Dirt in Fuel Filter Bowl?

[Chris611]

I changed the fuel filter today and when I looked in the bottom of the bowl, there was sand/dirt in there. Looked like the seal was good on the filter, wondering if anyone has ideas on how it got in there. Also can someone explain the flow of diesel. It looks like the filter has an upper half and lower half. I assume the center of the nipple in the center of the housing is the to the inj. pump and the slots around the base are from the lift pump? Is this correct?

Thanks
Chris

Also, when I type in "dirt in bottom of fuel filter" in the adv. search it returns zero results? Is this possible or am I using it incorrectly?

[damork]

I used to experience the same thing and rigged up a pvc pipe to my shop vac to vacuum it out. It's not that hard to pull the assembly out of the truck completely if you really want to get it cleaned up. I added a pre-lift pump filter from Racor and never have that problem any more.

[DA BIG ONE]

I used to experience the same thing and rigged up a pvc pipe to my shop vac to vacuum it out. It's not that hard to pull the assembly out of the truck completely if you really want to get it cleaned up. I added a pre-lift pump filter from Racor and never have that problem any more.

Does this pre pump filter effect pump pressure, or?

[Hubert]

Chris,

There is sometimes something in the bottom of the bowl at filter changes. I have never gotten sand but other crud yes.

I think one of the bottom holes in manager is for water drain? Yes tube is out to IP.

Pre lift filter is a recommended upgrade. It keeps LP from pumping the crap through and stressing the LP. Most posts I have seen go with a courser filter 20-30 micron filter maybe. OE is 5 micron iirc. More and more people advise a fuel pressure guage to monitor LP performance and also indicate plugged filter. I would think too low of micron rating prefilter might reduce LP flow.

Probably too specific on search. You have to get creative on search string and have to read lots of posts to find specific info sometimes. Common words like lift pump will return dang near 50% of all threads.