) but high up on the inside fender. Has worked fine all this time but looking at it this PM I was thinking that its mount requires the lift pump to pull then push the fuel considerably higher than it normally would possibly causing the pump to wear faster.



I am tempted to remove the second filter. I am very careful to buy diesel only from dealers that sell a lot of fuel such as truck stops.



Also do you folks carry a spar lift pump with you in case you need to replace the original when you are a long way from a ready supply? I assume that even a shade-tree mechanic like me could replace it in an emergency. Thanks for the help, Dale

 

[jbolt]

I'm at 160,000 with the stock lift pump. Never thought to carry a spare. As long as your getting a good quality fuel you should be fine with the OEM configuration. I could'nt tell you if the second filter is hard on the lift pump but you do have 100k on it with no trouble?



I did get a bad batch of fuel once. Filter clogged up so bad I drove the last 100 miles at 25 mph, would'nt go any faster. That was in the middle of nowhere sierra mountains in the middle of the night in a snow storm with my wife and two youngins. I didn't dare shut it off. Figured I drive until we got where we were going or until it died.



Jay

 

[Bob Beauchaine]

I change my fuel filter every 12,000 miles - at every other oil change and have not had any problems to date. I also buy all my diesel from Flying J or high volume (truck) dealers. When I change out my fuel filter I rarely find more than very small quantities of sediment. BTW I've got over 170,000 miles on my truck. Hope this helps.



Bob

 

[BreaksEverything]

on the 6bta's in my machines Cummins has 2 filters, a primary filter & a secondary filter the only bif is that the fuel cell is right there w/ in 6 ' of the lift pump

I'll look tomorrow too see if it's a mech. lift pump

 

[JLEONARD]

All the 6b marine engines have 2 filters, and the older engines are using the same mech lift pump we have. The first filter is usually a Racor unit with either a 2 or 10 micron element. It's purpose is to remove water, and algea particles as the marine environment is noted for these problems.



These engines are not notorious for wearing out lift pumps, so I say don't worry too much about the pump in your setup.



And do what Bob suggests... buy fuel from a place with high turnover whenever possible.

Jay

 

[Greenleaf]

Near all the school busses in my fleet employ two: one is a Racor, mounted on frame rail near the tank. The other is same as our trucks. I have yet to replace the lift pump on any bus yet.



I will ad this. Speaking with a diesel performance shop, it was suggested that I replace my OEM lift pump because I'm in search of higher HP levels. The original was replaced at 169K. Still worked fine as far as I could tell. Safer than sorrier I suppose.



Scott

 

[Dale Reed]

1) I like the idea of putting the first filter down lower near the fuel tank so the lift pump will not need to pump the diesel so high.



2) The second filter filters the fuel before it gets to the lift pump which I guess is a good idea.



I am going to leave the Stanadyne filter where it is until I can think of a way to conveniently move it down nearer the fuel tank. Thanks for the info. Dale