Aux. Fuel tank valve ? ?

[R C Cola]

Need a 12v aux. tank solenoid valve 1/2 or 3/8 in. normally closed having trouble finding one. $150 is out of the question. simple valve should not cost much. Need a positive shutoff for the aux. tank to stop siphoning when the pump is not on. Any ideas ?

 

[jelag]

Go to an industrial hose company and purchase a 1/2 lb back check valve... . and put it in the line out of the pump... .

The 1/2 lb back check will keep it from siphoning and the pump can overcome the back check with the output pressure... .

We do this all the time... .

 

[rweis]

I am trying the Northern Tool diesel fuel gravity feed stop valve that goes in the filler hose. No data as of yet though.



Bob Weis

 

[steved]

Need a 12v aux. tank solenoid valve 1/2 or 3/8 in. normally closed having trouble finding one. $150 is out of the question. simple valve should not cost much. Need a positive shutoff for the aux. tank to stop siphoning when the pump is not on. Any ideas ?

Use the divider valve from an older Ford or GM... you run the tank in one side of the tank legs and the out is well, the out... when switched, they simply "open" to air, and you can simply plug that extra tank leg.



You can buy them in JC Whitney even...



steved

 

[JimBob24]

I used the same type of valve as steved. Just plug the extra port. You can get them at NAPA and other parts stores. Echlin part # 2-2057 or Standard part # FV1. I have used them on 3 different trucks to prevent siphoning. Works great.



Jim

 

[dezeldog]

I have a aux. tank in the bed of the truck with a shut off valve in the bed as well. I have it plumbed to a 2mic. filter and then to the old vent line as I put the vent bomb in. Its been this way maybe 10 months with absolutely no problems. When the oem gauge starts to move I still have 500 mi. left.



Jim

 

[rweis]

Old thread, but have data now.



The Northern Tool aux tank shutoff valve, I would NOT recommend it.



I bought one, installed it and ran it for about 6 months including a 3000 mile summer vacation towing a 13k 5er.



The transfer rate is very very low. It will NOT keep up with my DD2's and towing a heavy 5er at 60 mph. It will barely keep up with running empty at 60 mph.



Today I decided to take it out and take it apart and find out why it would not keep up with DD2's.



I feed the OEM tank from a aux bed tank with gravity feed through a AN-6 hose to the Northern Tool valve. The fitting on the Northern Tool valve fits INSIDE of the AN-6 line, but still has about 1/8" ID for fuel to flow through (which should be enough).



Then the Northern Tool valve has a automatic cutoff float in a small barrel, but has 1/8" drain holes drilled into the small barrel. I cut the automatic cut off float mechanism off to see what was inside.



AHHHHHH HA, found the culprit. In the top of the automatic cutoff float area is a little less than 1/16" hole with a chamfer that the automatic cutoff float ball rises up into the chamfer to cut the fuel flow off when the OEM tank gets full.



Sooooooooo, you are gravity feeding fuel (not under pressure) through a less than 1/16" hole into your OEM tank. I think that is the problem, the feed hole is not big enough to allow enough gravity fuel feed to reach the tank.



The probably designed it that way with a very small float seat hole because the float ball is about 1/4" in diameter and probably could not work against much gravity fuel flow as the OEM tank gets full.



Sooooooooo, I do not recommend it because of not enough gravity fuel flow because of a very small hole in the valve seat for the gravity fuel to flow through.



Bob Weis

 

[steved]

Old thread, but have data now.



The Northern Tool aux tank shutoff valve, I would NOT recommend it.



I bought one, installed it and ran it for about 6 months including a 3000 mile summer vacation towing a 13k 5er.



The transfer rate is very very low. It will NOT keep up with my DD2's and towing a heavy 5er at 60 mph. It will barely keep up with running empty at 60 mph.



Today I decided to take it out and take it apart and find out why it would not keep up with DD2's.



I feed the OEM tank from a aux bed tank with gravity feed through a AN-6 hose to the Northern Tool valve. The fitting on the Northern Tool valve fits INSIDE of the AN-6 line, but still has about 1/8" ID for fuel to flow through (which should be enough).



Then the Northern Tool valve has a automatic cutoff float in a small barrel, but has 1/8" drain holes drilled into the small barrel. I cut the automatic cut off float mechanism off to see what was inside.



AHHHHHH HA, found the culprit. In the top of the automatic cutoff float area is a little less than 1/16" hole with a chamfer that the automatic cutoff float ball rises up into the chamfer to cut the fuel flow off when the OEM tank gets full.



Sooooooooo, you are gravity feeding fuel (not under pressure) through a less than 1/16" hole into your OEM tank. I think that is the problem, the feed hole is not big enough to allow enough gravity fuel feed to reach the tank.



The probably designed it that way with a very small float seat hole because the float ball is about 1/4" in diameter and probably could not work against much gravity fuel flow as the OEM tank gets full.



Sooooooooo, I do not recommend it because of not enough gravity fuel flow because of a very small hole in the valve seat for the gravity fuel to flow through.



Bob Weis

They might work good for gasoline since it is a "thinner" fluid...



Good to know... I liked the way it manifolds into the filler neck (the vent does not work, from experience) and it made for an easy install. I was going to buy one of these for my father, and get him hooked up to an auxiliary tank... but I'll probably go another route. I drilled and tapped the manifold the FASS uses, made for a quick install. However, I think some of us are running larger orifices on our Bypass filters and only get a touch over a quart/minute at 20psi!



I assume since you said "cut" that you basically had to destroy the fitting to get a look at it? There's no way to enlarge that opening without cutting??



steved

 

[tom sweeney]

Purolator makes a 12v fuel pump for 30 bucks... . i wired mine together with the Ford tank transfer switch previously mentioned ... the little pump is rated at 35 gal per hour,but it worked just fine on my '01,now i need to drop the same setup in my '08..... Larry Willard uses the same setup..... tom

 

[Joe G.]

I experimented with several setups. Not happy with most of them because they moved fuel too slowly or, in the case of electric pumps, failed at inconvenient times.



I am using a tank select valve in the engine room. The hose from the steel line for the stock fuel system now goes to the normally open port on the tank selection valve so if I have a problem with it the fuel will come from the main tank. The bed tank is connected to the tank selection valve with a long fuel line. If I want fuel transferred from the bed tank to the main tank I flip the switch to select the bed tank as input to the fuel system. The return line goes to the main tank. The affect is that since most of the fuel sent to the engine is returned to the main tank it fills pretty quickly. No extra pumps in the system. The stock 12 valve lift pump really moves fuel.

 

[rweis]

steved -



Maybe, I was nto going to use it so I cut the barrel off with a hacksaw. MAYBE you could open the 4 crimps on the bottom of the barrel that holds the float, dump the float out, drill the opening larger, put the float back in the barrel, and recrimp the 4 crimps.



Bob Weis



I dug it out of the trash, remember I cut the barrel off, and redrilled the hole where the float cuts the flow off to 1/8". I let the drill bit fall into the cavity where the feed hose attaches. So if you opened up the barrel, took the float out, redrilled the hole, reloaded the float, recrimped the barrel, you could do that. Now the question is "will the float still seal the larger hole?"

 

[R C Cola]

Valve

Thanks for the input guys. Got it rigged with electric pump and switching valve that is normally closed when the switch is off.