I am wanting to relocate the fuel filter to the engine bay and wanted to know if anyone has done this and what they spliced in the old location where the fuel filter was to make it a straight pipe when you removed the fuel filter under the car. Having one in the engine bay with nipples to simply slip the fuel line on and off would be AWESOME!.... no more stripping nuts on the lines.

 

There's high pressure involved in that line.

Out of curiosity, why would you want to relocate the fuel filter to the engine bay anyways?

 

Been thinking about relocating the fuel filter as well. Why? Because it makes it much easier to replace it. Why would you want to make a simple task harder by dealing with these easy-to-strip threaded ends? I had a twin turbo Z and the fuel filter sat on the driver side shock tower. From the factory, it didn't have the overkill threaded ends on the hard lines. It was a simple flared ends with quality high pressure hoses connected to the filter and secured with spring clamps. Takes 5 minutes to replace the filter. To the OP, have you done this and if so what did you end up doing to the underside where the fuel filter used to be?

 

Dudes,

I would not do this for a few reasons. The fuel filter is a very rare job; once every 50,000 to 100,000 miles for the average car owner. I have seen enough modified fuel-lines to know that everyone does it a bit differently and many end up with a system that is less robust, read less safe, than the factory metal hard lines. Removing a threaded hard line, although not easy, requires a bit of patience and the right tools and technique. It's better, in my opinion, to practice that 'art', rather than raise the risk of an engine fire from a faulty fuel-line modification. Last, by placing the fuel filter in the engine bay you are raising the temperature of the fuel entering the cylinders. By how much? It depends on ambient temperatures and humidity levels obviously, but a hot fuel filter full of gas isn't helping with your power levels by increasing combustion temperatures by a small amount which increases nitrous oxide pollutants exiting the tailpipes and knock detection by the ECU.



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Many older and newer cars have the fuel filter inside the engine compartment.

 

You asked for thoughts...
I, personally think it's a really bad idea. SC fuel systems as is, are proven to last the life of the car generally. Why experiment with fuel using untested methods for no worthwhile gain? Not having to jack up the car once every 50K to 100K miles just isn't worthwhile gain. Now, instead of fuel running down your arms when you swap filters, it drips into your bay perhaps depending on placement. If I have a leak, I prefer it to be under the car, behind me.
Please don't play with your fuel unless you have to and are going with new, OEM parts or EXPERT installed upgraded parts.

 

On the other hand, some mechanics recommend annual fuel filter changes. Making the filter more accessible would aid in sticking to that schedule.

 

Dude,


Any mechanic that recommends an annual fuel filter change is just after your money.




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Dude,


My MK1 MR2 has a large fuel filter inside the engine bay but along the path of the cooling ambient air that comes from underneath and exits out the top of the engine lid above the engine. It's also near a corner, somewhat away from the engine itself. The only way that particular fuel filter would become hot is to have the engine idle for an hour which is not likely. The Sc300/400 are modern enough to have little room remaining in the engine bay. Everything inside the engine bay, especially in the sc400, becomes very toasty, very quickly. You could apply a simple thermal insulation jacket over the filter and that would help ward off the heat inside the engine bay.

 

Except that they weren't soliciting my business when they said that.

Think of it this way, if a fuel filter can really last a million miles or whatever Toyota claims, is it actually filtering anything? (And does anything need to be filtered?) Either it's just a safeguard that rarely comes into play, or it needs to be changed more often. And if it's just a safeguard, it sort of makes sense to change it more often since you wouldn't know that the filter's been doing more filtering than normal.

 

Dude,


Changing a fuel filter in an SC300/400 every year would be the equivalent of changing your oil filter every 500-1000 miles. Yes, you can do it and it wouldn't harm anything, but you're just throwing money away.




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Fuel filters last as long as they do because the gas is clean from the pump, back in the day gas could come contaminated, but now some cars dont even have fuel filters, just the sock in the tank is good enough.

 

As someone who's seen a car fire directly attributed to the failure of an aftermarket engine compartment fuel filter, I say: No, do not do it.

I think the term "You're playing with fire" fits here.

 

Ok, so you narrowed the range down to ~15k miles, relative to typical oil change intervals, which is pretty close to the average miles driven in the US. An annual fuel filter change recommendation starts to make more sense in that light.

Other than the obvious exception of electric cars, I didn't realize there's anything that doesn't use a fuel filter anymore. Interesting. I imagine you're right that gas is cleaner now (I haven't had an issue in over 20 years), but I still wouldn't trust something completely out of my control like that...

 

Dude,


What is your math trying to tell you? If you drive 15,000 miles per year and change your fuel filter once per year, you are changing the fuel filter every 15,000 miles. That is unnecessary and a waste of money, in my opinion, and Toyota's as well. The engine won't care if you do, the fuel won't arrive to the combustion chambers any cleaner, but if you want to do it, go for it. It's your money.




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