Check your fuel filter!

[Captain Obvious]

Woof. So the Nissan filters aren't immune either?

Wait... Is that a cupcake?

[FastWoman]

I'm so sorry to hear about your four colleagues on MH17, Chas. Anyway, congrats on the product launch -- Keytruda -- for treatment of HIV, I presume?

[EuroDat]

I don't know if the filter was original Nissan or they outsource and slap a sticker on it. One thing is for sure, Ill be changing it more often.

Thank you Sarah. Two were in our department and going on holiday, the other two were external (I didn't know personally) and were on their way to an Aids conference.

Keytruda is for treatment of skin cancer. Its one of the Anti PD1 therapy drugs. You will find it by googling MK3475. Pembrolizumab - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Chas

[ZCurves]

I'm so sorry to hear about your four colleagues on MH17, Chas. Anyway, congrats on the product launch -- Keytruda -- for treatment of HIV, I presume?

I second that! Talk about 'two degrees of separation', very sad. Great News for Keytruda though. I work at a large cancer institute in Houston, I am sure we'll be seeing use of it soon. Melanoma is a terrible form of cancer.

[ZCurves]

...Looks like the element had let go from the metal sections. Certainly wasn't filtering well like that. The filter is two years old....Chas

I am just going to start changing mine every Spring with an OEM filter. Even though I put few miles on the Z every year, there is certainly some causality between ethanol and adhesive/seal failure on fuel system parts.

[Chickenman]

Pretty sure that the Factory Nissan F/F do not have a sticker on them. Information is silk screened on. I'll take a closer look at my BNIB Nissan FF a bit later and post pictures.

Better yet I'll pull my old FF off and cut it apart to compare. Pretty sure it's OEM Nissan as well.

Ethanol could certainly be the culprit, especially in concentrations above 10%. All manufacturers usually have warning in the owners manual to avoid ethanol concentrations of more than 10%. Even to this day it will void most manufacturers warranties.

Only exceptions are Flex Fuel cars which are designed to run on E85. These have specialized components designed to handle the nature of Ethanol.

Note: BNIB fuel system parts from Nissan, Honda, Ford, GM etc etc have been redesigned over the years to handle up to 10% Ethanol. This includes older models such as the 240Z. However, if you happen to discover a Vintage supply of NOS from Datsun or Nissan, they may not be have the revised materials. Anything in original " Datsun" packaging would certainly NOT be made revised materials.

( I was a Datsun/Nissan dealership partsman form 1974 to 1992 )

[EuroDat]

Hi Chickenman,

Im using genuine Nissan filters to the best of my knowledge, but the Datsun 280Z was not in Europe so the Nissan dealers here may source their fuel filters locally. I would have thought there would be enough 280ZX around in Europe to keep the real thing, but maybe not.

Chas

[Chickenman]

I'm kinda lucky here as British Columbia Canada is a hot bed for Datsun 510's and to a lesser extent Z cars. At least three of our major Nissan dealerships have Parts Departments staffed with ex Datsun Racers and they are all still enthusiasts.

As a result they tend to keep in stock a healthy supply of maintenance parts for our Vintage Datsuns. They also have no hesitation in tracking down obscure parts, be it from the USA, Japan or wherever. It's a really nice community.

I'm one of the old timers who worked with these guys way back when, in a Galaxy Far,Far Away It's also nice to see that the old guys, who are all Parts Managers and ready to retire, have trained a new group of younger enthusiasts to take over.

I did a cruise this Summer with a local 510 Club ( The 510 Realm - Index page ) and we stopped off at Local Dealership ( WestCoast Nissan ) on the way. We had half of the Sales department, Service Department and ALL of the Parts department out looking over the cars, chatting and taking pictures. Good Times

[hr369]

Anyone try those reusable micro mesh fuel filters? Here is cut'n paste description from the ones they

use on diesels but I know they make them for efi gasoline also. Paper just seems like a flimsy filter medium.

Pure Power fuel filters for Cummins, Duramax, and Power Stroke-equipped trucks and SUVs are cleanable and reusable, ensuring you never have to buy a replacement filter. The reusable, deep-pleated filter media is assembled from dual-woven stainless steel and is simply washed with hot soapy water during the cleaning period. Debris removal and filtering improves as much as 90 percent compared to single-use fuel filters,

[Chickenman]

Paper element or cellulose filters are actually a very good filter medium, both for fuel and lubricants. Manufacturers of everything from Mopeds to Locomotive engines have used them for decades and millions of miles for good reason. They are effective and are cheap to replace.

Stainless mesh steel filters made for Diesels can catch the bigger stuff, but they can not catch the small micron stuff that can plug Petrol fuel injectors. Orifice size on Petrol injectors is usually much smaller than on Diesel Injectors. You can use a Stainless mesh filter as a pre-filter for fuel and this is their main function ( particularly on Diesel engines ) , but it should always be installed with a paper element or synthetic fiber filter after the SS mesh filter.

Diesel engines usually have multiple filters in the fuel line, including pre-filters and water filters , because the fuel tends to contain more contaminants than Petrol. This is mainly due to methods of Transportation and storage, in remote places like Logging camps and Mines

The real problem is quality control with the flood of cheap aftermarket products from off shore. Also, product lines that used to be good ( IE: TRW, SKF, Sealed Power ) our now made Globally and quality control suffers greatly.

Best advice is to buy your filters from OEM. Got a Nissan, Honda, Toyota, Ford, Chevy, Audi whatever.... buy your filters from the Dealer. You pay more, but OEM filters are usually VERY good quality.

Edit: You can get small micron ( 10 Micron or less ) high quality SS Fuel Filters for Petrol...but they aren't cheap. You also have to watch the filter area size. Many of these filters are designed for Race engines and require more frequent cleaning than a Paper filter

Edited November 2, 2014 by Chickenman

[Chickenman]

For some reason the " Edit Function " is not working properly and I can't edit my above post.

Member HR369 mentioned that you can get SS mesh filters for EFI systems as well. Edit: But decent ones are not cheap. Expect to pay $125+ for one of decent quality and capacity.

BTW.. biggest Hype job and marketing ploy of all time is K&N Air filters. Yes they do make horsepower, and they're really good as a filter on things like ATV's and Motocross bikes. Mainly because they don't fall apart when wet and will filter when covered with mud. And they're great for wringing out that last HP on a Race car.

But as an actual " FILTER " of small particulate matter, they are terrible. You will never EVER see a Cotton gauze type Air filter on any manufacturers engine...because they can't filter the really fine stuff. Same with oil filters. Paper ( actually a Cellulose fiber ) is a very good FILTER medium.

Here is an Independent study various air filter mediums. K&N and foam filters turn in very poor performances in actaul filtering capacity.

Summary of testing:

Air Filter Study Completed!!!!! - TheDieselPage.com Forums

Link through Nico.club of actual Test Data :

K&N Air Filter Review - Debunking the Myths (and why OEM is better)

Edited November 2, 2014 by Chickenman

[hr369]

How many microns is a paper filter? They now make

Stainless mesh 10 micron