infiltrator

I am not sure that the cover comes off. When I held the filter, it seemed pretty sturdy, and nothing really moved at all. It is in a box next to the recycling, but I could check on that for you guys.

Does anyone want to see the liquid that came out of my filter? Or should I just leave it. I will have to get it and shake it, but some nastly dark brown stuff was in there...

Thanks for the feedback guys, I am really happy I took the time to write this

Elvota

Very nice job.

I tweaked the title of your thread just a bit to help others in the future.

Always good to add additional tips to a writeup like what Hawaiian Punch tastes best. Very thorough.

I might add that flare wrenches (if you have them) are a good call for the fuel line connections, especially if you are dealing with some stubborn or rusted fittings.

Don't want to round those little suckers off.

frisbeedog

x2 on the flare nut wrench set. I use mine for everything, brake lines, clutch lines etc.

YotaJunky

Sure, why not. You've come this far already. Might as well put a little "scare" into those that think it's a lifetime part.

jochumson

I changed mine out and my father in law gave me a ton of crap for taking 2 hours to change a filter. Glad to see that I was not the only one. Good post thank you.

infiltrator

Alright here's what I got. Dug out the old fuel filter out of the recycling, and it didn't have any liquid left inside (drained out sitting in there), but I did add some water to it, and what came out was a massive surprise (I will post the pictures after work tonight!!!) there were particles inside that did not look very good.

As far as that cover you guys were mentioning, I did not see an easy way to simply remove it, but with some creative thinking or maybe just some balls out strength someone may be able to just pry it apart... I still do not know what the point is for that little metal "shield" thing with holes in it... You could probably just make one yourself if you really wanted to.

Froggy93

Dang yours is in a crappy place. My t100 3.0 filter is right out in the open. Have a new one but have been putting it off because I don't want to mess with the rust. here in New England, It turns that 2 hour job into a 3 day nightmare.

infiltrator

Okay, as I mentioned before about these fuel filters not being a "lifetime part" here is what happened.

I poured water in, and it came out the other end looking brown like this...



Close up. I could see some particles. Now if this was happening to my gas...

stormin94

Be thankful that didn't end up in your motor.

nate V

Since I have owned my truck I have done it a couple of times. That dirty stuff doesn't take long to accumulate in there. (at all) Nice write up
At least your not out on the curb and in the snow




I snapped my front line due to rust and am now running a stock steel line to the filter and a rubber flex hose from the filter to the engine. I have had no probs with it sir. Maybe on the carb model where there is not constant pressure in the system this would be the case but not on the EFI models the pressure and volume exceeds what is consumed by the engine.

1990Runner

what i did to help with the problem of the lines not givin is i took all the bolts out of the lines all the way down the frame rails in either direction. that gave me enough flexabilty to manuver the filter a little bit better. if i missed this somewhere above sorry but thats my 2 cents. oh the bolts are 12mm and on mine the little guard had 2 bolts that kinda clamped it on.

infiltrator

Okay, after putting $30 in and running the whole ammount, I gained a solid 1mpg according to my previously mileage.

Gas is $3.67 out here!

A half tank got me 98 miles.

My mileage is just over 12 (12.04 if I calculated right)

Keep in mind this is with only city driving (no freeway on this gas) so I think 12 is not too bad. There are a lot of hills around here and I really think that eats my gas mileage.

On the freeway I believe it would make more of an impact (maybe 2-3 more miles per gallon)

I think if I didn't push my truck I could get about 15 max in the city.

I definately notice a happier truck after this mod.
I also filled up my tank, and will post again after that gas is gone (should be a few weeks).

stormin94

If you have an automatic, then that's not too bad at all. I know if for some strange reason I somehow manage to remain in a city for a long enough time to burn a half tank, mine struggles to get 11 some times, otherwise, it's about 13.

I still like my 18 MPG HWY, tho. That's more like 16.5 lately and I don't know why...

TC4RNR

it's alot easier if you have the crossmember out. i asked the shop to replace mine while they doing the clutch, they didn't charge me extra labor for it.

Brenjen

What mod did you do? I thought you just changed the fuel filter???

infiltrator

Sorry mod meaning modification to what was already there.

I guess I said the wrong thing lol.

I really hope this gas mpg gets better on this next tank (about 1/6 of the way through, looking hopeful).

Brenjen

I saw the biggest jump in fuel economy when I A: set my timing & B: installed NGK iridium plugs; I get nearly 16mpg on the highway now & was getting 12mpg in mixed driving with the old plugs & poorly timed engine.

infiltrator

Yeah, I too have the NGK irridiums and I love them. Plus, I doubt I will ever need to change them again on this engine because they last so long.

RRIND

On Mine, I relieved the gas cap and raised the front end, then started the process with the tank nearly empty. It didn't leak out too much gas, I also used golf tees and I don't have any rust so it took me about a 1/2 hour of flopping the wrench back and forth and swapping it out.

OOoH oooh yeah and I would also like to thank Toyota and it's it designers for one more of it's many Great pieces of engineering on the 2nd gen 4Runner.

RRIND

dieselloco427

I agree - I think next time I have to change my filter the stock fuel line is coming out and I will replace it with that flexible braided steel fuel line - maybe move the filter back a couple of inches... I can also weld up a cage to bolt and cover the frame rail as an added safety measure since there would be no protection from the crossmember.