Yeah a pic would be good here to as I am also having some trouble trying to visualize where exactly you out the darn thing. But yes it's a good idea that you have one on there. About the cleaning part I check mine every half a gallonto a gallon, this just makes sure that I do not run to long with all that dirt in there. I have seen some filters that had that much crud in the filter that it was leaning out the engine and the people had just about given up on the thing as everything they did just did not help. It took me 5 minutes to find the problem after that it was fine.