OK, today was fuild and filter day for the '98 T/A. Believe it or not, I have never changed the fuel filter, so in true better late than never fashion, I go to change today. Nothing to this, right? So I figure there might be some fuel spill/drip when I loosen line so I took a jar under car to catch it. When I removed line from filter it was more like all the contents of my fuel tank were coming out, not just residual fuel left in lines... seemed like too much. So tightened line back and went to read Chilton's manual to see if something special to be done to remove excess pressure from line. It said remove gas cap and relieve pressure at check valve near fuel injector rail. Took gas cap off, attempted to relieve pressure at rail(nothing came out there, seemed to be 0 pressure there) then back under car to complete. No luck... loosened line again only for gas to come pouring out again. Literally pouring out, not like a squirt when pressure released, more like turning on water hose and letting entire fuel tank drain through hose. Obviously I didn't want to pour all the 93 octane all over the floor so I tightened line back to filter and am now asking you people - What's going on with all this? Am I missing something?

When I did mine a couple years ago I lost fuel due to spillage but not like your talking about.
So when you released the fuel pressure at the schrader valve off the fuel rail it didn't spill any fuel there at all ?
Obviously the system is under pressure untill you release it at the Fuel rail. Removing the gas cap creates an air bleed into the tank releasing more pressure. But since the fuel pump and all the lines areat the top of the tank I'm clueless as to why it continued to seap fuel out.
Any way try leaving the gas cap on and do the change with less then a 1/4 tank of fuel, maybe that will help.

I did a tech article on this. There is a plug over the top of the diff. Unplug that and start the car. Let it run until it dies. Remove the gas cap and replace the filter. Then you need to prime the fuel pump. You do this by turning the key on (DO NOT START) and wait 10 - 20 sedconds and turn the key OFF. Do this about 3 times. Then you should be able to start the car. There is about 45psi in the lines and it will siphon the fuel out of the tank if you do not do this.

That is how I change mine and get barely enough to fill half a coke can.

Matt

OK, so you are speaking of an electrical plug, as in the one that runs the in-tank fuel pump, right? I can do that unplug and start process, sounds like it will help - Thanks!

9T8W66, that is correct, NO fuel came out at the fuel rail. Seems like a goofy thing to me too, but that's when I stopped because I didn't know what to do from there. Maybe this other technique will help... I'm going to try now, I can let you know but sounds like to me SiberianFirestorm knows his way around this. My only concern is that maybe he speaks of a LT1 93-97 car and maybe there might be some difference to the LS1 cars. I hope not, I tired of such minor maintenance taking so long to complete.

Also, I searched "fuel filter change" with TFS search tab and no tech article came up, so what gives?

Matt's idea seems to be pretty sound.
And theres no reason to think it wouldn't work on your LS car, so go with it.

When you changed yours 9T8W66 did you do it with an empty tank, or close to? That may be the biggest difference because my tank has like 13 gallons(full load) of fuel in there. If nobody had any good ideas, I was going to run it down to nearly empty before I tried again. Hopefully I won't have to do such now...

To tell you the truth I don't remember for sure.
But I remember someone telling me to do it with the least amount in the tank.
Matt's idea effectively drains all the fuel out of the lines so you shouldn't have a leak and if you do it wouldn't be much.
IMO what do you have to lose ?

I just saw a very detailed procedure on this over on LS1 Tech. Either general maintenence or Fuel Section, can't recall which with pics and everthing. Maybe try a search over there? Dave.

OK, did the unplug and run 'til quit routine, then loosened line and got another steady gush of fuel! Guess I'll wait until the tank gets closer to empty before trying again. I don't know if this has anything to do with it, but the car was on jackstands(under rear axle) with rear of car about 1' off the ground... there is no getting under there without lifting the car, but do you think if I lifted the front as well to do away with the frontwards tilt?

Searched LS1 Tech too, no luck on the tech article spoken of, but I did find this post in a thread that was the botto, line in it's thread respectively. It sounds like maybe lots of fuel was normal for this person too, but ya'll have said little to no fuel should spill. The "simple" stuff aggrevates me more than anything! Major headaches I can deal with fine, but little craps that should not take any time/effort that turn into ordeals ###### me off!

Time to go get my head right, I'll catch ya'll after a beer or 5!

Just for reading fun, here's Blazingz28's post from over there:



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Fuel filter is Pie!!!!!!!

Open gas cap
Jack up left rear
Jackstand
grab 3-4 beach towels, crawl under car in front of rear driver wheel and look for a metal cylinder the size of a soda can with two lines running to it.
Place towels underneath you will drop a decent bit of gas, dont worry.
Need 2 wrenches to undo the one side of it, the other side just squeeze two clips and pull.
Reverse order with new one.
__________________

99 Z28 A4 Vert - Pacesetter LT's - ORY - Lid - !all free mods - 3.73's
12.7@109 1.9 60'
Cardomain

When you say gushing, how much and does it seem to slow at all. There is going to be a small amount of pressure in the tank. Did you try leaving the cap on? It has been so long since I did one and I am not sure why the tech articles are not working at this time.

I wish I would have penciled down where that article on LS1 Tech was located. Off the top of my head I do remember it said to jackstand the rear of car, they used ramps , Take off gas cap, pull the fuel pump fuse, bleed the shrader valve on fuel rail, to exspect SOME fuel leakage when you remove filter, and to prime the pump by cycling the ignition on and off 3 times before starting, check for leaks. Hope this helps. I plan on doing mine when I get my car out in April, after I run some fuel cleaner through it. Good luck. Dave

I didn't pull any fuses or anything like that when I did mine...just let it sit over night, came out the next morning, popped the old one off, and the new one on...some spillage, but not much, only lasted 30 seconds at most then stopped...I just had my car jacked up...took 10 minutes tops....

Update:

Ran the full tank darn near empty this week, lifted LF corner of car which left enough room to get where I needed to go without raising gas tank too much, unplugged fuel pump, ran engine until it sputtered to a stop, then removed fuel filter with minimal spill(couple ounces tops). Don't think it would have leaked that much if filter wasn't as dirty as it was which held most of the gas the pump had pushed that the dirty filter had stopped up. Put all back together--- seems to run better. I had previously seen a SES light for "cylinder bank #1 lean" which prompted the fuel filter change, along with some lagging performance. After change, SES light came back on for "EVAP leak" which I assume came from getting some air in line during fuel filter change. Light went away on it's own, so hope all is well.

I beat on it pretty hard after SES light went out... let's just say the rev limiter saw some moderate action and it is a good thing I have some new Kuhmos on the way