Fuel Filter after 3 years of E85

[bigmoose]

Switched to E85 three years ago and have run nothing since. I've stored it with E85 over the winter for 6 months each year. I also have been adding Lucas ethanol treatment to each tank.

Decided to take apart my fore stainless filter to see how it looked. Appeared brand new with no signs of sediment or gel.

 

[SID297]

Not bad. Does anyone run a water separator on their E-85 setups?

 

[04sleeper]

Looks like my filter as well. On 4 years with the latest set up.

 

[Zemedici]

inb4 'omg i saw on facebook E85 ruins your fuel system'

 

[BLOWN9646]

Same here, stock filter/lines

 

[JeremyH]

Higher ethanol content fuel indeed runs much cleaner overall, the more corrosive aspect cleans hydrocarbons and tarnish found in regular filtered petrol fuel. If your tank/fuel system has a lot of mileage on regular gas and any kind of build up and then you switch to e85 etc, it will often clean out that gum/varnish in the system and that's when you get grossly clogged or black pump filter socks after short use that you read horror stories about online. The higher ethanol is removing that build up from the tank and the filters are catching it. This is the time when its really critical to keep and eye on things after the switch as the filters can become clogged quickly if this was the case.

A qualitative observation of how the filter looks has little bearing on its capture efficiency or "health" however. IE. foreign material trapped in the filter element causing a restriction to flow overtime. Stainless and micro-glass don't get that traditional dirty filter look either so doesn't really tell you the full story. Even a standard paper/cellulose fuel filter will not appear as dirty.

A good way to actual quantify filter health is by measuring pressure drop across the restriction. This is probably the most major factor to consider when trying to maintain the overall fuel systems ability to flow and support your power level. As pump outlet pressure goes up flow/power potential goes down as does pump life due to increased motor wear from heat. This is something that can easily compound since pumps wear and loose flow over time already. It will never perform as good as it did the day it was installed brand new.

I started monitoring pre filter pressure a few years back. When it gets to about a 10psi increase in pump outlet pressure pre filter compared to what I get to the rails that's my threshold for replacing or cleaning the fuel filter.
I am continuing to test the different filters still as well.

Its up to you to establish your filter change or clean interval based on what you feel is acceptable based on your pump flow and power level. For me it became evident its going to be a yearly thing to replace or clean the filter like changing the oil and checking spark plugs.

Here is some of my ramblings on the matter if anyone is interested in this kind of data.

 

[Bdubbs]

I run microglass fuel filters. I'll be replacing mine this spring. Roughly 2 year's and probably 95% running e70 and e85.

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[Mpoitrast87]

My filter looked brand new aswell after a couple years of e85 and 93 octane