Draining Water Seperator Question

[Superduty123]

I drained the water seperator for the first time today. I did not take the screw out all the way, just cracked it open and held a funnel up to the stream.

I filled up half a gallon jug, during this process, to shift hands that were holding the jug up, I closed the screw breifly and then reopened it

I thought that this would drain just what was in the filter housing but I stopped at half a gallon as I was unsure if it was going to stop or not

I saw no water, looks like good fuel to me

Did I do this right?, was it suppose to stop draining?. if it never stops draining then how do you put that aftermarket plug that everyone sells for this?

I was pretty proud of myself in spilling almost nothing and getting very little on the drive shaft etc

I just don't know if I did this the right way or not

Also, what the hell do I do with his half gallon jug of fuel

[amdriven2liv]

Mine quit draining a lot less than what you had come out. Not sure what would cause it.

[RRF985]

I think it has to do with how full your tank is. I did it once with it at 1/4 tank and only about 1 cup came out. The second time I did it with a full tank and it kept going and going and going. IMO as long as you have a full tank I wouldn't worry about it. Just stick the plug in and call it good as long as the fuel you got out looks ok.

[amdriven2liv]

I changed my fuel filters after I drained the water separator. Here is how much came out. I had just filled my truck the day before. The bottle is half full.

[bfrank81]

I pulled the plug all the way out and let mine drain until it stopped. Got about a half gallon. I had 3/4 full tank of fuel and I did this with the truck on 4 ramps so it was sitting level.

As for the fuel that came out I dumped it into the same container I put the old oil (did an oil change at the same time) and took it all to the recycling center and dumped it there.

[Mustang1989]

Has anyone had anything other than fuel come out? The last time I changed my fuel filters there was a bit of sand and other pieces of random crap in the fuel, and I'm pretty sure the bucket I used was cleaned out beforehand.

[bfrank81]

Originally Posted by Mustang1989

Has anyone had anything other than fuel come out? The last time I changed my fuel filters there was a bit of sand and other pieces of random crap in the fuel, and I'm pretty sure the bucket I used was cleaned out beforehand.

When I did mine all sorts of crap came out.
11,000 mile fuel filters

[Mustang1989]

Wow, those were some dirty filters!

[bfrank81]

Yea I am not sure if they have ever been changed. I am going to change them again at 40K and see what they look like then.

[Albin]

I got the fuel on the left out of my aux fuel filter a couple years ago; the fuel sample on the right is what came out of the HFCM, so the aux fuel filter did it's job.

This incident prompted me to add a pre-pump fuel filter, so now I have four fuel filters on my '06 PSD. Both the pre-pump and aux fuel filters are water separator filters with drains. It takes less time to drain both of these filters than it does to the HFCM even though I have the upgraded drain fitting.

Good luck.

Al