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1994 K3500 extended cab dually

Verify it is an actual filter ONLY. Almost all coolant/water filters have tablets inside them that dissolve over time to add chemicals into the coolant. Nitrite is one of the major ones and is really bad for the 6.5. Although the 6.5 burns diesel fuel, the way the cylinder walls get cooling it is effectively a gasoline engine. The 6.5 will cause the nitrite to drop out of suspension and make mud like build up.
When we would do the coolant test, if there was no maintenance required, NAPA had the coolant filters without pellets in them.
 
Is there a reason a regular fuel/ hydraulic filter base wouldn't work so long as the threads matched what was on the filter? Or does the coolant filter base have to be a certain material other than steel/ aluminum?
 
I can’t remember now how I found the Donaldson filter. It isn’t in their normal fluid catalog. I may have backwards found it by cross-referencing. Here’s a Baldwin catalog with a bunch of filters.


It took me quite a while to find a base with 3/4NPT ports that also had a thread that you could get a coolant filter in. Alas, the effort was for naught.

This is the filter I chose. I see it’s rated to filter down to 22 microns. That gives me a start for selecting the size of the mesh strainer.

 
Well, it isn’t just micron rating. You can have two filters both rated for same micron absolute- but one design out flow the other dramatically. Gph at what pressure becomes the key.
 
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Ever think about running another coolant system for just the heater ? Heat exchanger for the heat source , engine coolant in one side and heater on the other side . Extra heater hose and water pump like the cooler for your turbo .
 
Oh, changing coolant filter usually lets in air- maybe add a bleeder screw at that location?

I have a ball valve on the outlet side of the current base I'm running so I can purge air.

So those are 3/8 pipe which is quite a bit bigger than 3/8-16

Yeah, I know that's 3/8" NPT, not 3/8-16. What I meant was that the bypass ones have ports that are smaller than the typical 1/2" NPT used for heater hose connections. It makes sense in my mind that since the ports are smaller, the unit isn't intended to flow as much coolant as typical heater hose does, so it didn't seem right for my application. As it turns out, it seems that even with the larger base, the filter is the restriction, making the port size a moot point, but still, I doubt that coolant filter assembly will flow more than what I have right now. Have you hooked it up to anything to try it out and see what it will flow? And I think it would have to be hooked up to a heater hose to see what actual flow restriction is, because when I had the garden hose hooked up to my system, it flowed pretty well, but you saw the results when I had just heater hose flow hooked up to it - it's enough of a restriction that the flow is just diverted to either the bypass (thermostat closed) or the radiator (thermostat open).

Is there a reason a regular fuel/ hydraulic filter base wouldn't work so long as the threads matched what was on the filter? Or does the coolant filter base have to be a certain material other than steel/ aluminum?

Yeah, that's what I used was a non-coolant filter base, but as it turns out the base isn't the restriction, it's the filter. I'm reluctant to use a filter other than a filter intended for coolant because I know some fuel filters are hydrophobic to filter out water, so if I choose the wrong filter media that would give me a problem.

Well, it isn’t just micron rating. You can have two filters both rated for same micron absolute- but one design out flow the other dramatically. Gph at what pressure becomes the key.

Yeah, when I mentioned the micron rating, I wasn't using that as a baseline for a micron-to-flow relationship, I was just mentioning that because I still hadn't decided which of the mesh sizes that McMaster-Carr offered for the Y strainer was a good size to choose.

Not 3/4 npt, but here's one thats 1/2 npt with the 11/16-16 threads. Or is 1/2 NPT still too restrictive? Inline mesh filter does seem to be the easiest way to go. Agree that some kind of bleeder is probably a good idea too!


Ha! That's the exact same filter base I'm using now....good find! I misspoke earlier when I said 3/4" NPT, I meant 1/2" NPT. I think mesh is going to be the easiest, but a call to a filter manufacturer may give another answer. The mesh filter isn't terribly expensive so I could do that for now so I get protection back in place for the heater core and then switch back to a true filter once one is found that is correct for the application.

Ever think about running another coolant system for just the heater ? Heat exchanger for the heat source , engine coolant in one side and heater on the other side . Extra heater hose and water pump like the cooler for your turbo .

Wow, no, I hadn't thought of that. That's an interesting idea, and just the right level of extra complexity that would fit right in on this truck. :) Neat idea, thanks!
 
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Y strainer is installed. It isn’t the sexiest installation, but it’s functional. I added a second ball valve to make cleaning the strainer cleaner, and this also allowed me to choose a valve with a waste drain so I can bleed air out before I open the exhaust valve.

31ABD9BD-D93C-4FA3-B428-295115D29A78.jpeg

I chose the 200 mesh size based on mesh-to-micron info I found on the interwebs. The filter was 22 microns and this mesh equates to 74 microns which should be enough. Hopefully it doesn’t get clogged too quickly.

F6D88909-4B8C-494F-87DC-0D628E9F5DE4.png

It flows pretty well, not quite as well as full flow, but certainly more than the filter allowed. Since the standard heater hose fitting is a restrictor, this might actually be an appropriate amount of flow. I have yet to get it fully warmed up and driving with this installed to see how the heat is. I’ll report back later.

 
I did some driving around today and it's making good heat, so as long as this strainer doesn't pass a lot of junk into the heater core and also doesn't get blinded itself in short order, it looks like this is a workable solution so far.

I have the Puff Limiter reinstalled now. I contacted Hypermax and they sent me the seals I needed to get it to stop leaking fuel. I have an electronic boost controller hooked up to this truck like I did on the Tahoe, but instead of the Blitz I used before, I decided to try out a Cortex EBC. I switched to this controller because you can control the solenoid with not only boost pressure settings, but you can also add other parameters like TPS, RPM, MPH, etc.. This seemed like a great way to really dial in the fueling of the pump. I did some drives today to test it out. I was having some problems getting it to work so I finally emailed the company......within 30 minutes I had an email back from the owner and he saw what my issue was and told me how to correct it. Wow!! A response in 30 minutes.....on a Saturday afternoon!! Very impressed with the company so far. I now have the boost controller blocking boost to the Puff Limiter below 12psi of boost pressure and then above 12psi it's allowing full boost to act on the aneroid. It works pretty well like that, but I think it can be dialed in better. There are options to gradually allow the boost in using PWM and I think that will be a nice feature to use at the very least, with TPS and RPM being others that will help dial it in. I'll be driving it in the meantime to see how I like it with the current setting.

I was really hoping to take the truck to the local drag strip today for one of the last test n tune days of the year, but it got rained out - there has been a fairly persistent light mist throughout the day. During one of my drives to try to figure the boost controller out, I took a video of a 0-80 run. This is with full fuel to the pump from idle, so it doesn't clean up right away, even so, it ran pretty good. I took off with a 2psi boosted launch and even with that low boost you can hear the tires spinning until about 20-25 (all 4 rear tires, you can see me turning the wheel to keep the truck straight). I looked at the datalog and 0-60 came in 7.4 seconds, , isn't bad considering the spinning tires and the weight of this thing. The shifts are still slow and that annoys me, but I likely won't do anything about that since this truck is just the tow truck and not the play truck - I'll get a good rebuild kit with valve body from Jake's this winter for the red truck and that should be a really nice working unit then. This truck also needs more air as it's quite smokey all through the range....I think I'll be trying a larger turbo on this configuration to see if I can get it to clean up more.

2psi boosted launch 0-80, road was a little damp - YouTube
 
Hey Nate, can you link to the braided fuel hose and fittings you used? My tank is rusted through and seems to be as good a time as any to upgrade my LP and fuel delivery system. I know not all fuel hose is rated for diesel so knowing what you use will take some guesswork out of the equation. I'm hoping to run 1/2" from the tank to IP
 
Hey Nate, can you link to the braided fuel hose and fittings you used? My tank is rusted through and seems to be as good a time as any to upgrade my LP and fuel delivery system. I know not all fuel hose is rated for diesel so knowing what you use will take some guesswork out of the equation. I'm hoping to run 1/2" from the tank to IP

I just shopped on Summit Racing’s site and used the filters to find what I needed. If this link works, I filtered it for AN Hose, -8 AN (this is equivalent to 1/2”) and Diesel Fuel. From there I was filtering for black braided, but that was just a personal choice. I would also look at lengths and cost to determine what made sense for me. I used a mix of Summit, Fragola and Russel hoses.


Then I would search fittings much the same way. Be aware that PTFE lined hose requires fittings specific to that kind of hose, so you have to pay attention to that - I accidentally ordered a PTFE fitting and non-PTFE hose one time.

I placed a few orders with a bunch of different items to make the whole fuel system, so it isn’t feasible to put links for everything, but if there’s something specific you’re looking for I can see if I can find it.
 
Thanks dude! Appreciate the heads up on PTFE hose and fittings.

I'm also upgrading to a Raptor lift pump- the 150 is only 20 bucks more than the 100. Any reason you went with the 100 over the 150?
 
Ran some errands tonight so I did some dinking around in the truck. Tried an 8psi boosted launch. I have the electronic boost controller limiting fuel until 12psi of boost. Without all the fuel at low rpm it’s a little easier to build boost, but this converter being tighter than the one that was in the Tahoe still makes it a bit more of a challenge and it takes longer to do so as a result.


Then I wanted to share this, check out the inlet fuel pressure at the injection pump during acceleration - rock solid at 25psi.


This is the exact same Raptor 100 lift pump I was using in the Tahoe, but now it has an easier life sucking fuel through -16 (1”) line instead of the 3/8” tube that the stock sending unit had and then transitioned to 1/2” hose, plus the external regulator instead of its internal regulator. These improvements combined to make the pump perform well beyond what it was doing before.

Here is a video I took of the fuel pressure in the Tahoe during acceleration, pretty cool to see the benefit of the extra work I put into this truck’s fuel system.


And to make fuel demand even higher on the lift pump, I have determined that when I had the aneroid installed on the Tahoe, I had it turned down more than I have in this truck….that is one of the reasons for the power increase from when this IP was in the Tahoe and now that it’s in this truck, and of course this also means that the IP is now sucking even more fuel than it was before, and yet the lowly Raptor 100 is still able to keep up. Pretty cool.
 
Man that thing really zips for a dually!

What external regulator did you use for the raptor? Happy with the isolator for the gauge too?
 
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