97 hard start suddenly

[dbrannon79]

The filter I have with the clear bowl on my 95 came with a 12 micron filter, it uses a standard racor r12t filter. those filters can be had in various micron ratings. I run a fleetguard 2 micron filter on it. don't know if it filters water but has the bowl so water will drop to the bottom and you can see it.

@royunion this entire filter housing is small and might work well for a van. here is the link on amazon for it. If you decide to go with this one like I did, don't use the brass fittings or plugs that come with it, go to the local hardware store and get new. the ones that come with it are cheap chineesium, the threads are cut where the plugs will bottom out and still leak even with gobs of thread tape.

Amazon.com

 

[dbrannon79]

The nice part of it is the housing has two inlet and outlet fittings that are 1/4" npt. you can easily add a fuel pressure gauge on it for testing fuel pressure weather it be a gauge directly on the housing or for mounting one on the dash, though you don't want a live fuel line permanently going into the cab for safety reasons. it also has a threaded port on the bowl for a water sensor too.

 

[royunion]

Remember guys- he has a van not pickup. Roy- it would really help if you ad the rig to your signature line and all modifications. Then you won’t get “lift the bed” or such suggestions. The vans don’t have the ffm on the intake like pickups. They have a center mounted turbo there and a completely different intake manifold. Same set up as hummer/hmmwv. The FFM in vans is on frame near drivers door.

To be clear- I wasn’t suggesting trying to re seal the ip. Thats a nightmare.

They call it the FFM (fuel filter manager) because besides filter its the heater (which you and I don’t need where we live) and WIF (water in fuel) sensor. the WIF triggers and that day you need to replace the filter. Originally the coating on the Delco filter would seperate 90% of the water up to 2 tablespoons over a 50 gallon volume. This was before they started putting methanol, ethanol, etc into all of our diesel. Now the alcohol in it absorbs water and keeps it in suspension allowing it to pass through the fuel filter. And many other brand filters made for this unit were proven to have ZERO water separation or absorption abilities. So most people add a real water separator like you see in Doug’s 2nd picture on the firewall.
Sux to have an additional cost but it’s far better than replacing injection parts and pistons. Last time I was in Orange County their pumps said 10% oxygenated fuel (which is alcohol) so you might consider adding one.

Another consideration is replacing the factory ffm all together. It has a nominal 5 micron rating ORIGINALLY but recent tests of the delco filter put it closer to 10 micron. Fass fuel filter water separator currently is the best for it at 99.96% !!
Their spin on filter for fuel is 10 micron nominal and run as polisher unit is good for 30,000 miles- but how our system does it should run more like 50,000 miles since we don’t recycle 100 gph through it non stop. There are plenty of other spin on filters that are 5 micron. Almost all the vans and trucks in fleets around here almost all went to this years ago with great success. The smaller and cheaper spinons are size of our regular oil filters and last about 15,000 miles. Being able to see the water and drain it easily is a game changer.

As little work as possible. Here is pic of the water in fuel sensor. As you can see the washer is cut funky so it can leak. The stud that got the jb weld was be unscrewing the sensor bolt completely putting jb weld light on the threads near the upper only and threading it back in. No jb weld is exposed to the inside of the filter. Water conducts electricity so when it reaches the top it grounds out setting the water in fuel light

I run mostly R99 or R95 high cetane biomass fuel anyway

 

[dbrannon79]

Off the subject, I have yet to figure out why the jungle site puts this message on links to products. I am not an associate or affiliated in any way with them or products on the site!

 

[royunion]

The nice part of it is the housing has two inlet and outlet fittings that are 1/4" npt. you can easily add a fuel pressure gauge on it for testing fuel pressure weather it be a gauge directly on the housing or for mounting one on the dash, though you don't want a live fuel line permanently going into the cab for safety reasons. it also has a threaded port on the bowl for a water sensor too.

Yeah, cute but I would never use that because it mounts under the van. As it is the OEM one has a protective steel deflection shield that must be removed to get at the filter. It was hit once by a piece of road debris once and did its job. It is bad enough I have the regulator hanging under there on the frame rail near the lift pump

 

[Will L.]

Yes, I am aware of what the original unit is and how it works in vans ve trucks, vs older 6.2 trucks, etc. my point is the amount of water the filter can stop is exceeded by time the water triggers the alarm. The biofuel is worse for the issue. Original diesel fuel never had algae issues but new stuff does- ESPECIALLY bio fuels because the algae survives in the suspended water, it does not survive the straight hydrocarbon fuel. Just offering info and options.
If you can do the research to learn what everyone else is telling you and doing it to their trucks for reason- if you don’t want to remove the subpar filter usit and replace it with something better-that your decision.

You said the problems began with the leak. You tried to bubble gum it together (which we all have from time to time) and you still have the problem. The root issue seems pretty obvious. The verification test given by Stanandyne and by GM is the clear return line. If you don’t want to do that, your call. Best of luck to you in solving it. Let us know how it turns out.

 

[Glagulator]

Just curious, is this the FFM your van uses?

 

[royunion]

Yes, I am aware of what the original unit is and how it works in vans ve trucks, vs older 6.2 trucks, etc. my point is the amount of water the filter can stop is exceeded by time the water triggers the alarm. The biofuel is worse for the issue. Original diesel fuel never had algae issues but new stuff does- ESPECIALLY bio fuels because the algae survives in the suspended water, it does not survive the straight hydrocarbon fuel. Just offering info and options.
If you can do the research to learn what everyone else is telling you and doing it to their trucks for reason- if you don’t want to remove the subpar filter usit and replace it with something better-that your decision.

You said the problems began with the leak. You tried to bubble gum it together (which we all have from time to time) and you still have the problem. The root issue seems pretty obvious. The verification test given by Stanandyne and by GM is the clear return line. If you don’t want to do that, your call. Best of luck to you in solving it. Let us know how it turns out.

I don't run biodiesel. On occasion I might top off the tank with b20 if it is cheaper. As I said I run r99 or r95

R99 alleviates most of the issues that were present with the biodiesel blend. R99, unlike biodiesel, is hydrogenated, meaning the oxygen molecules are removed during the refining process. This is a significant advantage for storage and cold weather performance.

There are none of the water issues to deal with using R99 that were problematic with biodiesel. Water that was present in biodiesel had to be treated to displace the water and prevent it from entering the diesel engines and being burned.

They call it "biomass" but it is truly a different product.
I do run a biocide about twice a year. The DS4 - especially if run with low fuel pressure will collect algae in the optic sensor timing wheel cavity, and then it is bye bye IP

They came into the shop all the time for rebuild with wheels damaged so bad the rebuild was too costly. Between burnt up fuel solenoids and screwed up optic sensors and wheels they were not economic rebuilds.

I don't disagree that filter is crap as an OEM part but, then again the entire 6.5 is.

A Vortec, 4 bolt main built with 10:1 corvette pistons supercharged is standing by to go in the van to run E85

I agree there may be an air leak in problem, but I am not interested in burying money in the diesel soon to come out.

About the same time the leak stopped, the extended cranking due the air, had run the batteries down, and the starter was cranking slower even when I charged the batteries fully.

On E85 that filter style would be fine

So now I just swapped the starter, but taking a rest because the batteries are needing a charge

Trying to start it the bendix and solenoid went out, so I had no choice anyway.

I need to solve this problem first, and if it turns out to be the CPS or IP the diesel Era ends and it is coming out for the vortec instead

 

[royunion]

Just curious, is this the FFM your van uses?View attachment 90794

Yes