Oil & Fuel KAMA 554 Fuel Filter Change

[3RRL]

Among the other 400 hour maintenance procedures on the Kama 554 I did, one of the things was to change the fuel filter and clean out the fuel bowl again. I had ordered several fuel filters from Chip at Artrac for this very reason.

First, be sure to close the fuel supply line going to the fuel bowl. Unscrew the thumbwheel nut on the bottom and be sure not to lose the little cup washers. I got one of those handy magnetic parts trays for stuff like that.
Then you can remove the fuel bowl and clean out the red-rusty residue if any. I had about 1/8" to 1/4" of it in the fuel bowl. You might want to check the petcock for blockage if you are having fuel flow problems, but I did not need to do that. I had never drained and cleaned out my fuel tank either, since I have not experienced any fuel flow problems.

Before...



After cleaning...



I replaced the bowl but I made a little round gasket since it had been leaking very slightly...no photo of that though.

 

[3RRL]

Then I removed the fuel filter itself. There is a nut on top of the fuel filter base to loosen, then you can unscrew the housing from the base.



Take out the filter element and dispose properly, then clean out the filter housing and rinse it out. Install the new filter element and fill the housing up with diesel before screwing it all back together again.



My filter element was pretty clogged up and I should have changed it before now. The filters are cheap and Chip has them all in stock.

 

[3RRL]

The last thing to do is turn the fuel petcock open again and prime the system.
There is a pump on the injector pump to do that. Unscrew the knob and pump it until you feel pressure. Some fuel may squirt out. Screw it back down after priming.



Then fire up the tractor and you are done with that. If it starves, prime it some more. It's very easy to keep your fuel system clean and working properly this way.

 

[3RRL]

While you are at it, you might want to change the injector pump oil too. I did not do it at this time because I had done it 3 months ago. But if you want to do that, it is very easy to do. I used a suction pump instead of waiting for all the oil to drip out. It was pretty cool.





You can view how I did that in this thread:
CHINESE TRACTOR OWNERS CLUB FORUM - Changing Injector Pump Oil

 

[bluechip]

Very nice informative post Rob.

 

[Soundguy]

I 2nd that.. A great tutorial for those that may be new to diesels.. or those that have ever let their diesel go dry!

Soundguy

 

[3RRL]

I have changed the injector pump oil several times now, using the suction method. My friend Brad told me there was a drain plug on the left bottom of the injector pump, which I had never noticed before because of the way the pump sits on the engine. But it's there. When I tried to drain from there the first time, diesel started gushing out so it startled me and I had second thoughts about that being the drain plug. I had not experienced the oil being diluted before,l but it was. Anyway, my recent visit to the property allowed me to check it once again, and indeed that plug is the drain on our Kama 554.

I marked a 12oz squeeze bottle at the 10oz spot and drained the oil from that plug. About 8-1/2 oz came out, but I noticed the little dipstick read it was on the low mark. So when I refilled, I put in 9oz of 15w40 Delo and squeezed it back in. Checking the dipstick, 9oz is the perfect amount for my injector pump.