Changed my fuel filter this afternoon. I crapped my pants at what I found. This is my first time changing it since I bought it in November. The previous owner changed it just before I got it in October ( had proof ) so I didn't mess with it until now.
This morning the truck started a little rough and ran kinda crappy for a bit and then got better. Thought .. well I'll replace the FF just in case. I got some fuel at different places out of town last week so no telling if I got water or stuff.
Well opened it up and drained it and the fuel was coming out ORANGE!!! You'd a thought it was off road fuel or something. I did have a little water in the jar when it finished draining. then pulled the filter out and found all this rust and crap in there. Along with a broken wire like thing ( fuel heater?? ). I didn't have any fresh diesel to flush it out with so I strained the original amount through a cloth. It clogged that sucker up with debris. flushed it out twice and had to burp it with compressed air a couple times to dislodge chunks from the drain line. There was a 1/2 inch of crap in the bottom as seen on the screwdriver.

My questions are these :
1. Is my housing screwed?
2. The plate the filter sits on is it replaceable by itself?
3. How bad does this look?
4. Should I look farther back into the tanks for possible contamination?
5. Where is that screen everyone is talking about to clean out when changing the filter?

After seeing this mess. I'm inclined to put a prefilter on my chassis to catch all this crap before it gets up to the engine housing.
If I have a rusting tank it's probably the rear one. I'm unable to pull the last 1/4 tank of fuel out of it due to the lower pickup rubber cone has fallen off.

Here are the pictures. Sorry for the long post. This is freaking me out.

 

i would say pull the filter housing off and clean it out. i think the wire thing you are talking about is the fuel heater but i can't remember how it looks in the bottom of the housing. i would also think about putting a filter on the frame. i am surprised you fuel selector valve has not clogged with that stuff. you definately have something rusting out big time.

 

I put the new filter in and wow ... it runs a whole heck of a lot better now. Imagine that?? LOL.

Thanks tj for the advise.

I'm about a gnats butt away from ripping the whole sorry Ford fuel system out and building a new high pressure pump and regulator assembly on the frame.

 

In your first picture, the hole way up high on the right side of the frame is where the regulator screen is. Swab it out with a q-tip. You shouldn't need to replace the plate at the bottom, all it does is provide a place to mount the fuel heater...which is the wire starting at the lower right of the photo and wrapping around the underside of the plate.

Never seen fuel that bad before. In the third photo it looks more like algae than rust...might be a good idea to drop and flush the tanks. Then hit it with a biocide on the way back up.

 

The plate is a part of the fuel heater. I would replace it, since the heater element (the wire) appears to be out of position.

 

cookie .... not sure about the algae. I've never actually seen it in diesel before. But this stuff was hard and chunky. Looked just like metal. Maybe I should put a magnet to it?? I've got to drop the tanks I guess and check it out. I'm suspecting the rear tank as the culprit. As I stated ... it hasn't been able to draw down pass 1/4 tank for as long as I've had the truck. Might have a couple gallons of water and crap in the bottom.

big_inch..... that plate is replaceable seperate from the housing?? That would be great. The plating is peeling off the top of the plate as I was vaccume'n it out. That heater "C" shapped wire broke off when cleaning the bowl out.

Another idea I had was this. If the tanks are all gummed up..... Might just replace them. Checked in the LMC catalog and they're only $99 a piece. Might not be worth my time to steam them out?? what do y'all think?

Thanks again for any advice.... second big problem I've had with this truck. Tranny crapped out couple weeks ago.

 

Yes, the plate can be replaced. Just an FYI, the stud holding it in place has left-hand threads on it.

I would also suspect that the rear tank may be where all that gunk came from.

 

Man, thats nasty. Last time i saw something like that was on my 4wheeler that was parked under a spruce tree for two years--- after being drowned in the river.

If its coming from the tank, i would just replace it youll never get it all out.

 

now would be a great time to do the rear bronco tank mod. i would bet the p.o. did not cycle between the 2 tanks very often.

 

Rear Bronco tank mod?? what is that? and why would you do it? wouldn't the spare tire have to be removed?

 

yes the spare would need to be moved but you increase you total fuel capacity to nearly 50 gallons. the bronco tank holds 33 gallons. my rear tank is out no becasue of a leak and i am getting ready to install the bronco tank. its the same price pretty much the hardest part will be the fuel level sender. you could just get a sender for a bronco then modify the fuel pickup and the sender will be accurate for sure.

 

Here's a question for y'all ....

I was thinking of swapping out rear tanks too. Before this happened. We have an excursion already. They have 44 gal tanks. I'm wondering if one of those would fit without too much hassle?? Or what did the OBS ( same years as ours ) vans have as far as tank size. If I'm gonna swith.... I'm gonna shove the biggest thing I can find under there... lol

Thanks for the heads up on those threads big_inch

Yea I think my rear tank is the source too....

 

check out dzljim.com he has a good write up. yes no more spare tire after the mod.

 

In my experience algae looks just like that third pictures....little brown *****, but it's soft. Clearly yours is rusted.

Don't some of the OBS trucks have plastic tanks? I thought I'd seen plastic under there before.

Big Bronco's fuel tanks come in two sizes. Standard is 25 gal. and the big one is 33.

 

cookie88 .... thanks for the algae info. I have never run into it before. I'll have to take a closer look at the rag I used as a filter.

My truck has metal tanks on it front and rear and it's a 1997.