Ed Hughes

That is an interesting avenue. Thanks.

Thanks John. I threw in the towel to watch the ALMS race. The small filter is hanging on for dear life. I need to get the 3 prong grabber wrench to try and get it off in one piece. Having just gotten out of the cast on my good arm after 10 weeks is not helping my contortion ability and strength. The large filter was "welded" on too, but I was able to grab it with my filter wrench pliers-took a lot of torque to break it loose.

Ill get the filter off tomorrow morning and proceed from there. Why these things get cranked on is beyond me...

Ed Hughes

Well, I think I can unequivocally say it was "something". After the setback noted toward the end of this thread on oil filters(!):

https://rennlist.com/forums/993-foru...s-stuck-2.html , I got to the other items on my list.

I pulled the airbox to get to the fuel filter and to pull the MAF for cleaning-both done without any issue. There may've been a slight film on the MAF hot plate, but nothing truly discernable. I don't like touching those, so I kept my fingers off. While I had that stuff off, I poked around the vacuum lines to see if anything looked amiss, but nothing stuck out. Even tried my new $79 boroscope from HF! Lastly, I put in the new O2 sensor. It had a nice "toasted marshmallow color, but other than that, it looked ok.

So, after putting oil back in, I fired her up and took her for a couple of drives. After coming back to top up the oil after the first jaunt, I went out and pulled through the gears a number of times-I couldn't get her to stumble. I know cars always "run better" after an oil change , but she truly felt a bit smoother all around. I've always felt (all of 8 months now!) that Sapphire's engine wasn't quite as smooth (I'm not describing this well) as Ruby's. It felt like a well-balanced engine compared to one that wasn't as well in their revs. Not that Sapphire ever ran "bad", just different. I don't notice this now. It's a subtle thing, but.....?

So, I'll cut the fuel filter up to see what's going on-it looks plenty old, and had a 928 part number. Here's a pic of the O2 sensor.

So, I'm wondering if something I swapped or cleaned was on the edge, and starting to show it's age/issue? I guess in hindsight, it would've been fun to do these one at a time, but when I pulled her up on to the ramps over my lift yesterday, she was sputtering, and I didn't want to take the chance of being on a test drive and have her go kaput completely.

A few maintenance items I'd pretty much planned on, maybe in the nick of time.

NC TRACKRAT

Ed-Probably "preaching to the choir" here but use an exhaust pipe wrench to cut the filter, not a hacksaw. You may have solved it and I hope so but don't be surprised if it should re-appear. If it does, then I'd suspect trash in the tank.

Ed Hughes

Thanks-that's why I've not cut it yet, pending selection of the proper surgical instrument.

Ed Hughes

Well, my vote is for the fuel filter. I didnt have a pipe cutter big enough, so I just cut out a window with the Dremel. All of the pleats are quite dark, looking past the bright aluminum particles from the cutting. Very evenly coated, but very dark brown, like a Hershey bar. Much darker than any see-thru filter I've had on any toys in the past-my only reference point.

I ran see-thru filters on my Rotax powered airplanes in the past, and while they were changed annually, they never got past "light orange/pinkish", and that was with pre-mix fuel for the 2 stroke.

Could a filter with many thousands of miles/years get to that point?

NC TRACKRAT

Ed-Yeah, but it would indicate that you've got sediment in the tank. It might've been there for some time or you may have gotten gas when the gas station's tank was low and the delivery tanker was delivering and it stirred up the crap in the bottom. Two courses of action come to mind: Change the filter again after about 5,000-10,000 mi. and, depending on what you find, then drain, remove and flush out the tank.

Ed Hughes

I will change again in short order. But, it didn't look like fresh sediment. Just plain dirty and well used. I'll check the next one in 1 or 2k.