Fuel heater leaking out the electrical connection

[Matt_INW]

Figures, Just fixed a bunch of smallish things, added some fun new gauges, and my fuel heater is leaking out the electrical connection. I already replaced the o-ring months ago, it's still good. The fuel is coming up the center where the metal connection is.

Has anyone successfully repair this, added some sort of sealant from the underside?

The only place I can find a new heater, or entire assembly is the dealer or ebay.... $171 for the heater, over $400 for a new assembly.

I'm guessing I'll end up having it removed, threaded, and put in a bolt/plug and forget the fuel heater. I hate to do that though.

Matt

 

[cpdenton]

In all honesty, don't hate to do it. It is pointless really. The fuel isn't really in there long enough to warm it anyway.

Take that thing apart, tap it with a 1/2 inch npt tap, plug it off and don't look back.

 

[FORDF250HDXLT]

yeah don't mess with it.i should plug the one in chip truck like i did in log truck before it starts leaking.been unplugged because it hasn't ever worked as long as iv had the truck anyway.even if those oem heaters were just a few bucks,they still wouldn't be worth their money lol.

 

[OLDBULL8]

I'll sell ya one for half that price.
http://www.oilburners.net/forums/showthread.php?73693-Fuel-Filter-housing-W-new-Racor-cartriged

 

[icanfixall]

For some time now it has been posted this is the way Ford tells us how to use the fuel heaters on the 7.3. We turn the ignition switch on till we see the wait to start light. Then wait 7 minutes for the fuel heater to warm up the fuel.... Then start as usual. So for me I guess I have NEVER properly started my engine. I believe after 2 minutes of the ignition in this position the glow plugs shuts down so they wont burn out but who has the time to wait in frigid northern cold. Also remember the heater is ON TOP of the fuel being heated. So hows that working. When we want to cook something we usually put a pan on the stove and turn on the flame or electrical heat. Then the heat does what is natural. It climbs up but not down into a pan. Some engineer finally figured this out and installed the heater in the BOTTOM of the fuel cans on the psd engines. So those may work better but really.. Who needs them. So far I nave never seen a post talking about fuel frozen because the heater wont work. See on any 6.9 fuel line from the lift pump to the filter head. There is a larger section of the hard line.. Thats the 6.9 heaters. So how does that work in such a short length of tube. I do understand wanting things to be original but some original engineering ideas were terrible at best.

 

[FORDF250HDXLT]

So far I nave never seen a post talking about fuel frozen because the heater wont work.

well theres a first for everything then lol so here it goes;

i had my fuel filter gell on me and stall the truck out while going down the road.the heating element has never worked.the reason the filter gelled however wasn't due to the fuel but i had gotten a bad batch of fuel with lots of water in it.i think this was the first winter with the truck.iv never experienced the situation again.
when i got the truck home,i poured in power service diesel 911 (the red bottle) - anti gell/winter formula and let the electric fuel pump run.after a few mins,she thawed out and ran fine.i had to keep draining the water seperator lots of times on that bad dose of fuel.
it ran like crap with very,very,very low power until that grap burned out and got diluted enough with good fuel.

if bad fuel was more common and i had run into the filter gelling again,i wasn't going to use oem.i was going to go with the universal blanket wrap style.example:
https://utahbiodieselsupply.com/fuelfilterheater.php

but i never encountered the issue again.
for log truck it was easy.she's a big 2wd.she sits all winter anyway.

another idea i had was to use some heat shield/insulation wrap and enclose both the coolant filter and the fuel filter.this wouldn't help in anti gelling at startup though but once up to op temp it would probably keep the filter from ever gelling.just an idea but i never needed to do it,so never did.

a filter heater would be a good idea (a good universal wrap style.not the little silly oem thing) for those who run from down south up north on a reg basis.because the fuel blends wont be the same from out of state and a feller could find himself with filter gelling issues in this case.this is why we should always run our summer blend fuel out before parking the trucks for some time.especially if you know latter on in the winter that your going to use the truck.she'll probably gell on ya without winter blend in there.

 

[icanfixall]

The 7.3 idi fuel heater on its best day really does nothing about heating our fuel. How can it when the element is ON TOP of the fuel.

 

[Matt_INW]

Heater deleted, plug inserted. I feel like part of the truck died. Ok, I suppose that's a bit much.

Now to NO MORE fuel leaks!