Fellow enthusiasts,
I just changed the fuel filter on the '94 Explorer that has 52,000 miles. After reading the oil filter article on the mini-mopar site, I decided to do the same inspection with my old filter.
First I drain it, and they connected the air compressor to it with a piece of tubing. I ad-justed the regulator for about 40 psi and let it run for an hour or so. This dried it out thor-oughly.
It was then put into the lathe and slowly and carefully cut apart with a cut-off tool. As far as dirt was concerned there was very little evident. If I were to quantify it, the amount of dust wouldn't even cover ½ of my little finger's nail. I inspected this dirt under a 10 X loupe, and it is brownish in color and granular. There were a couple shiny specs which are brass shavings. This grit was very fine in size and much smaller than salt. I would say it is approaching flour in size. Pulling apart the pleats revealed nothing. Clean as far as I could tell.
This MotorCraft filter seemed well built. The endcap was metal and the pleats were se-curely potted in a rubber-type material on each end. Actually it was more like a semi-dried caulk. I dug at it with a small screwdriver and it kept the impression.
A string was tied around the pleats. The filter can must be stainless steel, for no rust or corrosion was evident anywhere.
Blowing through the filter revealed no restriction outside of the small tubing nipples.
Therefore, based on a sample of one, I feel the filter was still new and did not need to be changed after 52,000 miles.
Cheers,
Ron N.
I just changed the fuel filter on the '94 Explorer that has 52,000 miles. After reading the oil filter article on the mini-mopar site, I decided to do the same inspection with my old filter.
First I drain it, and they connected the air compressor to it with a piece of tubing. I ad-justed the regulator for about 40 psi and let it run for an hour or so. This dried it out thor-oughly.
It was then put into the lathe and slowly and carefully cut apart with a cut-off tool. As far as dirt was concerned there was very little evident. If I were to quantify it, the amount of dust wouldn't even cover ½ of my little finger's nail. I inspected this dirt under a 10 X loupe, and it is brownish in color and granular. There were a couple shiny specs which are brass shavings. This grit was very fine in size and much smaller than salt. I would say it is approaching flour in size. Pulling apart the pleats revealed nothing. Clean as far as I could tell.
This MotorCraft filter seemed well built. The endcap was metal and the pleats were se-curely potted in a rubber-type material on each end. Actually it was more like a semi-dried caulk. I dug at it with a small screwdriver and it kept the impression.
A string was tied around the pleats. The filter can must be stainless steel, for no rust or corrosion was evident anywhere.
Blowing through the filter revealed no restriction outside of the small tubing nipples.
Therefore, based on a sample of one, I feel the filter was still new and did not need to be changed after 52,000 miles.
Cheers,
Ron N.
