Fuel/water separator replacement

**NewEra** · 01-26-2019, 16:25

Wix 33417 (Napa 3417) is a direct replacement for the fuel/water separator if you want to get rid of the leaky fuel heater. Numerous times I have had the water separator/heater assembly leak, no more leaks and drainback issues with the new filter.

Obviously you don't have the heater anymore, but most of us will never need a fuel heater.

**Ronmar** · 01-29-2019, 17:48

Thanks, it looks like the Baldwin BF1222 is also an option which has a beefier/larger 4 point star wheel on the drain valve that is easier to open and secure by hand. I use a version of these on the diesel gensets I service and they work well.

FYI, if your fuel system is draining back, in addition to a filter seal or bowl leak, you also have a valve problem. The water separator filter head has 3 valves inside of it. Two are associated with the primer pump and one is the flapper type bypass valve you can see when you remove the filter. A quick check for this is with the engine turned off, if you open the drain on the filter bowl and it sucks air back thru the drain, the bypass flapper is probably fouled and leaking back toward the tank. Both primer check valves would have to be leaking to cause this.

Mine was doing this and I stripped it this weekend and found a big black hair in that bypass flapper

. With the filter off, I pushed on the primer bulb and got a little bit of fuel to squirt past the bypass down into where the filter would normally be(it shouldn't do this), which tells me the input check-valve to my primer bulb is not sealing fully. Unfortunately you cannot access the pump check valves to clean and inspect. It still pumps fuel well and gets firm so I don't think I need to replace the head yet