Engine/Transmission (1998.5 - 2002) Question about Fuel Problems with 2nd Gen Engines

[Carle]

I am concerned about having a fuel problem on the road. It does not appear that all of the fixes such as FASS and RASP and the several pusher pumps is quite the answer as they have been failing as well. I was thinking about this and wondered why no one has come up with the idea of using gravity to get the fuel to the engine. My thought was to install a fuel tank in the bed of the truck, as many of you have all ready done, and make it the primary tank with the return line to the in bed tank and use the regular tank as a secondary tank. This would give you almost two feet of drop and there would not be so much strain on the lift pump to provide fuel to the engine. The two auxiliary tank makers use the in bed tank as an auxiliary tank only. The plumbing would not be that bad as the lines could be spliced right under the in bed tank. Most of the tank makers have as an option a gauge package so the fuel level would be known. They also have a setup to automatically fill the main tank from the auxiliary tank which could be accomplished very easily with the current setup using the existing lines to the new auxiliary tank. Anyway I do not know if this is a good idea or not but for what the different add on pumps cost and their apparent failure rate I thought this maybe another alternative. I would appreciate anyones comments.

 

[Gary - K7GLD]

The actual difference in available pressure and fuel flow to be obtained by merely raising the fuel supply by 24 inches is pretty minimal, and not likely to have any significant impact upon fuel delivery issues...



Better? Perhaps - but significant - no...

 

[GHill]

Carle,

there was a member a couple of years ago who came up with the gravity solution and was pretty sold on the concept. I believe his name is Whitmore, I haven't seen any posts from him for a while. You might try to search some of his posts and see if it is something worth doing. If I wasn't concerned about giving up bed space for a tank I would consider trying it.

Galen

 

[Supermod56]

There have been no reported failures of the RASP pump, at least not here.

 

[Double J]

There have been no reported failures of the RASP pump, at least not here.

Ditto. Oo.

 

[Hohn]

Carle,

there was a member a couple of years ago who came up with the gravity solution and was pretty sold on the concept. I believe his name is Whitmore, I haven't seen any posts from him for a while. You might try to search some of his posts and see if it is something worth doing. If I wasn't concerned about giving up bed space for a tank I would consider trying it.

Galen

Whitmore hangs out at oilburners.net

 

[scotty1]

Most states if not all and the same for the provinces do not allow a straight gravity feed. However, You can take fuel from a pick up tube at the top with a small fuel pump and feed the engine with it.



On the 3rd gens I am looking at this. I want to draw cool fuel from the big in bed tank and return fuel to the stock tank. Then move fuel from the factory tank to the big tank when needed. I have looked at a few fuel level sending units for my in bed tank but I have a real good idea of how much fuel I use from it so I may not do the fuel sender.



Scotty



Or maybe I should have the return fuel go into the big tank to dissipate the heat and move it to the factory tank later?

 

[jrobinson2]

Link to Whitmore's thread:

Wanna fix your lift pump problems?



Jared

 

[JR2]

Your other option is to tap the bottom of your stock tank. It has been done and it does work. The only draw back is that you then have a fuel line coming out of the bottom of the tank and if you ever tear it off you would be out of luck.



I like the idea about drawing from a inbed tank. I belive its not totaly "legal" to use the inbed tank as your primary supply, but who is really going to check on it. Unless you have some sort of state inspection I would go for it.

 

[Murle]

Go with the FASS. You will not have any problems. Install as per the instructions. But remember anything can fail if it is made by man. Running my FASS now for 2 years. No problems.

 

[Fishin Guide]

I'll leave the electric pumps to you guys. After 4 lift pumps in 70K miles, I am doing a cam and 12V pump. All to be done next week.



Maybe that will be a good time for head studs and I probably should start fabbing pipe for the compounds... .



Chores, chores...



Dave