Diesel Pre Filter plus Factory Filter

[Cuppa]

I don't think a lift pump is necessary unless perhaps running a set which requires 'extra' fuel. Not sure about that, but I can say with total confidence that if Risky's vehicle is pretty standard it is not required. I run a pre-filter in my car (same year & model as Risky's) which engine-wise is bog standard other than a 3" exhaust & a modest dynoed increase in turbo pressure.

What I have found particularly useful over several years now was to fit a squeezy bulb type one way pump into the fuel feed line before the pre-filter. It makes priming the filters & getting the csr going sooo much quicker & easier than relying on the little pump doofah on top of the standard fuel filter housing. Just make sure that the one you buy is suited to diesel, not all are.

I use one of those ubiquitous Delphi HDF296 type filters (which depending on brand of filter element used (available at every rural store around Australia) can be anything as 'small' as 2 micron) without any issue. I have extended the change period of the factory filter a couple of times since commencing with the pre filters, after examining the innards of the standard fuel filters following use & finding them 'clean as a whistle'. These days I generally change the pre-filter every 3rd oil change, ie at 15,000kms, & do the factory filter at 45,000kms. Delphi filters are cheap as chips.

However the main reason for running the pre-filters that I do, is in case of picking up a batch of bad fuel somewhere in the outback. It hasn't happened to me yet, but did to a friend who has the same pre-filter set up in his OKA that I have. He was 100 kms from where he got the bad fuel before his filter clogged enough to pull him up. He had several hundred kms to go before the next fuel, & got there by changing filters multiple times along the way. Because the Delphi filters are cheap he could afford to carry a reasonable stock of them, which got him through. Importantly too the filter elements are small & take up little room. Downside is they are a little more fiddly to replace than those that just screw on & off, but no big deal.