No one has some pics, or tips if you've done this on an AU?

I bought some 90* barbed fittings today. There's so little room above the pump in the cradle that I'll need to cut off 2-3 of the barbs, as the fitting will take up too much space.

I'm going to try one 90* fitting with the original black hose first, and if that doesn't work use 2 x fittings and some new fuel hose.

I've got the old pump out of the cradle now, so I'll be able to see if it will all work tommorow. It looks like it might not, but I'll try a few orientation options and see. Would be great to get the little walbro in there and ditch the external!

hi mate,

that cradle and pump is the same as series two EL xr8's and i have a walbro mounted in mine but its not a real good fit

the walbro pump is thinner than the stock one so you can either get some of that insulating foam tube that is used for hot water pipes (yes it lasts in petrol) and put the pump inside that then the pump and foam tube inside the cradle the pump sits in making sure its a tight fit

or you could cut two slots in the inner cradle either side of the walbro pump and feed a big hose clamp through one slot around the pump and through the other slot so both ends meet on the outside of the inner cradle, once the clamp is done up tight it should hold in place. this is my next plan.

for the fuel hose mine just goes straight up from the pump with a slight bend in the hose and has been working fine for over 12 months now but would be better if you could use a couple of elbow barb fittings.

hope you can make some sence out of that.

Millard, thanks for that - really helpful and makes sense.

I've got a rubber sleeve from a hose supplier which will fit over the walbro (fuel safe), but it's quite hard so won't help much with sound insulation, and is still not quite a tight fit in the cradle. This insulating foam tube that is used for hot water pipes - where would you source it? I've got some neoprene which I can use, but I'd assume it will fall apart in fuel.



I can't see how mine will allow a fuel hose to go straight up from the pump - the hose will kink too much.

I've got a barbed fitting now which I've cut down so the barbs aren't as long (not done in photo), and with this I'm hoping I can re-use the old black plastic hose.

Here's a comparison between standard AU pump fuel pickup vs. walbro pickup. Does anyone know if there likely to be any problem with this pickup size? It's hard to see in the photo, but the standard pump pickup actually funnels down and is smaller than the walbro...

 

 

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Fuel Pump Comparison1.jpg [ 18.15 KiB | Viewed 277 times ]

i was really hoping you could make some sense out of my rant.

with the hose connected to the pump (going straight up) and the cradle it has just pulled the pump to one side a bit as the foam tube has some give in it.

i got the foam stuff from REECE plumbing, used to insulate hot water pipes and the likes and got the submersible high pressure fuel hose from GATES.

however id look into using two hose clamps to hold the pump in place, pump wouldn't be dead center in the cradle but mine isn't now anyway so it wont make any difference and the swirl pot in the tank has enough room for some movement. i will be trying this way next time mine is out.

Ive had no dramas with the pickup on the pump and being in the tank i dont have any noise problems either.

if ya break anything on the cradle or the little rubbers are stuffed head to http://www.cyberspaceautoparts.com.au only place Ive found them at a decent price.

hope that helps ya mate.

Thanks Millard, that's a great help. I'll check out Reece today. I'll need some new rubbers, so the cyberspace link will be useful too.

Cheers,
Joe

Just an update - pump is being fitted today.

The walbro is inside a submersible fuel 'sleeve', which is mounted inside the standard cradle. It's secured with several cable ties to hold it centrally, and also to stop it dropping down (which would cause fuel starvation - mechanic is a bit worried about this).

We couldn't get fuel hose to turn from the pump to the upper fuel inlet without kinking, so I've put together some 90* brass barbed elbow/hosetail combos. The hose turns down 180* from the top of fuel pump, then at the bottom of the pump turns back up at 180* (basically does two U-turns). This gives room for the hose to turn.

The main problem now will be fuel flow...the barbed fittings don't have nice internal radius' on their turns....quite harsh actually. Mechanic will try to open them up a bit before fitting, but is concerned that the harsh turns might cause fuel flow restriction, or aerate the fuel.

Hopefully it works out! If it does ideally I'll have a quieter and higher flowing fuel pump.

Another little update - the barbed fittings didn't work! The angles and bends etc just didn't allow the hose to fit well. My mechanic has used a convoluted hose from a BA fuel pump cradle, which he's run in the same way....hose turns down from pump outlet toward bottom of cradle, then U-turns back up to the cradle outlet (top). I'm much happier with this setup as the bend radii are smoother, and larger diameter = better fuel flow!

The pump is delivering heaps of fuel now, and as a result ecu is being remapped. I'm hoping my 36lb injectors with extra fuel flow might work a bit harder now, so I can get full tune back to 5700 redline.

To finish this thread for anyone doing similar:

Got my car back yesterday. No more pump noise at all - awesome. People talk of walbro intanks still making noise, but I can't hear this at all.

Fuel flow/pressure is much higher than with standard intank + high flow external. This meant a tune touch up. With my previous setup my engine was running out of fuel pump/injectors by 5000rpm, so limiter was set to this. It was making 294rwhp.

The new higher flow/pressure walbro is making the 36lb injectors work a little harder, so tuner was able to stretch the rev range back out to where it should be. Limiter is now set to 6000rpm, engine makes 301rwhp (220rwkw) @ 5100rpm. The injectors are still a bit small above 5000rpm, so the engine continues to rev and make boost, but power flattens. It gets a little lean at 5500rpm+ too....AFR around 13:1.

Everything is really good so far....drives nice, smooth, quiet, powerful etc. The only thing I'll need to check over next few days is the startup idle. Due to the higher fuel pressure now, startup idle is a little grumpy for a few minutes. Tuner explains that at idle, with higher fuel pressure the injectors are only opening very briefly, causing them to dribble a little. With previous setup and less fuel pressure, injectors could open longer and allow a better spray pattern at idle. Idle motor is a bit iffy too.

I think this SC setup is pretty optimised now. If startup idle is acceptable then I'll keep it as is...it's driving well, making good power/economy and has full rev-range again. To improve I'd need to go 42lb injectors, change/adjust FPR, have the motec wired to control idle (currently controlled by standard ECU), maybe a new idle control motor then re-tune. With all this it would get a very good startup idle, and fatter AFR's in the top of the rev-range. This might give a little more power, but likely won't make a heap of difference with the standard VCT cam.

Thanks for the tips on the fuel pumps fellas! Millard455 we ended up securing the pump centrally using cable ties, similar to how you suggested. I used a submersible fuel rubber 'sleeve' to give a bigger diameter, and in the end it was all very secure. New cradle rubbers + the rubbers sleeve I think have resulted in the quiet pump operation.

Cheers,

Joe