1Gen preheater
 

To begin with when I decided to fix my leaking fuel preheater,I found out that Fleetguard has obsolited the preheaters for first gens. You won't be able to get one from anyone except a Dodge dealer for [no joke] $284.00. While I was looking for the heater I went onto Geno's website and found a second gen fuel preheater for $36.95 plus shipping, it looked just like a first gen heater. I decided to take the chance and see if I could modify it fit my truck. The list below is what you will need to change over to a second gen heater. A pic of the parts
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1 second gen fuel preheater 2 New plug in for the new preheater [you will need this part as the plugin's are different between the two heaters] 3 a milling machine or a dremel tool 4 new fuel filter 5 an most importintly a thirty pack to help finsh the job.:D You will be able to use the old fuel spud for the new preheater they match up perfectly. After opening my package from Geno's I laid the two side by side for comparison my concluson is that the second gen is simply an updated verison of the first gen heater with some change's to the casing.
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Under my hood
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The two heaters in all of these pics are in the order of;first gen on the left and the second gen is on the right
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Another view
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Now this pictrue shows the main differince between the two heaters. This is the second gen heater,now facing the plug in you can see two prongs [that is what I call them anyway] those will have to be shaved down untill they are below the top of the rubber gasket, I milled them down to the top of the casing without any problem. But you can experament with hight of the prongs,BUT THEY WILL HAVE TO BE TAKEN DOWN, you can't just put it on,I tried that and it didnt work. The preheater in the milling machine
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Now in the second pic if you look closely you can see four round "bumps" on the top of the casing I took those down too.
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In this photo you can see how the it came out [just a note if you do this you may want to tape over the inlet holes on the top side so the shavings that are made shaving,milling,ect... won't get in the heater element. I did'nt do that , so when I put it on I simply flushed it out with the pre IP fuel transfer pump
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In this photo you can see where the preheater mounts
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This photo show's the preheater mounted
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Now while doing this job I found that a Dodge valet key works good for fitting in the slot on the fuel spud
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It dose a nice job allowing an ajustable wrench the ablity to turn it. Now the you can put your new Fleetguard DIYer moded preheater on.

After you have tightened down the preheater, the fuel fiter's next, this a Baldwin fiter that I put on my truck
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Here is the plug in that you will need

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Another veiw half way put togeither

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Finshed

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At this point plug it in, as I did this mod this week and as how it's getting colder up here I'll update evey month to tell how it's working. Thanks to Wannadiesel for putting up with me an my case of the stupids,Don's Truck an tractor in Tenn and to Geno's Also as this is my first tech thread feedback would be appreceiated.

Great thread, Nathan! Do you want I should fix the pics for you?

yes please

awesome write-up! had no idea the heaters can only be found at a dealer and we all know you'll pay an arm and a leg for just about anything. as far as the '94 kit from geno's, does it come with the new gasket, plug, crimp on terminals and the seals?

Pix fixed and thread added to the sticky. :)

:)jimbo486 the preheater come's with a new gasket, the plug in and crimp's came from the truck shop where my Dad work's its an off the shelf part , so if you have the heater you should be able to walk into a part's store an match it up, for seals do you mean the fuel fiter seals? please elaborate:)

also I was at the local Napa an the rubber seal for the preheater the one that goes between the head an the heater is the same size as the one for Napa oil filter #1036. Thank's Dave it look's really good :cool:

i should've specified. by seals i meant the little gray seals that slip over the wires when they're pressed into the weatherpack plug. pictures look good now!

the seal's came with the plug in

Nice!

Any idea if the 2nd gen heater is a different wattage? Better heat?

Not a clue, it was one of the "I wonder if this'll work" moments ,seems to but i'll update as the winter goes on

Thanks for the write-up. I just ordered a heater from Geno's tonight!

I had sort of fixed my original heater by taking it apart and painting the top of the ceramic button with conductive paint . . . but I have been out there the past couple of mornings with a heat gun to the filter body -- the filter just clogs at start up if its close to zero overnight. This should be much better!

Thanks again,

Alec