Fuel Filtration for the common rail. The debate begins

**Polaraco** · 10-09-2012

I was talking to a friend of mine, Eric, whome I invited to join us. He's another 6.7 member lost in time.

He was saying he did some research and found out the Fass and Airdog filtration doesn't even compare to the Cummins filtration.

Thoughts?

I didn't find anything yet. When I find something useful, I'll post it up

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**pcdebol** · 10-09-2012

I'll see if I can dig up the link. It had to do with flow rates and the filter elements fass and air dog were using. Basically the filters they are using aren't rated for the flow rate they run so it affects how they perform. Lot of technical crud and math formulas then enough english at the end to see what the result was.

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**Polaraco** · 10-10-2012

I knew you'd find this. Thanks I couldn't find anything except manufacturer propganda

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**DiggerDave** · 10-10-2012

that would explain why the life of the motor on these units dont last long and blow fuses

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**pcdebol** · 10-10-2012

It said one of the fleetgaurd units for the bigger cummins engines was the best and cleanest high flow solution's available. I looked it up when I read the stuff it was expensive made the air dog and fass look cheap.

Haven't had time to look for it yet. I have to go roll up a field tonight (bailing hay) before it rains so I won't be on the net tonight.

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**DiggerDave** · 10-10-2012

fleetgaurd are the best ones i used for my ad,,,,get them from cummins for 20 bucks each and the fleetgaurd water sep filter for 29

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**Polaraco** · 10-10-2012

At the price of these injectors, all the protection you can get is worth it.

I had the foresight to install a 2nd 1 Micron filter using a cat filter separator. I had two cartridges for it, and I need to buy a new one. I am looking at replacing it with a fleetguard. But I haven't found one with a 2nd separator like the Cat filter has.

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**pcdebol** · 10-10-2012

The stuff I read was on a fass support forum and the questions and concerns were brought up by a person who was obviously an engineer and had a vast knowledge of fuel systems. Fass never denied anything he wrote or made any corrections to his post.

His question that had all the information in it about the system is now gone. The response from Fass is there though. Go figure they deleted information from their support forum that made their product look inferior. The original post also had info on air dog systems. Both had issues with the filter set up they were using. The original posters question was if he could use x and y fleetgaurd filters in his fass system instead of what they recommended because if would provide better filtration and water separation. This reply from Fass is pretty funny. It is the first post in the thread now. It is obviously an answer to a question/concern that isn't present. Pasted it below.

We definitely understand your area of concern and we have been working on improving the filter situation for about 3 months now. Here is some of the information and knowledge we have about the filters on the Titanium & HD Series.

As we have been discovering in discussions with different filter manufactures there are many variable’s when performing filtration test causing different results even with the same media, as seen in the following paragraph. We have also discovered that the exact same media will have a water separation reading in one filter as to where another filter having the exact same media will not have a reading for water separation. There is an example of this also, so there is some reading in-between the lines required.

The Titanium Series water separator WS-2001 (Fleetguards # FS19768) and the HD Series’ water separator WS-1001 (Fleetguards # FS1023) is a 140 micron stainless/steel serviceable wire mesh. These two elements are made of the exact same material; the only difference is that one has more material than the other. The FS19768 has a water separation efficiency rating of 50% per pass which was tested on 10-26-09, as to where the FS1023 has a 0% efficiency rating tested on 8-10-07. This type of media has water separating capability as they were also used for Caterpillar’s A, B and C model mechanical engines in heavy duty equipment.

Remember they have a 50% rating per pass; this is one reason for the MASS Volume Return which the FASS incorporates. The majority of the fuel that passes through the FASS is polished and returned to the fuel tank to be polished again, now for the 2nd stage of water filtration.

Before the fuel exits back to the fuel tank or passes through to the engine the fuel must pass through the 3 or 10 micron Stratapore element found in our FF-1010 or FF-2003. This element has the same exact water separating capabilities as the very popular Fleetguard FS1000 at a 95% water separation capability. The only difference between the element found in the FF-2003, Titanium Series fuel filter, and the FS1000 is the micron rating. The FS1000 has a drain on the bottom as to where ours doesn’t, we believe the bulk of the water will be captured in the water separator and remaining water will be captured in the fuel filter.

As stated in the opening paragraphs we have been in discussions with Racor, Baldwin, Donaldson just to name a few over the last 3 months and have been discovering ways to improve filtration. The FASS systems for the pick up market leaving our facility now have water separating capabilities ranging from 90 – 95% efficiencies. Here are a few examples of the filters we are using with their water separating efficiencies:

Water Separators:

Titanium Series:

1. FS19594 90%
2. P550550 90%

HD Series:

1. P551001 96%
2. FS1001 95%

We are researching fuel filters to improve water separating capabilities with our 3 micron filter for the HD Series. We had the understanding Fleetguard was using the 3 micron version of the Stratapore element for the Titanium Series fuel filter (#FF-2003), which they are not.

Many customers run the FASS Systems for different reasons, including improving injector issues. These customers have experienced improved injector life both in the pickup & class 8 markets. However there is always room to improve and that is what FASS is known for and committed to doing. We have demonstrated this in the past and will continue to do so; remember some of the noise issues? We now received a few calls to where the customer thought their FASS wasn’t running only to discover it was performing they just had to put their ear next to the bed to hear it running. Now we are releasing the FASS Fuel Systems with superior filtration. We are always researching and discovering ways to improve and build customer loyalty! We accomplish this usually by being proactive but sometimes Murphy’s Law hits us and we have to be re-active and we apologize for this. We appreciate your past and continuing support!

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