Yes, I replaced all 3 seals, the two on the 10mm water drain plug and the big tapered seal on the threaded filter housing screw lid and i lubricated all 3 with diesel.Did you replace the seal in the filter housing lid? The slight gap is not really an issue and only use diesel to lubricate the seal. Pauls drain plug is far better and will out live the car..
When my filter heatshield was ripped off the car when hitting hidden flood water I glued large headed studs after cutting off the remains of the originals and used plastic nuts to secure the heatshied. A couple of washers were used where the holes had ripped through.
These are the studs that I used....
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The small plastic drain plug went back in fine but the main filter housing thread felt tight to undo and tighten back up again.
I did thoroughly clean both the housing and lid when the old filter was removed and just feel both threads need a little more lubricant as they were completely degreased and when I've looked at the couple of new fuel filter housings that I have in my parts stash they appear to have some kind of clear grease on the plastic threads that I would love to know what it actually is as I feel it could prevent any potential shearing problems in the future ?