Fuel Heater delete and truck surging

renjaminfrankln

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When I originally got my truck the fuel heater had a little bit of a leak through the electrical connector on the outside. I cleaned it up, filled with JB weld and it quit leaking.

I figured that I should fix that permanently at some point, so I bought a 1/2" tap and pipe plug, and a new fuel filter. Several months passed and when I finally got around to removing the fuel filter, I forgot to keep the stainless plate as a spacer when reinstalling the brass thing that the fuel filter threads on to. I chucked it unfortunately, and the trash just got picked up this afternoon. (pic is from tech section of oilburners)


0324140943-jpg.49302




After doing this (and omitting the spacer) I noticed the truck was intermittently acting like it was getting some air in the fuel lines when running. Particularly after the truck was hot, I would occasionally get some light surging at idle, and intermittently, when under acceleration the truck would sometimes act like it all of a sudden had a lot of power, or the power was surging. No fuel leaks from the filter area however.

Today I took the filter off and started thinking about how I could have screwed up. I decided to look back at the tech forum thread and boom.. noticed I forgot this step.

I'm not sure how missing the spacer could cause air intrusion as the filter seals just fine, but obviously this is something I screwed up, and the truck did not do this before I changed the filter and installed the brass plug.

Thoughts? I'm guessing I need to find another fuel heater stainless spacer, or would a simple hardware store washer work?

Another thing, I do not have an o-ring on the brass filter thing. I definitely did not remove one so I guess it did not come with one. I note in pics of some new filter assemblies that there may be an o-ring here and there appears to be a notch in the threaded brass thing for an o-ring. (see link)

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Fuel-Filter-Housing-Heater-For-Ford-83-94-Ford-E-150-E-250-E-350-1988-1994-F59/263961065034?_trkparms=aid=555018&algo=PL.SIM&ao=2&asc=20160908110712&meid=cc7d9e0d00bb4dcf927f88bceed5809b&pid=100677&rk=1&rkt=30&sd=192676330333&itm=263961065034&_trksid=p2385738.c100677.m4598
 
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renjaminfrankln

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My brass filter mount and the bottom of my filter head. No O-ring in sight.

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Thewespaul

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I’ve got you covered, I’ve got a spare here I can send you. As you can see, there’s no o ring above the filter adapter
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renjaminfrankln

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Thank you. I will prob take you up on that. I might throw a washer on there tomorrow from the hardware store if I can find one just to see if anything happens

What bothers me is I can't figure out how that would allow air in. The filter seems to be sealing well. A little bit of leakage between that filter adapter should just let in some unfiltered fuel when running, not air - right?

The filter is a Wix 33417. Got it from rock auto, seems to fit.

I had some air issues before, where the truck would be hard to start after sitting a few hrs, but once running it was fine. Only until after I changed the filter/did the pipe plug as mentioned, did I run into this issue of surging when running.
 

Thewespaul

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I couldn’t say off the top of my head, I’ll pull one apart this afternoon and take a measurement of that spacer so you can match up the thickness with a washer.
 

renjaminfrankln

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Installed washer, no luck! Still does the same thing.

The odd thing is that the surging at idle only seems to happen after coming off of an extended highway run.

I am going to pull the banks turbo filter housing off tomorrow and look for other leaks as well.

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renjaminfrankln

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When searching here I found that there is supposed to be a ball and check valve behind the return line on top of the filter head.

I pulled the barb out and found nothing behind it. There is no ball or spring, just a straight and clean path through.

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renjaminfrankln

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That wont really affect the truck once it's been running.
Many have deleted it all together.
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Well I have two problems... one being that fuel drains back rather quickly after shut down and I lose prime. This has been going on awhile.

Two just started recently (after replacing fuel filter and plugging the fuel heater port) and that is the surging at idle.. seemingly only after coming off the highway. Video to follow
 

renjaminfrankln

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Video starts with me on a highway off-ramp with the clutch pushed in. I come to a stop and it starts surging

I drove around on surface streets for a minute after taking this video and the surging was gone.
 

Thewespaul

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Put a plug where the return off the filter is so we can eliminate that as a possible issue, it’s regular 1/8” npt threads, or better yet install a fuel pressure gauge there. It sounds like it’s running out of fuel pressure, so having a straight path from the feed to the return isn’t helping that any. Let us know if plugging that changes anything for you.
 

renjaminfrankln

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I have a new mechanical lift pump on the shelf. The one on the truck looks very old, so i've been meaning to swap it out at some point. That might just be tomorrow...

If ace happens to have a 1/8 npt plug I could stop that up tomorrow. Then i'll have to do something to plug the return line itself. Maybe just glom some JB weld into the orifice to stop up the original check valve until I can get a new one?
 

Thewespaul

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You can just put a bolt in the return line for now and put a hose clamp on it, or put a tee on the ip return and connect it there. Can’t have too much circulation path between the two sides
 

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