Electric Fuel System Questions.

I am piecing together my own DIY Electric fuel system and have a few questions. I figured I get the info straight from the pros.
I have gotten the parts together from my shop such as a fuel filter base(old Mack filter base) a superduty fuel pump (Airtex), ordered the Aeromotive FPR with the return. .
The questions that I have before I get started are.
Can someone provide some pictures of where the fuel lines go if I am run them straight to the head with my regulator after the heads as well as how the lines to and from the regulator are run. I understand that I only have one fuel line from the tanks so i will have to T into the heads at some point. Do the fuel lines FROM the head run into each side of the regulator with the single output on the bottom of the regulator going back to the return line?
Is the single superduty pump enough to fuel both heads?
A detailed pictorial of the procedure would be great.

I think you actually have it figured out. Most of us feed the head from the rear. As such flow goes pre-filter, pump, post filter, Y to split to both rear heads, across the heads, from the front of the heads one line to each side of regulator, one line out of bottom of regulator to return to the tank.

One SD pump is enough for smaller injectors.

PLEASE SHARE PHOTOS OF YOUR WORK.

I just gotta see how those lines go into the back of the heads. It's pretty oil/dirt covered so it's pretty tough to see. So into the back heads after the T and out the front of the heads with singles into the regulator. I got a local shop that can give me a hand but I don't wanna rack up a bill when I can find the info myself.

To the back of the heads I built two lines that use the factory vibra-lok fittings.



Then placed a Y in the valley



Your understanding for the return is correct. A single line from each head to each side of the regulator with the return out the bottom.


.

Did you have to remove any fittings from the head in the back? Or just use the fittings that were in there with the new lines?
Are the holes in the front of the heads merely plugged up? Where did you get the Y manifold?

Here's a thread Tom started for me that has a lot of good info in it:
http://powerstrokearmy.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1629

Irishcream said:

Did you have to remove any fittings from the head in the back? Or just use the fittings that were in there with the new lines?
Are the holes in the front of the heads merely plugged up? Where did you get the Y manifold?

Click to expand...

1. I would not mess with the fittings in the back if I was doing vibra lock fittings like PSrumors did. Advantage there for sure is no chance of cracking the head.

2. The holes in the front are not blocked off those become the feed to the regulator. I did not mess with those I just connected them to the regulator. I used a short piece of tube to extend one line.

3. Jegs, Summit etc will have those Y-blocks. I had bought one from there but it seeped so I ended up with the aluminum air manifold on mine.

I meant are they blocked off to begin with? Are you saying there are lines already coming from the front of the heads? I though the steel lines going into the back of the heads were the only fuel lines to the heads. dead ending at the front.

No the lines at the front connect to the bowl which has the regulator built into it.

I'm so confused. What do people mean by the fuel dead ending in the head then? Do the OBS 7.3's utilize a regulated return already? So i use the existing lines from the front of the heads as my return lines to the regulator and the hard lines at the fuel pump/ bango bolt to feed the heads. That sounds so much simpler than removing plugs from the front of the heads, running lines to them then to the regulator. The only worry now is getting the fuel to the back of the heads. Has anyone used the existing hard lines on the back of the head or just as well run new lines to the existing fittings?
Sorry for all the stupid questions, I just want to be ready for whatever I may face.

The OBS does not dead head the SD trucks do.

Yes others have used the stock lines at the rear to feed the fuel. I will look for that information for you

There is nothing at all wrong with you asking lots of question that is the purpose of this forum. The only thing I ask is that you share information back when the next guy comes along.

for sure. Anything I learn here I try to help others with.

Here is an idea if you want to reuse the hard lines.

http://members.localnet.com/~boys3/

I made new ones for my install.

Irishcream said:

I'm so confused. What do people mean by the fuel dead ending in the head then? Do the OBS 7.3's utilize a regulated return already? So i use the existing lines from the front of the heads as my return lines to the regulator and the hard lines at the fuel pump/ bango bolt to feed the heads. That sounds so much simpler than removing plugs from the front of the heads, running lines to them then to the regulator. The only worry now is getting the fuel to the back of the heads. Has anyone used the existing hard lines on the back of the head or just as well run new lines to the existing fittings?
Sorry for all the stupid questions, I just want to be ready for whatever I may face.

Click to expand...

The OBS 7.3s do in fact have a regulated return from the factory.

I tossed the vibra loc fittings and installed 1/8 npt to JIC then some Aeromotive lines on my OBS. Local hydraulic shop made the hoses fairly cheap. I don't see anything wrong with what PSrumors did, I just didn't have the ability to fab that up like he did, and I liked the blue fuel lines.

Big Bore said:

I tossed the vibra loc fittings and installed 1/8 npt to JIC then some Aeromotive lines on my OBS. Local hydraulic shop made the hoses fairly cheap. I don't see anything wrong with what PSrumors did, I just didn't have the ability to fab that up like he did, and I liked the blue fuel lines.

Click to expand...

On the '97s the rear fitting is a 90 that has to be cut in order to remove. I was not comfortable cutting the fitting for worry of shavings. The last thing I wanted to have happen was to get something in the rail.

If / when I remove the turbo I plan to go to stainless braided hose or something along that line.

PsRumors said:

On the '97s the rear fitting is a 90 that has to be cut in order to remove. I was not comfortable cutting the fitting for worry of shavings. The last thing I wanted to have happen was to get something in the rail.

If / when I remove the turbo I plan to go to stainless braided hose or something along that line.

Click to expand...

I did mine when putting a new motor together out of the truck for the 96. Makes sense to do it the way you did in the truck.

At what pint would you need to make the lines to the back of the head larger? I figure i will keep the same lines with the old banjo bolt and new adapter but only if it isn't gonna hurt me in the long run. What is the stock fuel pressure before electric fuel? Will those stock lines keep the pressure too high in the head to properly evacuate the fuel?

PsRumors said:

On the '97s the rear fitting is a 90 that has to be cut in order to remove. I was not comfortable cutting the fitting for worry of shavings. The last thing I wanted to have happen was to get something in the rail.

If / when I remove the turbo I plan to go to stainless braided hose or something along that line.

Click to expand...

Hey, PsRumors!!

Are you talking about the little factory 1/8 NPT/vibra-lock brass fittings at the rear of each head? On my '97, I didn't have to cut mine; I simply unthreaded them. They cleared the uppipes or dp; whichever it is on the pass. side it gets close to. I replaced the passenger side with a steel 1/8 npt to -5 (5/16") JIC, then plumbed a hard line to a y-fitting I got from summit Racing. On the driver's side, I think I reused the brass 1/8 npt 45* street elbow (both male & female threads are npt, I believe), and connected a 45* 1/8 npt male to -5 jic. To complicate things even more, I then used a 90* female swivel/male -5 jic fitting. My 5/16" hard line from the driver's side went a different path under my turbo, and into the Summit y-fitting. It basically went straight down from my 90* swivel fitting, between the turbo base & the valve cover.....

My turbo pedestal has had the EBPV cylinder surgically removed, and the holes for that cylinder either plugged, or welded, or both..... So I have maybe a slight bit more "freedom" for how I routed my hard lines. I went with 5/16" for those hard lines, and really didn't need to. 1/4" would've been much easier to deal with. I already had some of the -5 stuff laying around for a vacuum shock bleeder I once built for my KTM's rear shock, so I used that.... I just wanted to get JIC and/or NPT fittings on there where I could. My vibra-lock fittings on my truck were always a source of leaks for me...... Yours look really well done, PsRumors.

Both Joe Down & Tim at Tim's Intercooler Page have pretty good write ups, in addition to the fine stuff by Tom S. here at this site....

Here's a link to Tim's page:

http://members.localnet.com/~boys3/

Irishcream said:

At what pint would you need to make the lines to the back of the head larger? I figure i will keep the same lines with the old banjo bolt and new adapter but only if it isn't gonna hurt me in the long run. What is the stock fuel pressure before electric fuel? Will those stock lines keep the pressure too high in the head to properly evacuate the fuel?

Click to expand...

Unless you plan on going with a really big injectors/agressive chip/bigger HPOP, those stock lines will flow enough for most needs. I believe the openings in the 1/8" NPT fittings are the smallets openings the fuel has to squeeze through on it's journey, so those points would be the "restrictions" in the flow path. I'm fairly certain they're smaller than the I.D. of the 1/4" lines. I never bothered to measure the IDs of the 1/8 NPT fittings and/or stock lines, however, so take that for what it's worth....

I believe the guys that need more fuel than the smallest restriction can flow have to drill & re-tap the head for bigger fittings, or go at another entry point. Even then, the whole length of the fuel tunnel machined into the head has a pretty small I.D., actually.... Somewhere around 1/4", I think???? Again, I'm not certain on that. I've read the size somewhere, but my Alzheimer's deal is kickin' in.... LOL

But my long-winded point here is that unless you have REALLY BIG PLANS to pump a lotta fuel to your injectors, those stock lines will actually do pretty well.... If you look at the link below (and posted in my other post above), you can see one way to use the stock banjo fitting, and it will simplify your life greatly, if it has no leaks......

http://members.localnet.com/~boys3/

I guess there's even a guy on ebay or somewhere selling a deal to bolt on to that banjo fitting. If you think you wanna go that way, PM me; I have the parts for that laying around doing nothing.... They need a good home....

Jimmie