Hi guys, I would appreciate your thoughts on this. Just changed my fuel filters and when I opened the fuel/water drain underneath it would not stop draining. It let out about a gallon and a half of fuel before I put a Pig Mat under it and changed the filter. It never stopped flowing the whole time, WTF. At one point I opened the fuel cap and thee was a hissing/vacuum, so I assume it was draining from the tank. Is there a check valve that could be bad? This was the second time it did this, the first 6 changes I got about a 1/2 cup and it stopped(truck has 80k on it) Truck is an 08 F250 FX4 SCLB, early job 1, 6/07 build date.
Am I missing something or this not the most difficult place Ford could have put this filter. Acres of room under the truck and they put it there.
If I wasn't so cheap I would just take to the dealer.

Thanks, Joel

 

I've changed mine a couple times and not had that problem. I agree they sort of cramed it in there for no apparant reason except to get us to have the dealers change the filters for us. Are you parked on the level, if the back of the truck were higher than the front gravity may be caousing the fuel to drain. That's the only thing I can think of.

 

Mine has done the same thing. I just park it with the nose slightly uphill and it stops pretty quickly. If the fuel tank end is uphill, fuel will run out continuously.

 

I have done mine several times and I always park uphill a bit. I change the top filter first, then drain the bottom and change filter. You still get a bit of diesel running down the frame but its not to bad.

 

I've never had a non-stop draining issue, even when I removed the entire HFCM for cleaning. I park on a level surface, and I always open the upper fuel filter housing on the engine first and leave it open while I do the lower. I believe this causes the low pressure side of things to drain down from the engine and back to the tank, which may be why there isn't much more than the quart the HFCM holds left to drain. I don't believe fuel is typically siphoning from the tank in these "won't stop" situations, but rather draining down from the engine filter housing, fuel cooler and those lines.

 

You might be right. I was able to catch slightly more than half a gallon of fuel from the drain before I stopped and repositioned the truck the last time. I don't know how much the upper part of the system holds all together.

 

Yeah Im always flat when I change it but I do the top first and leave it open just becoze its the easiest and I agree man did they put it in a crappy spot cross members fuel lines cables what else could they throw in the way LOL

 

The front driveshaft... If you want to remove the entire HFCM for cleaning you pretty much have to disconnect the rear of the driveshaft and wire it up out of the way to get enough access.

 

Thanks for the replies. I'm 99% sure the time before last I did the upper first, I thought it was the lines between the upper and lower housings draining back. Thats why I did the lower first this time. Thinking if I didn't let air in upstream , the fuel wouldn't drain back. When it still did I opened the fuel tank cap, which is when I heard the vacuum release from the tank, leading me to believe it was siphoning from there. I always do the service in the same spot in the driveway, which is level. I guess next time I'll try to park with the nose up a little and see what happens.
Joel

 

My drain ran only a pint of clean fuel out.

When I removed all four fuel lines from the assembly, the bigger hose from the tank continued to pour fuel, until I temporarily plugged it while cleaning.

Removing the entire HFCM unit is the ONLY way to completely remove ALL of the fungus gel.

This is MANDATORY every 50,000 miles IF you don't want fuel problems.

I was able to remove mine without removing the front driveshaft, but it's lifted 2".