Dirty Gasoline, Dirty Oil, and a Fouled Engine: How to Avoid All Three.
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Recently, I was in the waiting room of my local auto repair shop. I heard the manager tell a customer that he has seen several cases of cars that had been stalled by really dirty gasoline.
He speculated that the reason was the gasoline shortage caused by Katrina and Rita. The gasoline stations ran low on gasoline. The sediment in the bottom of the tanks got into the gasoline in a much higher concentration.
The customer offered a suggestion. When you see a gasoline tanker truck filling a local gasoline station's tanks, drive to another outlet. The reason is the same: too much sediment in the gasoline that will get into your car's tank. The newly pumped gasoline stirs up the sediment at the bottom of the tank, which you then pump. Don't.
If we had really efficient fuel filters, this would not be a problem, but we don't. The most efficient fuel filter I know of is the Motor Guard, which is usually used for motor oil filtration. It filters out everything larger than three microns. It is so efficient, you don't have to change your motor oil. You just change the filter element every 3,000 miles and add a quart of oil to replace what the filter absorbs.
The canister is about the size of a toilet paper roll, which is reasonable, since the filtration element that the Motor Guard uses is a roll of toilet paper. The canister won't fit in most cars' engine compartments these days because there is so little room. For trucks, this is less of a problem. For $100 plus installation, it's a great deal, either as a fuel filter or an oil filter. If I had the room, I'd install two.