I bought my 08 F250 8 months ago. I read last week that you should bleed the water separator. I opened the little yellow handle to bleed the water and had no flow at all, water or fuel. Is it easy to change the filter? Seems like you have to unscrew the black end and slip a new one in, is that all it takes?
No Flow lower fuel filter
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Yes, that is all it takes...but you have other issues. Since you can't get anything out of the yellow spout you are all clogged up!
Risky and you need to fix that right away.
first, get the fuel filters, OEM only. You can raise the front end on some stands to help so you don't have excess fuel dripping. Ensure your fuel tank is around 1/4 before hand helps.
36mm socket, short well, remove the black cap and old filter.
shine a light in there and clean it out. Next on the side is three or 4 bolts. those need to come off. inside is where the water is suppose to run off into for draining. It is all gunked up and needs cleaned as well. This is due to improper maintance.
Clean it all up and put it back together and you should be good to go.
Change the top fuel filter as well.
Risky and you need to fix that right away.
first, get the fuel filters, OEM only. You can raise the front end on some stands to help so you don't have excess fuel dripping. Ensure your fuel tank is around 1/4 before hand helps.
36mm socket, short well, remove the black cap and old filter.
shine a light in there and clean it out. Next on the side is three or 4 bolts. those need to come off. inside is where the water is suppose to run off into for draining. It is all gunked up and needs cleaned as well. This is due to improper maintance.
Clean it all up and put it back together and you should be good to go.
Change the top fuel filter as well.
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Senix, is the '09 drain the same as the '08? On my '09, when I took the valve housing off, there is no access to the inside of the filter, only a flat surface with 2 0-ring gaskets. No gunk to clean out, no where for it to collect--could not see any way to go further into the filter housing.
Joe
Joe
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Not sure I am explaining this right...FordDr has a link to a pic that shows a cavity full of 'gunk' on the filter. There is no cavity behind my drain valve housing. If there are any deposits in the 6.4 housing, where would they be? Almost impossible to see inside housing when filter is out due to space and front driveshaft, but none there and filter looks ok.
Just wondering. Is the pic FordDr show from a 6.0?
Joe
Just wondering. Is the pic FordDr show from a 6.0?
Joe
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His pic is from the housing used on the 6.4. Did you take the bolts out of the side of the housing? To the best of my knowlege there were no design changes during the entire run of the 6.4.
Only a design change to the lower filter to include an o-ring on it.
Only a design change to the lower filter to include an o-ring on it.
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Just pick a nit here, be sure that your truck is OFF.
My Ford dealer tech left that valve open last week after he replaced my filters (reviewed both with me, looked clean after 11.5k miles), but the only puddles I got were when/where I turned off the truck, no trail/drain while engine running. Was quite a surprise when, while starting to fuel up later, the station manager came running out, yelling to stop "overfilling" ... I immediately climbed under (into the puddle) and flipped the value closed.
Still trying to get all that diesel and smell out of one of my favorite heavy denim shirts.
sigh,
- Don
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since it is the separator a little brake cleaner is ok, wipe it out good.
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Link to the article... I know this was discussed several times on these forums. I will be updating that article shortly to include the part numbers you might need to make this repair. The gasket kit part # is 8C3Z-9276-A which includes the cover gasket and something else which I cant recall at the moment.
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The kit includes the valve body, the yellow lever and 2 O-rings. I know, just changed mine out. I still maintain there is no space behind the yellow drain valve/body--just a flat surface with 2 o-rings fitted into the flat surface that correspond with the openings in the yellow plastic valve that rotates. It takes a star tool to take the 3 screws out that hold the valve housing onto the filter body. There are upper and lower openings in the main filter body that are sealed to the outer drain valve assembly by the o-rings. The drain operates by rotating holes in the plastic lever to line up with the holes in the filter body. There is not gasket between the drain body and the filter housing body.
I cannot see where there can be any place for the gunk to gather/form, and I could not see how to get further into the main filter housing without taking the entire unit off the frame. Maybe I am just blind...
Joe
I cannot see where there can be any place for the gunk to gather/form, and I could not see how to get further into the main filter housing without taking the entire unit off the frame. Maybe I am just blind...
Joe
Just to clarify - A clogged up water separator drain *does not* in any way correlate with improper or neglected maintenance.
I drain my water separator at least every six weeks, and rarely ever get any water out, at most a teaspoon worth, change fuel filters every 10k miles and do all other maintenance on the severe duty schedule, yet I had my water separator drain clog up with little waxy blobs.
I pulled the entire HFCM out so I could clean it on the bench, and I found a total of three pea sized waxy blobs, one of which had lodged at the drain valve port.
After reviewing the HFCM on the bench I have concluded that any future cleanings required can be accomplished without removal of the HFCM or of the full HFCM cover. Removing the filter cap and filter provides side access to the water sump, and removal of the drain valve assembly provides access to the two holes the valve connects with.
Flushing through the filter port with some carb or brake cleaner should allow the gunk to be flushed out the valve ports with are a good deal larger than the actual valve bore. A long handled q-tip can be used to wipe around in the sump and also wipe the water in fuel sensor.
If you clean it this way you will most likely be able to avoid the cost of a new gasket set. Don't wait for big blobs to form, when you notice a slow down in the water separator drain flow, it's time for cleaning.
As an additional note, if you find slimy "snot" rather than waxy blobs you probably have a bacteria issue and should treat the fuel and tank with a biocide such as Power Service Bio-Kleen, not to be confused with their Diesel-Kleen product.
I drain my water separator at least every six weeks, and rarely ever get any water out, at most a teaspoon worth, change fuel filters every 10k miles and do all other maintenance on the severe duty schedule, yet I had my water separator drain clog up with little waxy blobs.
I pulled the entire HFCM out so I could clean it on the bench, and I found a total of three pea sized waxy blobs, one of which had lodged at the drain valve port.
After reviewing the HFCM on the bench I have concluded that any future cleanings required can be accomplished without removal of the HFCM or of the full HFCM cover. Removing the filter cap and filter provides side access to the water sump, and removal of the drain valve assembly provides access to the two holes the valve connects with.
Flushing through the filter port with some carb or brake cleaner should allow the gunk to be flushed out the valve ports with are a good deal larger than the actual valve bore. A long handled q-tip can be used to wipe around in the sump and also wipe the water in fuel sensor.
If you clean it this way you will most likely be able to avoid the cost of a new gasket set. Don't wait for big blobs to form, when you notice a slow down in the water separator drain flow, it's time for cleaning.
As an additional note, if you find slimy "snot" rather than waxy blobs you probably have a bacteria issue and should treat the fuel and tank with a biocide such as Power Service Bio-Kleen, not to be confused with their Diesel-Kleen product.
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Unfortunately this will not be effective when a large amount of paraffin has collected. Fortunately for you there was not much debris however most of the trucks I have serviced were in fact quite full of the coagulated junk. Spraying, flushing or soaking would never have corrected my customers problems. It just wouldn't have. You have to scoop the stuff out THEN use a cleaner and finish up with compressed air if available.
Yep, that was my point about cleaning as soon as you notice any slowdown in the drain flow, to try to catch it before you need to really pull things apart. If you're draining regularly, that should keep the small bits forming moving towards the drain, where they will hopefully block it before much builds up.
If this doesn't work, then you of course need to remove the entire cover to clean the sump, disconnecting and tying the front driveshaft out of the way for easier access if you want.
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Actually lack of draining (which is the maint side of this) does lead to buildup.
And proper regular draining doesn't prevent gunk buildup.
If the gunk is going to form, it's going to form, and the best you can do is pay attention to the drain flow and try to catch it before too much forms and it's less hassle to clean.
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I just tried to drain my fuel water seperator, And I'm getting a not so consistant flow which leads me to believe there is a possible clog in there. I'm going to remove the cover to the housing but need to get the rebuild kit first. I have done a search for the gasket kit online, and Ebay is the only thing that pops up. Where do you guys buy yours at?
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I wont buy from them. I went in there and wasn't too sure of the part number, explained it to the guy and he had no idea what I was talking about. He couldnt even find it on his computer.
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