Fuel Cell Help--Noob

[Guest Isolatos]

Ok, I bought an early 70's 240 with a fuel injected 280 motor in it. I drove the car home but it wont idle at all. It has a Ford Focus tank rigged in the spare tire well. I recently bought a 10 gallon Summit Cell that I am planning to install this week. I have other pics of cell installs and I think I an do that with no problem. What I need to know is what I need to buy as far as a fuel pump, lines, regulator, and anything else. Thanks in advance.

[Jaspendlove]

i would like to know this as well. i am still on the search on this forum

[woldson]

Depends on application. What are going to be your fuel requirements now and in the future?

[WizardBlack]

Oh dear...

 

Well I will take a stab at it since I've always enjoyed setting up fuel systems.

 

Anyways, you probably have two AN fittings on top and two in the sump on the back. Get the vent on top routed out of the passenger compartment and away from the exhaust, etc. The other one should have a tube inside of it for return fuel to drop to the bottom of the tank and avoid sloshing/evaporation from the return process.

 

For the two bottom taps, one gets capped and one will feed your fuel pump. Something to consider here; gravity and elevation. Not all fuel pumps will suck the fuel to themselves so they need to be at or below the cell's sump. Some, such as the Aeromotive A1000 are supposed to be able to. (I will get to fuel pumps in a moment). How you mount the tank will partially dictate what type of pump you can get.

 

For a fuel pump, it all depends on what kind of power you expect to make. A general rule of thumb is less than two horsepower per litre-per-hour of pump. This is assuming forced induction. A common in-tank fuel pump upgrade (for modern cars) is the Walbro GSS342 (~$110) that flows 255 lph and is expected to be maxed out at 500 whp. There is an external (or in-line) version of it you can get (GSS347 IIRC). One step nicer than that is the Bosch 044 pump (~$175) that flows about 300 lph and can support 500+. The Aeromotive A1000, most Welden pumps, etc. are extremely loud and flow a lot but are very expensive. Whatever you do, be sure to insulate your mount point for those with a good chunk of rubber.

 

On the subject of fuel filters, you need two. One coarse filter before the pump (to act similar to the in-tank pickup sock) to screen big stuff from damaging the pump. You also need a fine filter after the pump to screen stuff from getting into the injectors which are 10X more sensitive to junk in the fuel. Many of the Nissan filters work great for that. If you are "going big" with AN lines, look at Aeromotive's filters. A 100 micron works as a coarse filter and then they have fine ones for post-pump as well.

 

For lines, -8 AN is pretty common for the feed line and then -6 AN after the rail or after the regulator. Many people use the Aeromotive regulators which can be fed with -8 and then the return line (coming out of the regulator) can be dropped down to -6 AN. I'd say a -8/-6 setup is good for 700 whp (since I've come darn close to that on it), but for a V-motor, you can either use -8 feed splitting to a pair of -6's (same power support) or a pair of -8 feeds with a -8 return (more than you will probably ever need).

 

Here's the basic schematic:

 

[sump on Cell]->[Coase Filter]->[Pump]->[Fine Filter]->[Fuel Rail]->[Regulator]->[Return Port on Cell]

 

If you are setting the system "just for" the L28E, then I'd use push-fit lines with a -8 feed and -6 return and you will be set. I'd setup up to a Bosch 044 pump and you may have to figure a few things out for filters.

 

 

Hope that helps.