Fuel tank pick up

Got a picture?

Tough to shoot even with a digital on micro.

I suppose what I want to know is what yours looks like? I've got the feeling that most have never taken the banjo off and seen the tube connection otherwise they would know without asking for my picture?

There is a small tube welded into tank at the banjo fitting. It continuous all the way to the bottom of the tank. That is the way it is on my early '72. Later on cars had the pickup tube built into the fuel sender plate.

Small? This is ridiculous. It's tiny.

It could function as a return port though if I ever go to FI.

quote:

Originally posted by PanteraDoug:
It could function as a return port though if I ever go to FI.

That is what I did. Tapped the drain plug for the suction fitting. Works fine.

Doug that must be on the early tanks like Dave said ... mine is built into the pick up assembly.

I agree if you have the tank out now would be the time to tap the drain plug and take the fuel off the bottom of the tank ... I experienced the location of the bottom outlet to be some what problematic in mounting the prefilter, pump, and hoses ... with the thought of it getting ripped off the bottom should something from the road bounce up ... just a thought.

Ron

quote:

Originally posted by accobra:
Doug that must be on the early tanks like Dave said ... mine is built into the pick up assembly.

I agree if you have the tank out now would be the time to tap the drain plug and take the fuel off the bottom of the tank ... I experienced the location of the bottom outlet to be some what problematic in mounting the prefilter, pump, and hoses ... with the thought of it getting ripped off the bottom should something from the road bounce up ... just a thought.

Ron

No, tank is still in. Simplest fix is to go to the combined sender/pickup assembly.

I had the pickup adapted to the drain plug on the tank. The thing was much too low to run that way. Plugged it back up.

The tank is in good shape. It was sloshed and teflon coated years ago but the original tube has got to be steel and as such there is a time clock ticking on it regardless of what anyone does.

I was just commenting on the size of the tube ID. It is so small I couldn't possibly insert an inner liner in it. ConEd does this now instead of digging up the street to put in new gas lines.

They have a specially formulated plastic/teflon liner that first they hone the inside of the existing black iron gas pipe, then slide the plastic tube through.

You can see by the responses here that most have no idea what I am talking about, i.e., they have never looked at the tank pickup tube.

There is no way you could pump enough fuel through this to go seriously racing with this car. Must be one of the reasons the Gp4 cars have a different fuel tank set up with smaller tanks on each side of the car?

The existing pick up would be fine for a fuel return for FI. I don't see where anyone would want to go to an in tank electric fuel pump either since you would have to modify the combined pick up/sender assembly to that and that is unique to the car. That's a "leave it alone" item.

... maybe just update to the newer Pantera style pick up where all the tubes are part of the assembly ... there us a possibility of retro fitting a larger tube to that assembly ... but then an electric pump Sucking up thru the pickup is still a no no. I just retro fitted the bottom of the tank by re tapping the thread o let and installing a fuel line to a high capacity mech pump.

A bottom "drain" location works the best theoretically but any fitting into the existing plug and subsequent fuel line, no matter if was even part of the tank (as if it could be), was not high enough for safety.

The bottom of the existing tank really is as low as anything can be...safely.

I even changed the original factory drain plug over to an internal Allen hex key drive. Now nothing on the tank hangs down.

It is ironic that on this car, most available space already had been optimized in the original design.

3/8" thin wall tube would be optimum for fuel delivery on this car. I know -8 is used in professional drag racing but there is no way, even with the Webers that would be even close to necessary on a P car.

There is an interesting foot note to fuel quantity though which is somewhat related. The Mazda guys running the Wankles with 48ida's need to increase the size of the fuel reservoir in the carbs.

The new EMPI ida copies have that as an option where the reservoir car be enlarged 11%.

I find these all engineering issues though like you would have in a race car. A solution to a problem in one area creates an issue in another that was never seen before until you reached a certain level.

I would agree I'm a little uneasy about tapping into the drain plug but it has its advantages in my case I used 10an = 1/2 id to the mech pump then 8an after the pump to the holley 850.

3/8 =1/4 id and 8an = 5/16 ... not much difference and since its such a short distance ? I guess it depends on the pump set up ... the gravity portion or section from the sender to the pump is basically sometimes oversize because its under a small neg pressure so over sizing it helps supply the pump with volume and the outlet side of the pump ... pressuring the fuel could be smaller ...

I agree running the car at its peek ... the weak links start to pop up ... mostly on the street the stock system ... should be fine.

Ron

quote:

I don't see where anyone would want to go to an in tank electric fuel pump either since you would have to modify the combined pick up/sender assembly to that and that is unique to the car. That's a "leave it alone" item.

I don't understand this comment. What do you mean "it is unique to the car" and it is a "leave it alone" item? Why woundn't I want to put an in-tank electric pump, epecially if running fuel injection? There are many advantages to running the pump in-tank...

Many people overengineer their fuel systems. Most street cars will do fine with the smaller fuel lines.

People need to calculate the fuel requirements based on the target horsepower. The old .5 pounds of fuel for a NA motor is a good rule of thumb. .6 pounds of fuel per horsepower for SC/TC engines...

quote:

Originally posted by ZR1 Pantera:

quote:

I don't see where anyone would want to go to an in tank electric fuel pump either since you would have to modify the combined pick up/sender assembly to that and that is unique to the car. That's a "leave it alone" item.

I don't understand this comment. What do you mean "it is unique to the car" and it is a "leave it alone" item? Why woundn't I want to put an in-tank electric pump, epecially if running fuel injection? There are many advantages to running the pump in-tank...

Many people overengineer their fuel systems. Most street cars will do fine with the smaller fuel lines.

People need to calculate the fuel requirements based on the target horsepower. The old .5 pounds of fuel for a NA motor is a good rule of thumb. .6 pounds of fuel per horsepower for SC/TC engines...

How did you do it? The intank electic pumps I'm familiar with are attached to the fuel pump pick-up system, or part of it. The Pantera pick-up/sender assembly is unique to the car.

I personally don't want to reinvent the wheel. I understand that others live to do that though.

quote:

How did you do it? The intank electric pumps I'm familiar with are attached to the fuel pump pick-up system, or part of it. The Pantera pick-up/sender assembly is unique to the car.

I guess I must have the later design. I just mounted the pump to the pickup tube. I have some pictures somewhere of the install.

quote:

I personally don't want to reinvent the wheel. I understand that others live to do that though.

What does that mean? I will take it as a complement... lol... I have to admit, I do like to reinvent the wheel. I am in therapy for it but so far, progress has been slow...

quote:

Originally posted by ZR1 Pantera:

quote:

How did you do it? The intank electric pumps I'm familiar with are attached to the fuel pump pick-up system, or part of it. The Pantera pick-up/sender assembly is unique to the car.

I guess I must have the later design. I just mounted the pump to the pickup tube. I have some pictures somewhere of the install.

quote:

I personally don't want to reinvent the wheel. I understand that others live to do that though.

What does that mean? I will take it as a complement... lol... I have to admit, I do like to reinvent the wheel. I am in therapy for it but so far, progress has been slow...

seems simple enough?