17 years on one fuel filter!

[bishir]

Yup, you heard it right. I knew it was due to be changed, but I haven't changed it and I bought the car last September with 49k miles. Well, the filter was covered in the same undercoating that was sprayed when the car was new. Not a good sign..... The fuel lines were covered too. Anyways, I get it off and the filter darn sure looks like it's 17 years old. It still has the original AC Delco paper that is all yellow and nasty. I'll try to get a picture up so I can sell it on ebay as a NOS part that is "slightly used" I mean, come on, if original tires are worth 1000k this has to be worth at least 20 bucks!

Oh, and I bet my car runs a lot better now! It had felt sluggish with 02 numbers all over the place....

What do you think?

 

[charlloots]

you car must have been slow as **** with that filter you should feel the performance difference instantly when you step on the gas with the new filter. and that old filter aint worth the box it came in . change your 02 and your plugs are probaly fouled also

 

[Vector]

Based on the fuel filter never being changed, you should probably change all fluids and filters.
Differential, transmission filter, PVC, certainly the O2, air filter, spark plugs and wires, run some kerosene engine flush through it, double check those rotors and drums, upper and lower radiator hose and heater hose...

 

[bishir]

I just finished changing and flushing everything and I think the spark plugs were original too. I couldn't be exactly sure, but they were old A/Cs.

I drove the car this morning and all I can say is WOW! What a difference! My 02s were constant on my scanmaster and the knock gauge stayed at 0 the whole time as I was pushing 23lbs of boost! VICTORY!

 

[turbofish38]

The original AC sparkplugs had the green stripes on the insulator. Around 1990 they went to all white. Double check the markings(i.e. R45TS).

Eric Fisher

 

[Raymond Bunch]

Thats Funny

I purchased my 86 TType 4-5 months ago and upon doing maintenance on it I also discovered that the fuel filter may have never been changed. It still had what looked like the original paper on it. I was like holy crap, this thing should run really good after changing it, and it did. Took it to Qualcom and the first pass in the 1/8 was an 8.0 flat! That was with basic mods on DR's.

Ray

 

[bishir]

Yup, I was surpised at the difference it made too. I just checked the spark plugs I took out a few months ago and yup, they are original too!