i changed my stock fuel filter when i got my truck (i think... at least they billed me for it). after 6k miles, i was losing power, but didn't really notice because it was slowly happening. but i went to stomp on it, and it felt like it was running out of fuel with a half tank. i changed the fuel filter, and took a peek inside. the filter was wasted black with nasty rust type particles at the bottom. not sure how or why this happened, except that those miles included a cross country towing trip, and stopping every 220 miles found me in some small town filler ups.

so now, i am looking at additional filtration. but i'm just wondering.... isn't this just kind of a belt and suspenders approach? if these run in 'sequence' rather than 'tandem', how can 2 filters be better than 1? it seems that you only need one pass through one filter to get the stuff out.

does anyone have any experience where they were consistently experiencing what i did, and a secondary filter stopped it? although my experience sounds unusual.

most filters, if you were to run the fuel through them twice, would net better results. also take into consideration we have to leave the OEM fuel filter where it is for warranty purposes. that being said, adding another filter is the logical approach.

i have a few friends who live on large acreage far from town. they seem to get the worst diesel. when dissecting their OEM filters they were much like you described- full of rust and sludge. after adding a prefilter, 90% of the rust would collect at the bottom of the cat filter instead of the OEM. given that is has more media it takes longer for it to plug up. of course there isn't any filter made that won't plug up if you throw enough junk in it. a good additive will also keep the water from rusting your filters. but it won't keep it from plugging so fast. more media will.

Also, doesn't the CAT filter "filter" down to a smaller particle size that the factory one? Smaller microns or something....

yes the cat filters down to 2 microns.

I picked up a NAPA OEM replacement fuel filter for my Duramax last week and asked the NAPA guy "who makes your filters". He sais "Wix". I then asked what micron filtration level the NAPA filter had. He called Wix tech support directly and the Wix Rep told the NAPA guy the filter had a 2 micron rating. The filter listed for about $45.00 but he gave it to me for $40 because I bought a lot of other stuff that day.

Can anyone else out there confirm this (the 2 micron part)? Do you know of any other OEM equivalents that filter down to 2 microns?
:help:
With the Nicktane and 2 micron OEM I might feel better about the fuel filtering system. ):h

all the OEM filters are made by racor. many people re-box them, but they're all racor