Ranger1 found some close-up pics of the fuel filter that he sent me on e-mail, which unfortunately I don't have the capability of posting here.
On the bottom of the filter there is a plastic see-thru bowl, with a water drain and two other fittings with wiring harnesses connected to them. One is most probably a fuel heater, as it has the same red/black wiring harness that goes to ours, and Racor puts their fuel heater below the filter element.
The other fitting I'm not sure, it could be either a wif sensor or a fuel temp sensor. The color coding on the wiring doesn't match either on our US spec CRD's. Perusing the Racor catalog, I'd lean toward a wif sensor.
If you go to
www.usdieselparts.com , you can access the current full Racor catalog in pdf format.
Looking thru their catalog, there may be an intermediate solution to completely replacing the stock filter head with a Racor unit.
Racor makes filter elements to replace OEM spin-on cartridges. Three of them have the same thread and gasket size as our stock filter assembly (16MM thread, 72 MM gasket). They can be ordered as 2, 10, or 30 micron elements. P/N's are S3208, S3209, and S3216. Add suffix to P/N for micron size, S = 2 micron, T = 10 micron, P = 30 micron.
For these same filters, you can order either metal or see-thru plastic bowls, some of them equipped with fuel heaters, depending on the diameter of the filter, and all standard with a water drain.
In this case, only one of the above filters, S3209, is of sufficient diameter (3.82") to be able to use a see-thru bowl equipped with both a water drain and 12V fuel heater. While the gasket and thread size match, the overall diameter of the filter, approximately 1/2" more than the OEM filter, might pose some fitment problems with the mounting bracket and fuel inlet banjo fitting on the OEM filter head, and it would be wise to do some measurements first.
If the 3209 filter will fit without any clearance problems, with a see-thru bowl including a water drain and 12V heater, that could solve two problem areas - the fuel temp sensor and fuel heater on the stock filter head.
By keeping the sandwich adapter with the temp sensor and stock fuel heater in place, you could still make use of the stock fuel temp sensor, which there doesn't seem to be a readily available replacement for.
The stock fuel heater could be plugged up with your medium of choice (RTV, epoxy, etc) to prevent any leaks. The connector on the wiring harness can be changed to match that on the bowl heater of the Racor filter, and plugged into the bowl heater.
The bowl heater on the Racor units are 12V 200 watt, and unlike the stock unit which constantly has power applied, has it's own thermostat built in - 45 F on, 85 F off.
While there isn't a provision for the wif sensor, you could argue that having a see-thru plastic bowl, where you can actually see when the filter needs to be drained down, would eliminate that need. There's also the chance that the drain fitting on the bowl will be the same thread size (M12 X 1.5) as the wif sensor on the OEM filter and be able to use it without modification, or be able to retap or install an adapter to make use of the wif sensor.
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