My Experience.........
On my 93 In the past if my truck started running bad times I would change the fuel filter and go back to the track the following week and gain 1.5 -2 tens I was loosing.. Tryed this many times so they do clog.... O.k. O.k. I know everyone talking Gen 2 now ... I have a buddy who has a Gen 2 as I do and we go to the track often. These trucks run identical times unbelievable.. Then he started beating me regularly, this went on for 3 weeks ... I changed my fuel filter and Bling, we were back running side by side... Moral is they do clog, and that means problems... So change emmmmmmmm ok.......

PEACE....................

 

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Chris, It's specualtion unless someone either knows the true flow rate on the filter or does a flow test on them. With that information you then will need to calculate how much fuel you are flowing at a given load. I too exceeded the magic 400/500 on the dyno with fairly rich A/F numbers (10.8-11.2). I did have a fresh filter on. Something else to consider is fuel starvation may not directly affect your A/F numbers. Obviously making 400/500 on a dyno shows that we both had adequate fuel for those runs. What happens if the filter is comprimised (dirty) even slightly. 10k on yours is great. I would have to place you in the lucky column. Good fresh fuel on a regular basis. Here on the West coast we have another issue to add to the equasion, MTBE and or ethyle alchohol additives. They are an absolute nightmare on fuel systems. Winter time here (Oregon) I change filter every 1500-2000 miles max. Might just be paranoid but better safe than sorry. Just changed it tonight in fact. This one had about 5k on it. I cut it open for giggles. Not too bad some sediment, but like you stated it was doing it's job. I would not have wanted to race with it on.

Ford must have gone completely overkill on this filter. If it works on a V6, 4.6 V8, N/A 5.4 V8, and our S/C 5.4 V8.

How about this test. Take the filter portion out of the equasion. What does a .300 diameter (I.D. of the filter in/out) flow at 60psi? What do 8ea 42lb injectors flow at 5500 rpm and 12-14 psi of boost?

For me I will fill much better spending a few dollars upgrading my fuel system. I do not plan to see any h/p gains or E/T reductions. I do know that I will not have any starvation problems attributed to flow. New filters will be easier to service as well. I will still change them at about 5k miles spring/summer & 1500-2k winter. Plus as I increase the mods the fuel demand will increase as well. I will be ready to support the additional demand.

 

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superfords

Ok, maybe I could have worded that better, I'm sorry.
I assume you work for Ford, thats awesome and very helpful to this forum being your a L owner. What has become perfectly clear is that our filters can and will clog even with as little as a few thousand miles on them. To me, thats another Ford problem they have not delt with. Just like no threads in the head, clunky front ends, the electric windows, etc.... No car company should hand thousands of customers new L's with all the same problems, YET THEY CLEARLY DID. No one can sit hear and say there isn't problems, some major, that Ford knows about yet has done nothing about over the past 4 yrs of L's. Handing over new L's with front ends that shift because they drilled an oval hole and used a round bolt + washer, "is insane". (mine does that) Making the same heads yr after yr, knowing hundreds and possbaly thousands have blown spark plugs because there's no threads in them, "is insane". Windshield gaskets, (mine fell off in a month) Electric Windows (mine clunk like hell) Spares that don't work (mine too) etc etc etc.... Hundreds of us, maybe more, have those problems and many more, yet we still Love our Lightnings and think extremly highly of them (I SURE DO)

Was it dirty funky gas that did that to me, YES IT WAS, was it the fault the two brand new Amoco's I use to use ??? Probably, I'll surly never pull into another Amoco again. What I do know is each time I was at the track I bogged down and starved for gas at 3rd gear WOT and consistantly ran 13.3's 6 times in a row. I have post after post about my dissapointments at the track and talk about the on and off starving for gas thing in every one. Did I ever think it was a filter when the truck was only 15 or 20 weeks old, hell no I didn't. But what I do know is for the past two years since those stations were built I've used them with my old Cobra without ever chaging a fuel filter or having a problem. Just maybe what the pro's here are saying, is just like our Rod's, Ford made them work ok stock, but that was already their maximum working capacity ??? It seems to me, yes they work, but they also seem to clog way too fast. Which now finally answers toast's question,
Hell ya that will cause a lean condition at the track at WOT with 7 lbs of aftermarket pulleys on it. At that tune, I'm max'd out for our fuel system, a little slow down of flow, AND YES YOU CAN THROW A ROD, I was lucky and didn't, instead I burnt up 3 plugs.
A stock L on the streets might not know the filter is clogging. I never had problems on the street at WOT, but always at the track. I know will change it every 2 months or so.

 

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whitetoast ..
My first filter change came with a much large filter also... had to return it... don't know if they gave me the wrong one or there are two...???

PEACE...................................

 

I had the same thing. Must have been a mid-year change or something

 

I do work at a Dealership (owned and operated semi- independently from FoMoCo). Please understand that I'm not defending Ford. I am not one of those "Ford can do no wrong" people. I don't really work for the company directly, but believe me, they screw me (on warranty time) every chance they get, so I get screwed by ford at work and then again on my personal time with my vehicles when I choose to buy Ford and something fails that shouldn't. so i'm not trying to be the voice of ford "its your fault" guy. i know how you feel up to a point.

I know the lightning isn't perfect (the spark plug launchers really **** me off the most). I just happen to think that the L is a pretty damn awesome vehicle. I think for the most part Ford/SVT got this one right and should be commended for even building it. Supercharged pickup truck, 4900lbs and runs 13's stock or 12s or 11s with a few small mods. I think all of us may be a little jadded. taking what these trucks can do for granted and expecting alot more out of them then they were ever designed to do. thats all.

later,
chris

 

It sounds like a lesson to be learned here is, you guys spend a ton of money modding your trucks, but do very little if anything to the fuel supply system. Ford designed the system to handle the vehicle stock. When a person decides to mod thier truck, they should also look at all the components to make sure they can adequately handle it, this includes the fuel system. Some are running high boost and mixing in gas aditives to increase octane, but yet expect the stock fuel system to handle it. By doing this, you are playing Russian roulette with your truck. One thing to keep in mind, is the quality of gas isn't always what you think it is. It varies from supplier to supplier and from station to station.

 

Super Ford and Navi Man are both right. Yes the Lightning is the most Bad A$$ SVT Yet, I agree. I also agree with Navi that our stock fuel system is exactly that, GOOD FOR STOCK. After my melt down I tuned down to 4 lbs from 7lbs of extra Pulley and will remain that way til spring when I put in an adjustable fuel pressue system from So Florida Puley Headquarters. I will also check into a higher flow fuel filter and change it often.

Sorry Superford if I came off wrong, I dig this SVT more than anything I've ever owned, I just get crazy when I hear about another one blowing up.

You got to admit, fuel delivery is EXTREMLY CRITICAL for our L and Ford may have went a little light on our system.

 

I find this discussion very interesting. I say this because I find it ironic that Ford uses the SAME filter for all their F150s. Do I have that right?

Ironic that a Lightning filter can't go 10,000 miles, but my '97 4.6l went almost 107,000 miles w/o a fuel filter change, and the only reason I changed it is because I figured it might be time (changing it was a real pain in the nuts, BTW!).

The bottom line here seems to be that the fuel flow demands of the Lightning are much greater than std F150s, and because of that, even minimal blockage affects fuel supply, thus starving (leaning) out the engine.

So...anyone with aftermarket experience on different filters? I know Fram makes them; who else?

 

whitetoast: Not that I'm a lightning expert or anything but if you can turn the motor over with a wrench on the front pulley then it's probably not a rod that blew out. White smoke is usually the tell-tale sign of burning coolant so if I were taking a wild guess you've blown a head gasket.

Just trying to be helpful.

Back in the old days when I drove a modded VW Beetle on the street (~1988) I used to get gas once in a while across the border in Sumas, WA. Well... I went to visit a buddy of mine at his auto repair workshop and after the visit the car wouldn't start. So we checked the fuel filter and dumped the contents into a small glass... lo and behold... 3/4 of it was WATER and dirt. That was a BP gas station. Somebody told me the newer gas stations have filters in the pumps. Sounds like bullsh*t to me if you're fuel filter got that dirty so fast. I'd take the dirty fuel filter and show the gas station owner, then send a letter to someone higher up at Amoco and complain. We should start lobbying the fuel industry to give us clean fuel, after all we're paying by the gallon or litre for fuel, not dirt and water. Maybe somebody that couldn't get into the locked bathroom took a p*ss in the fuel storage tank?

On the old air-cooled VW's I always ran a clear see-through filter so I could check up on it if I bought fuel from an unknown gas station. I haven't seen see-through filters though the size of what we have on these trucks.

Someone should look into making a fuel pressure sensor setup that measures fuel pressure before the filter and after the filter and sets a light flashing in the dash if the pressure difference is too much (ie. clogged filter).

 

white toast , if you pull the plugs you will probally see the grounds burned off on a few, same thing happened to me bog at WOT in 3rd and BOOM 3 plugs burned off i didn't think i was detonating either when mine went but i was, I put my stock original plugs back in before i took mine in. If they pull the plugs to do a compression test and see the ground burned off they know you were detonating and may void your warranty .

 

The fuel filter CAN cause a lean condition at or near WOT.and not show up in the 'cruise' side.teh reason being that at wot the computer does not read the o2s' it goes off of fixed tables in the computer and goes 'open loop'so there is a minuim amount of sensors it reads.that is one reason why the vast majority of the 'chips' can pass emissions.They only tune at wot.the rest is left alone and runs about stoc[14.7].At closed loop the o2s' are being read and the computer adjusts accordingly.Put the NGS tool on or even a scanner and drive it see that it is in closed loop untill you are about 3.75 v on the tps then it switches open loop.There in lies the problem the computer 'thinks it is getting full flow but its not and runs lean.
I agree that its not ford fault after all they did not put a dirty fuel filter on its in the fuel that you buy.IE full up after the tanker left or is still there,after a rain storm or just a service station with dirty tanks.I would just say this a 15 buck filter and 6 dollar tools and at best 15 minutes work is a WHOLE lot cheaper than a motor even if it still is under warranty.Figuring the aggravason involved.Stan