Here's one from my truck, notice that the bottom of the filter is OPEN and it is still holding fuel. The element itself has been sucked in and collapsed, and there was another filter up-stream that was clogged as well, causing restriction up stream and causing this filter body to collapse a bit on the top.

Those MBZ lift pumps mean BUSINESS.

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617 swapped Toyota Pickup, 22-24 MPG, 50k miles on swap

I dont have any pics, but mine had sat for a while with diesel in the tank and I had black chunks in the pre filter that I could see. I ran the Startron diesel tank cleaner first and after a couple tanks and 3 or 4 prefilters, my filter is now clean. I didnt clean the strainer, as the startron is supposed to dissolve algae into small enough particles to then be burned with the fuel. I now add Startron diesel additve with each tank. All is well.....

Had my turbo engine swapped in not long ago, decided to clean out the boot and replace the main fuel filter today...tempted to cut it open

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1978 300D, 373,000km 617.912, 711.113 5 speed, 7.5mm superpump, HX30W turbo...many, many years in the making....
1977 280> 300D - 500,000km+ (to be sold...)
1984 240TD>300TD 121,000 miles, *gone*
1977 250 parts car
1988 Toyota Corona 2.0D *gone*
1975 FJ45>HJ45
1981 200>240D (to be sold...)
1999 Hyundai Lantra 1.6 *gone*
1980s Lansing Bagnall FOER 5.2 Forklift (the Mk2 engine hoist)
2001 Holden Rodeo 4JB1T 2WD

FYI...

the black gunk in tanks is NOT "fungi" or "bugs" or "mushrooms" or any type of organic life...
it's asphalt. residue from the diesel either naturally breaking down, or from bacteria consuming a portion of the diesel, leaving the asphalt in the tank...

a GOOD tank cleaner like startron, or CLEAR Diesel from power service will reconstitute the asphalt back into the fuel, and let you burn it.

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John HAUL AWAY, OR CRUSHED CARS!!! HELP ME keep the cars out of the crusher! A/C Thread
"as I ride with my a/c on... I have fond memories of sweaty oily saturdays and spewing R12 into the air. THANKS for all you do!

My drivers:
1987 190D 2.5Turbo
1987 560SL convertible
1987 190D 2.5-5SPEED!!!

1987 300TD
2005 Dodge Sprinter 2500 158"WB
1994GMC 2500 6.5Turbo truck... I had to put the ladder somewhere!

Yes, the black granular stuff is what drops out when diesel fuel ages. Those of us with old diesel boats are quite familiar with it. It is commonly called asphalteens. Some folks have cut open their tanks and scooped it out.

I understand that an extract from asphalt was added to the low sulfur diesel, and it would drop out as the fuel aged. I don't know if this is still done with the ultra low sulfur diesel we now have to use in the US. Maybe not as asphalt has a fair amount of sulfur in it. A good fuel polishing system is often used to get the particles out of the fuel when it is stirred up in heavy seas. Startron is helpful as it seems to redissolve the black solids, but it does plug filters faster for awhile.

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'97 E 300 D

The engine had just been swapped in, so don't know what the old prefilter was like, I would imagine pretty bad though. I'm glad I changed it sooner rather than later!

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1978 300D, 373,000km 617.912, 711.113 5 speed, 7.5mm superpump, HX30W turbo...many, many years in the making....
1977 280> 300D - 500,000km+ (to be sold...)
1984 240TD>300TD 121,000 miles, *gone*
1977 250 parts car
1988 Toyota Corona 2.0D *gone*
1975 FJ45>HJ45
1981 200>240D (to be sold...)
1999 Hyundai Lantra 1.6 *gone*
1980s Lansing Bagnall FOER 5.2 Forklift (the Mk2 engine hoist)
2001 Holden Rodeo 4JB1T 2WD

I pulled these out of my w123 300TDT today. Not surprisingly, the car seems to idle better with new filters. I bought the car a month ago and have no idea when the filters were last changed.

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