Skrillah

Anyone have any idea how to get to and change the 2.7L fuel filter?

Its not like the 3.4L where its located under the truck, the 2.7 is under the intake and I'm not sure how I can get to it to change it? I hate to take the intake apart, it seems like its a known maint. item that has to be changed so I can't imagine why its so hard to get to.Any ideas or anyone ever do this before?

Thanks guys!
Kyle

Nic

Take off the tire and work through the wheel well. Use some long extensions with a swivel socket to take off the bolts holding the filter to the block. It also helps to have a magnet insert in the socket so you won't lose the bolts.

A stubby wrench also helps to take loose the fittings on the lines.

Skrillah

Hmmm thats an idea...I'm guessing you have changed yours? How bad was it and did you notice much difference with the new filter?

98taco4x

Here is how I did mine. I copied this from another forum.
But I am the original poster

Ok truck will be turning over 150k this week so I decided it was time to change the fuel filter, since it was the original. For those that don't know my truck is a 98 tacoma with the 2.7l 4banger. But I decided to go a different route than through the wheelwell and doing it blind. After helping Timberwolf replace his headgasket last year it gave me an idea to take out all the intake stuff off to get to it that way. After taking the intake, throttle body, plentium, and fuel rail off, as expected it had about 150k miles worth of nastiness that really needed to be cleaned. So after a can of seafoam, a can of deep creep, more cans than I care to mention of carb cleaner, tooth brush, and soaking a lot of parts over night I now have everything pretty clean. Yes this is the way I would recommend getting to the fuel filter, I feel that if I had not spent the time to clean the parts the change would have taken me probably 3 hours, but there is some added cost of 2 gaskets for the plentium.(I will give part numbers later). So did it help? Yes oh my god did it help. First off I got rid a my throttle sticking, the engine runs smoother at idle and at constant speeds, better throttle response, slightly lower rpms, and the truck seemed to have quit expelling smoke and soute under hard acceleration. I will post up any if any changes in mpg later.

Ok on to the how too. No special tools needed just 10mm, 12mm, 14mm, and 17mm wrenchs and sockets. Ratchet wrenchs are real handy especially the 12mm. A flat head screwdriver, pliers, and a bunch I mean a bunch of cloth rags or about 3 sacrificed t-shirts, oh and flexiable magnet when you drop bolts into unreachable places. Ok I needed about four gaskets for this job and 2 i didn't have, the throttle body gasket I just used sensor safe hightemp rtv. and the EGR tube gasget was a little burnt up and I will replace at a later date. The other gaskets are part #17176-75010 and 17177-75020 and are a little pricey the first was 7.58 and the 2nd was 9.48, and I coated them with high temp spray on copper gasket, that I had. The fuel filter part # was 23300-79446 and was about 33.83. All parts came from the dealer.

Ok here are some pics


Pill of parts

Don't that just look yummy

Dirty injectors, its a wonder my engine was running.


Injectors after soaking them overnight in seafoam and scraping out with a pick and then soaking them again.

Cleaned throttle body, was completely black and caked with carbon, carb cleaner is your friend.

See how easy it is to get to the filter, oh now is also a great time to replace the starter if you are having issues with it.

Half way back together.

All the way back together.


Ok sorry for the supper long post. If anybody wants to know more feel free to ask questions, and if anybody want I can go into more details about the tear down.

Skrillah

Wow, good info! Tell me this, is this something an average home mechanic can do? To me that looks a little scary, but I mean I can put on suspension lifts and that sort of thing, I just haven't ever really torn into the engine like that!

98taco4x

Yes I say the average person with some ok wrenching knowledge could tackle it this way. Like I said no special tools needed. The hardest part is just getting my fat hands around everything. And remembering where all the vacume lines go. The wiring stuff is easy cause you can't get anthing mixed up cause the connectors only match where they go. But if you just looking at the simple way its just unbolting and unplugging everything and then doing it again in reverse. If you don't want to you don't have to mess with the fuel rail, but it is only held on with 2 bolts and then it just lifts off. I mean its not hard its just a little time consuming, but as you can see I did a lot of cleaning as well. If I could have the truck down longer I would have had the injectors sent off to have them properly cleaned and pressure checked. But the 2.7 is a very easy engine to work on I have never worked on a fuel injected engine before when I helped a buddy tear his down all the way to the block and I have to say its almost if not easier than a chevy 350

RacerX

If its your first time pulling an intake of you can simply label everything...

On long term projects I use different color wire so I know where particular lines originally belong just tie a small piece to the vacuum line and do the same to the location it connects to. misc bolts go in ziploc bags for grouping and a big piece of cardboard if you worried about the orientation of bolts and items to the intake/block.

Skrillah

Yeah the wire thing is a good idea! Based on what I see in the pictures, I would guess my engine has roughly the same type of build-up (I have 136k miles). It looks like I need to take the time and do it the right way, as I'm sure this made a huge difference in performance!

profuse007

theres gotta be a shorter way to get to that filter. Ill check out my rig and see wahts up.

Nic

It is kind of a pain, but the second time around it should be easy. It is just a little time consuming, especially since I was doing it for the first time. Also, I had a stubborn fitting that did not want to come loose on one end of the filter. I ended up removing the fitting on the fuel line at the top of the motor and then pulling out the filter with gas line still attached. I was then able to get it loose after putting the filter in a vise for leverage. That probably used up most of my time.

If I had sprayed some PB blaster or maybe liquid wrench on the fittings a day or two ahead of time I may not have had that problem.

It's really not that bad as long as you have the tools,which aren't that many. Even if you don't have some long extensions, a socket swivel, magnet inserts, and a stubby wrench, you can buy all of that much cheaper than what it would cost to have a mechanic do it.

By the way, I could reach one fitting on the filter from up top under the hood with a full size (17MM) wrench. The other one was the one that I could not get to break loose with a stubby wrench. A full size wrench was also too long for that one. When you take the fittings off, also be aware there is a copper washer on each side that needs to go back on. Old ones need to be removed. You'll see what I am talking about if you don't know already.

If you have 136K miles on your filter, it needs changing. I cut mine open with 110K miles on it and it was dirty all the way through. I don't know how much it helped because I also ran a bottle of BG 44K through it and cleaned the throttle body too. But it definitely needed it and I know it had to help some. I would say the fuel filter needs to be changed at least every 50,000 miles.

Skrillah

Thanks Nic, so you went through the wheel well to get to the other fitting that you couldn't reach from up-top?

Also, excuse my ignorance with tool names as I'd probably know what you were talking about if I saw it but whats a stubby wrench?

Nic

Yeah, I went through the wheel well for one fitting, but still could not loosen it. I had to take loose another fitting on the line further up where it is attached to the EFI system, and pull the filter out with the line attached to the filter. So, the stubby wrench was really of no use to me after all was said and done.

That still probably does not make sense.

A stubby wrench is just a wrench that is much shorter than a regular one. They are good for getting in tight spaces, but you don't have a lot of leverage with one. They make stubby ratchets too. Just a shorter handled ratchet for working in confined spaces. Google "stubby wrench" and you should see what I am talking about.

Skrillah

Yeah I think that all makes sense.

Yeah, as a matter of fact, I think I have a stubby wrench or two. Sounds like I just need to tear into this project and get'r done. Projects are endless...how come!? Just when I finish one thing with my truck, another one shows its face 2-hours after I finish the first...when does it end?!

profuse007

just looked at my 2.7 and you can get the banjo bolt off but youll have to reach in to get the other end of the bolt. id try to do it w/o removing the whole manifold, because its a lot of work.

Skrillah

I may try and tackle this task on Sunday this weekend, if I can get this done, I'll let you know how it goes. That is, maybe post a write-up for it.

Skrillah

Well I gave it a shot today, and it really wasn't bad. I ended up going through the wheel well, the only bad part was that I didn't get it changed....! I got almost everything loose except the front banjo fitting, it just wouldn't break free. I actually somehow managed to bend the fitting that holds the fuel line in place, I ended up running out of time, tightened things back up and i'll have to wait until another day. I think I'm just going to have to take the filter off with the fuel line still attached on the one side...What a pain.

Beartracker

My mechanic has changed mine twice now on my 2.7 ,2001 Tacoma and he does it in about 10 minutes. He just uses the ratchet wrenches and he does in while it's on the rack. He seems to have no problem at all.

98 Taco, It looks like you better change gas stations and start using TecTron every other tank full. There is no way your intake and injectors should look like that even with a 150k. Mike

Skrillah

Once, you take the wheel off and use some extensions, the install really wouldn't be that bad but again since it probably hasn't ever been done those bolts have been on there a few thousand miles and are not fun tryin to get off!

pfbmgd

Had mine done at 125k.It took a mechanic about 45 minutes.I was told by two different Toyota service people that it a none service item.

Skrillah

That it was a non service item? What? Its a fuel filter, how can it not be servicable?!