MonteCarSlow

I am in the process of converting an 1983 T/A to TPI and I don't want to go through the PIA procedure of swapping the gas tank.

Here is my idea:

The current engine driven fuel pump has a 3/8" send and 5/16" return line. I want to take this pump's output and drive it into a large fuel injection filter, followed by an F150 HP fuel pump, and then to the TPI intake. The TPI intake fuel return line will T into the 5/16" return line of the carb fuel pump.

Is my logic flawed? The large fuel filter will act as a surge tank, with the pump mounted such that gravity would fill the pump if the fuel filter contained fuel.

It's either this or I cut the original 1983 exhaust to get the tank out!! (the car has the two mini-muffler exhaust on it) I really don't want to hack the exhaust... this is a low budget TPI swap (I refuse to put any money into rebuilding that controlled fuel leak of a device that is called a carburetor)

Thanks for reading and offering any input.

DENN_SHAH

iTrader: (1)

i think it will work just fine.

what you want to do is kind of close to how i did to my car. i did have to put in a fuel return line because i wanted to keep the charcoal canister, its a 5/16
line so you should be good there.
on the pressure side i have a low pressure electric fuel pump pulling fuel from the factory 3/8 fuel line feeding into a ford truck frame mounted high pressure pump. both pumps are mounted under the hood. i do have a problem with some surging at WOT starting up around 4000 RPM if i have sat at idle with everything hot too long, as long as i have not been sitting at a hot idle for more than about 5~10 minutes during the summer i don't get the surging problem.
i think if i moved both pumps back near the tank my hot surging problems would be gone.
you may want to check what the engine mounted pump puts out as far as volume goes. my feed pump isn't very big, if i recall right i think its rated around 40 gallons an hour at 5 pounds.
you do need to have a pump to feed the ford pump, those ford pumps push fuel good but they don't pull very good, also they don't last more than a few months on my car without the feed pump.

TPI 85 Blazer

iTrader: (1)

I have heard of a similar setup working. A surge tank will also help if the low pressure pump starves for fuel under certain conditions.

shaggy56

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shaggy56

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shaggy56

I would like to try this. I have an older car without baffles in the tank and Im worried about fuel starvation. Would it be possible to do this but instead with an electric low pressure fuel pump. I plumbed the whole fuel system myself with a high pressure pump and have the big tpi fuel filter. I would like to run the low pressure pump into the filter then into the high pressure pump which is mounted very low on the frame rail lower than the fuel tank and pumps very high psi. I plumbed the whole system with AN fittings so rerouting lines should be easy. Im just not sure how I would plumb into the return line which is coming from the regulator as normal and dumps back into the tank.

elcamin0_77us

You can also use a sump kit to convert your current tank. Competition Engineering : Product : FUEL TANK SUMP KIT I would use this if one of my students hadn't tried to jackup the rear of my Camino with a floor jack. Ouch!!!

Bill

MonteCarSlow

In conclusion: I purchased a hydraulic oil filter and housing. There are four fittings at the top. By inserting a tube into the housing, it will force the pump to suck from the bottom of the filter. The TPI return line will plumb back to the filter housing. The mechanical pump will be plumbed to fill the housing/filter with fuel, with the 4th fitting being an overflow that is tee'd to the 5/16 line return line on the mechanical pump.

MonteCarSlow

Alright - I'll eat my words. Taking the gas tank out isn't fun but it wasn't as big of a pain in the neck as I thought it would be. I stared at the car for a while today and finally said, "The heck with it - do it right you idiot..."

Here's a pic of the 23yr old original exhaust. Sure is performance oriented isn't it??

elcamin0_77us

I forgot about this. Howard Stewart Race Pump high performance V8 fuel pumps I checked into this about a year ago. They claim that you don't need to baffle your tank, just install the special pump for EFI and your done. Also while I thank about it, some of the ford trucks and vans had a filter/reservoir which mounted to the frame. This could be quite usefull.

Just trying to help.
Bill