Really really urgent, fuel filter help

[Krazyistkarl]

Okay, so I've been messing around trying to get my van to stay running. Air in the system, and it wouldn't prime. I put some ATF stop leak into the primer on the filter body and it has seemed to have swelled the seals enough to get it to prime. My issue now is once it builds up pressure, it's spraying out the water drain on the bottom, I take it this is not supposed to happen, it's tightened up.

[Krazyistkarl]

Screw it. Made a rubber diaphragm out of an inner tube and screwed it up on top of the bolt. No more fuel spraying out the bottom and she seems to prime well.
I'll need to order in a new sensor.
Or better yet, replace this awful system all together.

On the bright side I can pull the batteries and filter in around 10 min now, a little longer butting them back in.

[Krazyistkarl]

So more background info, I've had some intermittent issues with the van hesitating on acceleration every once in a while, so rarely that I usually would forget about it. Saturday I was driving down the highway, pulled over to take some photos of the harvest (Saskatchewan eh') when I got in and went to drive off she hesitated and I needed to give her more pedal to maintain speed, and she died. After some coaxing she started and I was able to drive off.

Sunday morning I left the lake and was heading back into town and she died completely, she wouldn't start. I was only 30km from town so I CAA'd a tow truck.

Since the road to the lake is complete horse shit right now, like a horrible clay mess, the underside of the van was covered from the weekend previous. I decided I'd drop the tank, maybe a bit premature, but my fuel filter was relatively new and on the side of the highway I drained the sediment trap and nothing came out. The top of the tank was caked in mud, and the breather was plugged. After washing the outside of the tank I opened it up to inspect it, aside from a few specs of rust it was spotless, including the strainer, so the tank went back on.

Next I changed the fuel filter, but it wouldn't prime. I read online that the primer can screw up, so I picked up a bulb primer and added an inline filter as well. When priming it, it would reach a certain pressure then drain out the bottom.

Because I hadn't eliminated the pump as the issue I skipped ahead and bypassed the factory fuel system altogether and plumbed the inline filter and bulb into a Jerry can, she started after a few tries.

Pump OK, so back to the issue at hand, I pulled the fuel filter assembly again, and filled the primer via input line with ATF stop leak hoping to swell the seals and make it function properly again. Had a few beers while it soaked. Did some more research, Its at this point I realized my filter has the stupid extra O ring inside, and needed to remove that with pliers, screwed the filter on and already I can tell the seal is much better.

Re installed the fuel filter and lines and now the factory primer worked excellently (could be from the ATF stop leak as well as the ring removed, there's more to my testing the primer, but I'm certain the ATF stop leak did the trick, but I wont get into the details) and was priming the system (bleed screw still shut) and it would reach a certain pressure again and dump fuel out the bottom.

Off the filter assembly comes again, I removed the drain on the bottom and inspected it, it looks to have all the components in place, but I was unable to find a photo or info online, so I made a tiny diaphragm out of a bicycle tire tube and installed it on top of the bolt to block the fuel. I should have used a length of fuel line and a shutoff valve so I could still operate the drain, but its what I had on hand.

Back on the filter goes, I decided I'd keep the bulb primer on to pre-prime the factory primer and fuel filter, cracked the bleed screw, primed until air was gone, re installed batteries and set the intercooler back in place, turned her over and she fired right up. Bolt Everything back together.

After a few test pulls, the van pulls much harder and smother then it ever has. I must have always been sucking in some air around the filter from that damn extra 0 ring. Hopefully this will also help with the cold starting issues I was having last winter, I'll be sure to update if it does.

A few tricks I learned redoing this so many times in the past two days 1) the hood latch hoop on the hood works great to tie the intercooler up out of the way without having to disconnect the piping. 2.a) take a screw driver around the battery clamp bolts and widen the space so a socket can fit, I did this on the rear negative terminal, the rest seemed to be okay, disconnect said terminal, and on the front battery undo the bolt on the terminal stud 2.b) leave the rear positive terminal and wire connected, only disconnect it where the wire that leads from the rear battery meets the front batter on the stud, and the main positive wire with the main fuse, the two bolts are on the fancy terminal, leave that tightened to the battery 2.c) you can now loosen the battery tray hold down and slide the top piece out of the way, the batteries can slide out now.
3) U joints and an extension, pull the filter assembly off including the bracket, then disconnect the connector for the water trap, and unscrew the filter

I'm sure there is more that I'm forgetting, I'll add to it if I remember. Hopefully this will help someone out!

[Big-Bird]

Double O-rings....not the first person to do that!

Glad you fixed your problem!

[Krazyistkarl]

Just a little bump, when you guys are filling up are the tanks under vacuum when you unscrew the cap. My breather must still be plugged