[JonM21Ltz]

I just ordered this and it is sitting waiting to install this weekend. my truck just hit 36k miles so warranty is gone. time to do some preventive mods. the stock chevy Cruz 1.8l fuel filter is going buhbye.

I'll save the parts in case there is an issue.

 

[JonM21Ltz]

I'll know this afternoon. seems straightforward drop in type install.

 

[JonM21Ltz]

installing is not as easy as the instructions make out. the main issue is disconnecting the fuel lines and electrical connector. the first fuel line is the feed line from the tank and has a blue lock tab.

the blue tab is a two part lock with a piece that has a flat half moon pointing back down the line towards the fuel tank and a tab with thin ridges in it. you pull the tab away the push the tab towards the fuel head and that unlocks the half-moon portion. at that point you squeeze the half-moon and pull the fuel line free. this took me almost an hour of filling and saying a lot of four letter spicy words to figure out.

the fuel line that feeds the high pressure hp4 has a white lock tab with four legs. you just push legs away until the tab unlocks and then you can pull the line free.

fuel will dump out of both lines and there is fuel still in the filter head which of course will go everywhere. I used a giant piece of cardboard and drain pan I saved from the water heater I bought earlier in the year.

next hard part is the electrical connector it has a locking tab that is part of the plug and I had to use long channel locks to pull it free. the tab is part of the plug so it will come free with the harness.

the rest of the instructions are accurate.

I would recommend connecting the electric connector up before putting the bracket on the frame as the vse takes up more room than stock and there isn't much to start with. the fuel lines need to be put on with some authority while not disturbing the tabs in the unlocked positions. it's a little tricky took me three tries on the fuel tank side. two on the hp4 side.

putting the heating element in is done just as in the instructions. I used a small screw driver to pry the element body off the oem filter head and did it gently and evenly

installing filters is like any other filter.

truck is running good pressures normal.

 

[JonM21Ltz]

Does it hang below the bedside like the FASS?

no it's about 2 inches above the frame rail. pretty much same as oem filter plus an inch or so. you cannot see the filters unless you are pretty much right under them which is why it's hard to take pics of them installed

 

[JonM21Ltz]

Great pics and write up. Those line clips really are a bugger. No way they'll be flexible enough to work when these trucks get old.

yup and if you break the tank side clip your gonna have to drop the tank to replace the line. would suck bad it's why it took me so long as I didn't want to fk it up

 

[JonM21Ltz]

One thing I forgot to mention is you need to disconnect both batteries before disconnecting any lines or disconnecting the electrical connection to the heater. Would suck if you managed to make a errant connection and the lift pump came on with the supply line disconnected...

 

[JonM21Ltz]

So if you had to make a return trip to the dealer for warranty work it would be a REAL PITA to remove and put back to stock? Sounds like those whiz-bang connectors are real difficult. I wish they would not make tool-less connectors so hard to work with. Some electrical connectors are dang near impossible to get apart. It is if the engineers tried to make it difficult.

I had been considering this upgrade but will have to weigh the cost vs stock system failing and whether it would be covered by warranty. Over time the stock system may show some more issues?

Edit: Does the stock Filter Minder have an awareness of thus setup remaining filter life and if so how? If it uses pressure how would the change in media/filters affect this?

my truck just hit 36k miles so out of warranty. it's a moot point for me. gm would have to prove that the fuel being bad and going past the filter caused any issue. or your work caused an issue.

I wouldn't want to have to reverse it. but I'm saving the oem parts. from how little space there is getting it back out I think will be harder than getting them oem assembly out. but now that I know how the connectors work it might not be that bad. most of the difficulty was figuring out how they work without really seeing them and doing it mainly by feel.

the truck doesn't know you did anything as the vse uses the stock heater and water sensor. the only sensor in the stock Filter head is the water in fuel sensor.

as for the dic displaying fuel filter life being accurate I do not know. I change fuel filter every other oil change anyway and don't go by the dic info. both the donaldson filters are 39$ the oem acdelco tp1015 is 42$. so it really doesn't change anything filter cost wise.

the l5p lift pump is a demand pump and unlike a fass or similar setup it only pumps fuel as needed so I don't see how that would change much of anything. I ran the truck driving for about an hour last nite and fuel pressure and fuel rail pressure were normal ranges from low speed to mashing the pedal from a dead start to accelerating to 90mph. no issues.

what has worried me about the oem filter is the there is no real support for the element so the longer you run it the more likely you are to get a failure if you get really dirty diesel. since I travel a lot and get diesel all over the place I change the filters more often in case I do get some dirtier than normal diesel.

 

[JonM21Ltz]

Jonm..
Is the fuel system considered part of the powertrain warranty? My papers say I have a 5 yr 100k Powertrain coverage.
I agree, the stock setup is very iffy if bad fuel was introduced. There was a case of a gas station around here sending lots of water into cars gas tanks. All it takes is one bad load and problems could start. I suspect the worse case would be dirty fuel that restricts the flow as you said.

If I recall there is a sensor or something that can tell when the pressure is out of balance or something to determine fuel filter life. I wonder if it is partially plugged up there would be DIC warning or corresponding filter life reduction.

I'm just not concerned about it if it voids it at this point. I can't replace it with the same truck and same options if a faulty filter grenades the engine. I really really really despise the new interior look on the 2023 snd 2024 trucks. especially that hideous screen. and with there being restrictions on what options are actually available I can't get a truck equal to mine. so I decided to just swap it out and what happens if something comes up it happens.

I'm not telling you to do what I did just explaining how I see it.

I do not know how it determines percent of filter life left.

I carry extra filters fuel and oil and when I travel I have 11qts of oil in the truck as well.

if I have any issues with this I'll let you know but I don't think I will.

the most likely thing to happen is one of the injector harness connectors frying itself like they like to do. I'm more concerned about that and keep a few in the truck along with tools to swap one out if I need to.

 

[JonM21Ltz]

Albeit they are larger separate dirt/water filters if you have a Gell event or think you've had a dirty fuel event change you filter asap. It's been discussed on here that that fuel pressure is normally around 60psi, but those that monitor that pressure have said to have seen 90+. The Donaldson filters have a Burst pressure of 90 psi just like the factory filter. Prolly never see enough dirt to cause an issue that extreme but a gelled event with attempted starts definitely could. Just a thought.

If the fuel is gelled the oem filter is going to fail I would imagine. The filter and filter head were intended to be used and designed for a 1.8l diesel. The l5p is probably stressing that setup pretty hard under good conditions so as soon as something goes a bit funky fuel wise it explodes. Which would account for the folks running the oem filters and nuking the engines when dirty fuel is encountered.

I'm no expert on this at all. But I'm not convinced about the quality of the oem filter after reading about other folks losing their fuel system due to the oem filter setup going tits up under dirty conditions. its concerning especially after finding out what the oem system was designed for.

Maybe I'm overthinking it too I dunno

 

[JonM21Ltz]

$650 seems pretty cheap to me, if you know what I mean. Yeah I'm sure at that price they're making plenty of profit for a dual filter head setup but it could be invaluable for your truck. It'll be a high priced option until some real competition shows up.

Good write-up on the install. Looks like a nice setup.

I'm going to setup data logging on the idash for the lift pump and see how it performs during next regen and try and watch it over the next few weeks.

 

[JonM21Ltz]

Maybe I missed it but how do we know this filter was actually designed for the Cruze diesels? For a car that can get 50 mpg, the filter seems huge for something that would use a couple gallons per hour. The Cruze diesel always seemed like an afterthought to me (had a 2014 gas Cruze) and maybe the engineers just used a truck filter on it instead of designing something smaller.

The cruz ended production about 2 years after l5p started. What better way to save cost by counting beans and reuse a filter they already had. It's highly unlikely gm was planning out the l5p in 2010 or so when the cruz was made by gm korea.

But the only one who knows is the person who ok'd the fuel filter choice in the planning meeting. The cruz has been using it longer than the l5p and no other duramax used that filter until l5p.

Evidently the cartridge filter works well enough as most l5p run fine with it. I'm not saying it's a complete sht filter. I just dont trust it.

 

[JonM21Ltz]

I like the VSE filter and it almost certainly does a better job. Plus, it is a hell of a lot easier to change the filters since there is no plastic to strip or problems getting bad things in the cap. I agree there are probably more but how many Cat/Donaldson filter failures are there? : ) Not trying to turn this into an argument to not use the VSE or that the OEM filter is great. I was just wondering if there was some other reasons to not trust the OEM filter. If there were more reasons, I would consider switching a higher priority but I will probably wait for my warranty to run out.

my reason is I spent almost 90k on this truck. I have zero monthly payment. the vse makes sense as donaldson makes some of the best filters. so a unit that will do the job and do it well with a filter setup that does not interfere with the computer system or require reprogramming I'm going to do it

I can understand worrying about the warranty. I'm not trying to convince anyone to ditch the oem filter.

 

[JonM21Ltz]

The dic went from 100% to 99% after a little over 100 miles so the sensors that read fuel filter life are working. The p551313 and p551329(?) Are rated for 15k miles and the dic reading if accurate should hit zero about then.

 

[JonM21Ltz]

ok, did a regen while towing today speeds from stip and go traffic to 30 40 55 and some 70mph interstate time occasional flash blips to 63psi some to 57 psi. stayed at 60psi for the vast majority of the regen.

I have seen occasional non regen time spikes to 79 psi that last about 1/4 of a sec or so. just a flash.

ending number

 

[JonM21Ltz]

just finished a tow with trailer loaded to about 14k (2 big horses) lift pump stayed at about 60psi same as before no issues with power or pulling. vse seems just fine.

 

[JonM21Ltz]

You can set alarms for any parameter in the iDash. I believe, fairly sure, you can set an alarm for a parameter even if you don't display it. I set one for oil pressure (full screen flashing) and am toying around with one for fuel rate as an economy coach.

Yes you can set alarms for non displayed pids.

That's probably a great one to set running oem filter or not

 

[JonM21Ltz]

I'm considering the VSE system, though am concerned about breaking those fuel disconnect clips/tabs and then having a nightmare on my hands. Does anyone know of a video or something that shows how those clips/tabs work?

I couldn't find a good video. post #7 in this thread I outlined how I did it. it isn't that hard once you understand how the tabs work. what makes it hard is trying to go too fast. you would really have to try hard to break them intentionally.

it was harder getting the electrical connector off because of the lack of space.

 

[JonM21Ltz]

Is this the fuel line connector at approximately 6:30 minutes?

Not sure my cut and paste is up to snuff??

it's hard to tell because the sample he has is missing half the connector...

 

[JonM21Ltz]

I kept it on, put another 1400 miles on it over thanksgiving week. No issues yet, a few cold starts and heavy acceleration. Keeping another spare filter with me just in case

I doubt you will have a issue as the filters are being drained by the hp4 high pressure pump while the lift pump is filling them up. I doubt they ever see very high pressures at all.

 

[JonM21Ltz]

no idea as there is not a pressure sensor in the filter head. while the system is under pressure and the left pump may say 60psi or 90psi it doesnt mean the entire low side jumps to that pressure instantly. that is just the output of the pump itself

you would have to know what draw pressure of the hp4 is and know the output of the lift pump and the fuel pressure in the filters will be the rough difference

the filters are a reservoir of fuel for the high pressure side and are constantly being drained. the lift pump keeps it filled.

unless your fuel gels or something is wrong with the lift pump or the pressure sensors at the lift pump or at the hp4 it's not going to overload the filters