So awhile back in the TVS thread I had posted about doing a fuel cell and Magnafuel inline pump on our car to fix our issues. Little back story on our car. Currently on a 2.9/TVS/E85/full bolt ons set up. Running 80lb inj stock fuel system, IDC at 105% by 7500 rpm. So a upgrade was in order. Since last year going e85 I have been battling fuel starvation issues. At 3/4 tank level on a wot pull it would go lean and come back as the fuel would settle in the tank. At 1/2 level and below, at wot it would literally cut out and loose all fuel pressure and feel like you hit a wall. Pump would starve as the fuel got pushed to teh back of the tank. At 1/4 level and below under normal driving and turns, the car would loose fuel pressure and cut out and almost die. It has been so annoying to always try and keep the tank at over 1/2 level since we all know how great mpg's are on e85 which for us is every 100 miles.

So I have been planning this mod for months and gathering parts as we could afford and go along. I finally have enough to get started and get things going so here is a thread with progress and lots of pics. I know some will ask why a fuel cell over the stock tank, and why not just do surge set up or sump the stock tank. Well here are my points.

-stock tank is poor set up with no baffling or fuel control causing lots of people to starve
the pump on high hp apps on long pulls.
-poor locating for the stock pump to pick up fuel
-poor fuel range on e85. Roughly 13 gals capacity
-surge set up is costly to run all the lines and pumps and set up
-didn't wanna hassle with powering multiple pumps

The pro's for me running the cell were

-I already had the fuel cell lying around from my truck I was gonna sell anyways. So no cost there
-Sumped in the rear for better fuel supply
-more capacity. 20 gallons
-Cleaner install. No mess of lines everywhere
-Running one big pump that will be more then enough
-Cheaper for us
-because it looks freaking cool HAHA!!

Here is the set up and lay out:
-20 gallon aluminum fuel cell with e85 foam, sumped in rear
-Maganfuel 4301 inline fuel pump powered by relay set up
- -8an feed braided feed line from cell to pump
- 40 micron pre pump filter
- 10 micron post pump filter
- -6an feed line, braided under car/proclassic under hood
- Fuel lab pressure regulator
- Stock fuel rail
- 80lb inj
- -6an return line
- evap line used as return under car
- all Russell brand an fittings/lines












If you have any suggestions or see anything I missed feel free to chime in and throw some ideas in. I'll take any into consideration. Enough with me blabbing and onto the pics.

First thing I had to do was move the battery over and up out of the spare tire cavity. Very easy. Just drilled new holes for the tie down and cables reached fine. Then I sat the fuel cell in the cavity to see how it fit.



Cell has mounting tabs welded to it to bolt to the floor which were getting in the way and not letting the cell sit flush as you can see it sits very high. So I had to chop those off.





Then I had to cut and drill out the original battery try from the car. Which is also the spot where the sump would be going. So I had to make a small hole for that.



Once that was out of the way, the cell fit better, but is really big and was hitting at the front. So I had to make some cuts at the front portion on the cavity and that allowed the fuel cell to all sit nice and flush in the spare tire cavity. It now only sticks up about 3' from the floor

 

Because Racecar? Haha. Neat idea. Just sucks you loose your spare tire and use of your trunk for much of anything else.

 

I personally think its going to look freaking cool with the sump and line visible from the back view of the car. Gives you a little hint about the car HAHA!!

So now that I have the fuel cell sitting how I like it, I will go buy some metal and make some straps to go across the top to hold it down in place. I will also line the bottom of the floor with something to protect the tank, not sure what yet and to keep the front of the tank a little high to feed the sump well and keep it more level as our car has a slightly raked stance.

Now was onto getting the pump mounted. I didn't have much options as the sump sits fairly low. I was going to mount it to the aluminum rear bumper, but kinda didn't like that idea if we get rear ended. I thought about to the floor of the spare tire cavity, but then the pump was really low and the metal is kinda thin there. So I chose to mount it a little higher then the sump on the frame rail of the car.



It's about a 6'' height differance, and I'm hoping that it'll gravity feed ok and the pump should be able to pull fuel from there ok. Now I need to go buy 2 -8an 90* fittings to run the line form the cell to the pump. I'm going top mount both filters on the pump itself to make the easier for me.

My next step is to cut and make the lines to go for return and feed to the stock fuel line and evap line.

 

Richie from wat magna fuels told me these pumps will suck up fuel they can be mounted above the tank.
Looks good man

 

looks good

 

looks pretty damn sweet.

 

You're going to need to get rid of that breather and vent it outside the car. I may be wrong on this one but unless I'm mistaken an in-car fuel cell needs to be isolated from the cabin, so you'll need to seal off the trunk from the cabin by means other than the rear seats.

Looks like it'll solve all your problems though.

 

is yours an 05? all the 05s, including mine suffer badly from the starvation issue.

i went with a surge tank, but a canister from other model years may be the easier option for most.

 

Thanks guys.

This is all just for mock up now and how it was sitting in my truck. I will have a roll over and vent tube to outside the car. As per my local track rules I need to have a firewall between cabin and fuel cell. I will be making a removable sheet metal firewall in place of the seats for track days. Also be doing something better to hold down the battery that looks cleaner. Undecided if I want to put it in a box or not.
Yup our Redline is an 05'. 04-05 had the bad ones, but also I've been seeing 06-07's having issues too so didn't want put something in I know would have to come back out you know...

 

I figured it was just mock up. With how you've done the car I couldn't imagine that being the final hahah. I just couldn't read about the work and not give you a heads up about regulations in case you didnt know.

 

I took a picture tonigh of 05 vs 07 pump, ill post it soon

 

HAHA thanks man. Yeah I'm all about the little details and making it look clean too. I'm hoping I figure something out to make the truck all blend well together! Thanks for the heads up though, hey sometimes we can forget things at times.
Cool. I've been wanting to see the difference.

 

So the fueling issue has something to do with the fuel tanks and canister right? Does this effect the 2007 year as well? Wondering if this will be something I'll need to look into.

 

subd

 

good stuff man, I love how you can see the sump underneath

 

Correct. Poor design of the tank. The fuel lump sit at the very front of the tank with no interior baffling. The pump is supplied by what's inside the canister and what it can pick up from underneath itself. On hard pulls and low levels, fuel gets pulled away from the pump and literally starves itself. People with high fuel supply demands like myself are sucking the canister dry we're all thinking.

A rear mounted sump like what I'm doing, or putting a sump on the factory tank will he'll a lot with that issue. I didn't wanna sump the factory tank because our car is lowered pretty well and most sumps stick down a couple inches unless a custom one is made like Trevor is working on. Plus my other reasons lol
Me too man!!! I think it'll look awesome with the lines connected. Working in it again today

 

actually it has more to do with CANISTER design variances. also the 04-05 had weaker stock pumps, but that is irrelevant when a bigger pump is installed. This only furthers the issue as the bigger pump basically consumes the entire canister sump of fuel before it can be submersibly refilled

 

Sub for project progress. Looks good so far.

 

How has the set-up you've been running work out for you? Are you having the cut-off issues as well?

 

I plan to try a canister switch out first like jap has mentioned. I have a complete 07 sending unit. But with tvs on e-85 and everything else, I don't know if it's going to solve my problem but I'm willing to try first. If not I'm going to go the route like ss wagon is doing and do a fuel cell with sump.

 

You guys could always sump the stock tank if you don't wanna do a surge set-up.

Got some more work done on the Redline today. Mounted the fuel pressure regulator with a bracket I made. Gonna make a heat shield later to protect from the header. Also made a couple lines today. That was really fun. Being able to custom make and route the lines how I want it cool. Got the rail to fpr done, the fpr to evap/return line done, and the line under the car from evap/return all the way to the fuel cell. So basically the whole return side is done now. I'll order the fittings I need to make the feed side from cell to pump and line on Friday when I get paid. Starting to come along well now.

 

Just a thought:
Are you going to make a tube that goes to the stock fuel door to fill the tank?

 

No. We'll just be popping the trunk each time to fill up. I was going to eliminate the fuel door completely by doing the paint/body work needed, but here in AZ for emission purposes they test the gas cap as well and a fuel cell isn't exactly emissions compliant lol. I'm deleted the evap system as well for ease of install.

 

So how are you going to pass it now?

 

For emissions all they do is a code scan to make sure monitors set, check engine light bulb check and gas cap check. No visual looking. I'll leave the factory cap and you HPT to take care of the check engine light.