After several years of procrastination and saving, I have ordered my first diesel, a 2005 Chev 2500HD D/A C.C. S.B. In reading this forum many members have suggested adding a pre O.E.M. fuel filter (eg. racor) for added insurance.
I spoke with the dealer several months ago and they said they had no problem with putting one on. I was again speaking with them a few weeks ago when I ordered my truck and they said they no longer would put the extra filter on because of problems with them. I am very excited waiting for my truck and I want to do the best I can to protect it. What problems could be caused by adding an additional filter other than catching a bit more dirt or water in the fuel.

Thanks for your thoughts.

I do not know what problems can be caused w/extra filtration. I have been running a Nictane Kit, and it has performed great. No problems 2,000+ miles.

No problems here. . .

No problems here. I have a Racor pre OEM filter with heater and WIF sensor. Only have 4500 miles on the truck to date, tho.

The only reason I can think of why they wouldn't want an extra filter on your truck, is because they need the money they get from replacing injectors under warranty, after their subjected to dirty diesel fuel being run through them, take my advice, if they don't want to do it, do it yourself, or find someone who will.

Some owners have reported starting issues due to loss of prime when mounting the additional filter post OEM. It is not a problem with an added lift pump. John Kennedy of Kennedy Diesel has a good write up on his site discussing the problem. (WWW.Kennedydiesel.com). Read the FAQ in the Filtration section.

No problems here. I have a Racor pre OEM filter with heater and WIF sensor. Only have 4500 miles on the truck to date, tho.
How hard was the install of the Racor? In my limited research I too want to add an additional filter pre OEM. Just want to find the right one..as we all do!! ):h

BH I went to kennedy's site and read on the FAQ area, alot of great info there. In reading though it sounded like there were some mods needed to make it all work correctly, have you done this or heard of anyone adding these filters and having no problems. I sort of want a plug and play, I do not mind doing some work though to get the great results. My major dilemma is I had an 02 Chevy Crew 2500HD that while I was traveling to FL from MA picked up a load of algae from a mom and pop shop, (I know bad move, but I was almost out):mad: . Bummer for me, an hour after filling I experienced a limp mode, loss of power, engine light and rough idle. I changed the filter on the side of the highway and bought myself another 20 minutes to get to the first GM dealer.
It happened to be a GMC dealership and they were great!! Of course it was a Saturday late afternoon and there was no service techs around. Long story short I now have an 05 GMC Crew 2500HD, and I completed my trip towing a 20 ft trailer with 8K on it.
One week later the dealer called to follow up and stated that my tank was full of algae, the tank was dropped steamed out lines blown out, injectors changed due to corrosion and they also found a line leaking in the engine, evidently it was a timebomb. They said the engine was in great shape though due to the AmsOil bypass filter I was running.
So now I am a super freak about fuel condition and quality. I run Stanadyne fuel additive but am always looking for something better. Sorry to tell the stories of woah, but I wanted everyone to know how serious fuel conditioning is. Change those filters often!!
Any information that anyone can provide in protecting my new investment, with only 2400 miles on her would be great!!

Thanks!!

Scott

I installed Nicktane pre oem, then changed factory filter. Big security known that my fuel system is protected by the 2 micron element and the volume of filtration available is large (that Cat filter is huge, cheap, and much easier to change than oem). If you do get the Nicktane system get the fuel line decoupler tool, a must.

I don't understand the extra filtration issue. I thought a while back it was determined that dirt fuel was not causing the failure in the injectors. From what I have seen it injector failure seems very random with no direct cause/effect relationship.

My last truck went 97k before it had injector issues and I only ran the factory filter. My new truck is in the GMC house right now having the injectors replaced after 10k.

While I will not argue that cleaner fuel is better I am not convinced extra filtration does anything to prolong the life of the Duramax. Plenty of guys that have run dual filtration from early on have had injector failure. I guess I just don't see how the benefits outweigh the drawbacks or $.

Here is something I was looking into to correct the problem of algae and the contaminents in the diesel. Thoughts? My 02 truck had 38000 on it and no major mods only had a K&N Air cleaner, AmsOil Bypass filter and a Flowmaster muffler. Oh yeah and the boost and pyrometer gauge..got to have gauges!! ):h


http://www.diesel-fuels.com/

Hope the link works. I have not purchased willing to hear the opinions etc from all. The fact that I have to trust a service station for fuel and you never know what you are getting out of the nozzle. They say the tanks have monitors, but good luck getting anyone to admit to having bad fuel or water in the tank.

Thanks bigbud for the input!!

Bergeros ... No, I have not installed an additional filter yet. Like you, I am waiting for an integrated package that interfaces with the operation of the truck. I definately want a lift pump, even if the addtional filter is pre oem. There are several pictures on this site showing cut open filters from trucks with and without a lift pump. Those with a lift pump show much better distribution of filtering across the filter media. The explanation given is the lift pump eliminates the air. According to the Kennedy writeup, air is not good.

The FASS filter system is interesting, but the design is not specific for the Duramax. From what I read, the mounting is somewhat of a problem, and you have to come up with a way to integrate the lift pump operation with the engine. The good news is that John Kennedy is developing a wire harness to control the lift pump he sells and Steve Cole of TTS has a system with an integrated lift pump under testing. These both look like they will be plug and play for the Duramax. As I recall, John Kennedy was originally planning to have his product out this fall, but had some problems, and TTS is looking at sometime after the first of the year. (John, Steve, any updates??)

The Original Diesel ... It appears there are several reasons why injectors are failing. Cleaner fuel may reduce the chance of one of types of failure from occurring. Additional fuel filtration may not be the perfect solution, but at least it may be an improvement. Check out our host's commercial web site. It has links to a two part article. The links are near the bottom of the page and are titled Article from Heavy Duty Trucking Mag (Part 1) and Conclusion (Part 2). Here is the page:

http://nicktane.com/filter.htm

These are "must read" articles.