I recently purchased an 03 Ram with the 5.9HO and I have a question regarding the stock fuel filtration.<br><br>My previous rig was a 01 Chevy with the Duramax. Over the last couple of years experience has shown that the stock fuel system on the duramax is not sufficient to filter enough of the 5 micron and smaller particles in the fuel. It is only 50% efficient at 2 microns. Part of the problem here is that the element is too small and it is hard mounted to the motor. With the rail pressures that the duramax and now the 5.9 run it is critical that the fuel be as clean as possible.<br><br>Many of the durmax owners have installed additional fuel filters from either baldwin, racor, or cat. Then have had fuel anaylsis done and have shown good improvements in filtering efficiency as well as many reports of increased fuel economy.<br><br>I had purchased a setup to add a racor 2 micron 690R2 filter to the duramax, but before it arrived I sold the truck. Now I have this additional fuel filter sitting here not doing anything.<br><br>Is the stock filter on the cummins sufficient?<br>Has anyone done fuel anaylsis to determine quality?<br>Would it harm anything to add the racor filter?<br>Would you do it if it were your truck?<br><br>Any responses would be helpful. Thanks.

 

I ran an additional filter on my truck for years. I don't think there was any real benefit to doing so as I had never found anything in the filter. (even after pumping fuel out of a 45 gal drum for two weeks) I believe if you stick with fleetguard filters (cummins brand) you will have all the filtration your engine requires.<br><br>As far as harm in adding the additional fuel filter... The second gen lift pumps were notorious for being weak (some say the third gen are not much better (*?)). now you are adding an additional resistance in the line. You may lose power and shorten the life of the lift pump.<br><br>Would I do it if it were my truck? <br>- No, I would not. Unless I see some sign of the cummins fuel system having the same problems as the duramax engine or if I were getting my fuel out of a questionable source (farm tanks). Based on my past experience I feel I would be flushing my money away on the additional filter.

 

If I can ever work up enough motivation, I am going to add a tank to the bed of my truck and plumb it to the main tank. I will always fill the bed tank, the fuel then run through a filter like you describe, then into the main tank. That will &quot;polish&quot; the fuel in the main tank before it hits the factory filter. With rail pressure in excess of 20K psi I can't imagine that your fuel could be too clean. That way you get additional filtering with no added burden on the lift pump.

 

My good friend has an 02 Dmax and has been watching this pretty closely. There has been alot of study on the fuel quality and the failure of Dmax injectors due to the passing of the 2-3 micron particulate by the RAcor factory filter.

The real kicker for the auxiliary filter is that if you installed say the Cat filter upstream of the factory one.. The Cat filter costs about $10 and the RACOR factory POS costs $45. You would never have to change the RACOR because as tested the CAT filter was 100X more effective at removing the 2 micron particles.

Its worth the time and wear/tear to install the Cat filter IMHO, at least on the DMAX...

J-eh

 

What's &quot;IMHO&quot; mean?

 

In My Honest Opinion

 

or

In My Humble Opinion.



phox