Coworker changed my mind about pre-filtering diesel

I always thought those inline pre-filters were just extra money for no reason, figured the main filter catches everything anyway... but my buddy Jake in the shop showed me the crud that came out of a tank after a month with one on. He said the stock filter can't stop water and fine grit from wearing injectors down early, and he showed me a cut-open filter element that proved it. It hit different seeing that gunk with my own eyes, like how much crap is really floating around in bulk diesel. Has anyone else run a pre-filter setup and seen a difference in injector life?

2 comments

2 Comments

diana82925d ago

Guess Jake's just trying to sell you on his new found religion of crunchy fuel.

schmidt.eva25d ago

Jake's got a point about the water and grit... the factory filter is rated for like 10 microns maybe, and the real damage comes from stuff under 5 microns that just slides right through. I spent a summer changing injectors on old Dodges and the ones with a pre-filter always had cleaner tips and less scoring on the plungers. All that "crunchy fuel" talk aside, the water separator in a good pre-filter is the real hero, it catches condensation and algae crud that a stock filter just passes through. The difference isn't subtle, it's a pretty big deal if you're running something older or truck stop diesel. Once you see the inside of a fuel system that's been on pre-filters for 50k miles, you don't really question it anymore.