I like you also got tired of and wanted to eliminate the possibility of faulty filters and bought a oem ford cap and filter. Been very satisfied since! But yes it was costly! Nice to hear it wasn't anything more costly or harded to get at. Did the parts house refund you?

 

Me too, after replacing the OEM with a one piece filter/cap. I fought a leak for months replaced about everything. Went back to the stock cap leak gone, and no more valley mop up.

 

It came from O'Reilly Auto Parts. It is the cap and filter combo (I kept my old cap) and o-ring. the o-ring in this 'kit' is a real o-ring in every sence as in round and round..... but it has a flat 'wing' around the 'outside' and 'inside' (when laid on top of the fuel bowl) that seems to help keep it from 'rolling'.

I had a 'leak' for several weeks and when I talked to Bob on the phone Replacement O-rings for Ford Diesel Engines last Friday about getting some o-rings for what I thought was a drain valve leak. the more we talked about it he said that the leak was most likely coming from somewhere else and suggested that the fuel bowl lid was on too tight..... . He said to take off the lid and lube it up with fuel and put it back on and not so tight.....as any distortion in the fuel bowl o-ring may cause an area where leak will happen. I know the very day that my leak started... It was after a cold night when the temps got into the 20 and I had left my truck out side. The cold may have flexed the bowl enough to 'move' the o-ring and let a small leak occur. now all is good.

 

So just curious but is there a proper torque the cap should be tightened to? I always use oem filters and cap and tighten it down till the cap bottoms out. Always thought that was to tight but it hasn't failed me yet. And I finally got me one of those ford fuel filter wrenches. It's worked great on all except the filter with the cap with the hex head on it, but that one is easy enough to get off.

 

Don't have a clue about the 'torque'. I think that the 'torque' would be hard to come by as the 3 different o-rings that I have seen have different hights and thicknesses.

The cap with the hex head is the one that I have on now. It is a 1 inch size. With a socket wrentch it is easy to run it tighter or looser.

 

We started seeing these different o-rings a couple of years ago. After someone called an engineer at Wix, we found out the original triangle shaped gaskets like racor includes just need to be lubed up with diesel fuel before installation. The newer style flat looking gaskets that wix and many others started using need to be lubed with motor oil, otherwise they have a tendency to leak.

 

You guys helped me, this summer. If any remember I did mine and got wise, didnt read the post's cause I told myself I did it before an it was easy.

Forgot to lube the gasket w/ oil, lucky I didnt burn my trcuk up.
Didnt even get a new gasket, just lubed up the I had just gotten and thankfully that took care of it. And thanks to all here.

john

 

Hi,

Read the thread and have one more check and see for you.

Short story, 99 super 7.3, on our way to the circus, full tank. 35 miles out truck lost power on the highway. Being a good Dad and a retired military guy, I carry tools and a spare fuel filter. (I use luberfiners w/cap)

0 degrees out and 17 below chill factor, I pull to the shoulder and start the process of changing the filter. Numb hands, flashlight in mouth, I succeed in replacement.

Fired the truck, off we go. Fuel gauge is unfriendly every start so I didn't really pay that much attention. Truck ran fine.

Circus is 20 mins to close so I remote start the truck from the hot dog line.

Walk out and load up, fuel light glaring. Get out and look under the truck, pooled diesel 20 gals or so.

Hood popped (still freezing) I see a pool on the valley. Tighten the filter cap, still oozing. (Didn't keep old one on change earlier) Get in high tail to nearest diesel stop....Didn't make it. Anyway, cab ride for the family, cab ride for diesel jugs...yada yada

Got it home for about 200 bucks. Next day, I pull it apart...

The metal lower lid for the fuel filter that I replaced was still laying in the fuel bowl which gave the new unit an extra 1/8th inch preventing the lid to adequately seal.

check it out.

Denny (Circus is overrated)

 

Oh man! Glad y'all didn't freeze and found some help to get y'all out of a pinch! Ps must of been past time for filter change if it came apart like that!