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Originally Posted by clev View Post
Hey, Stock. I just noticed that you are in College Station and that's only about 130 miles from San Marcos. I'm an early riser; how about you? I was thinking that if your were to get up about 5:00 AM and head this way, you could probably be here by 8:00. If you decided to do that, my wife could have a good Texas breakfast ready; eggs to order, sausage or/and bacon, hash browns, gravy, and biscuits. We could get started on my van about 9:00 and between the two of us, probably be done by 3~4:00, at which point I'd give you $200. And if you wanted to stay for dinner, I'd fix you a good steak and shrimp dinner with a good bottle of wine. You think that you might be interested in this about the middle of April?
OBTW; I am retired, so Saturday's and Sunday's work for me.
Bork: Heck we all may come! biscuits & gravy , steak, $ ! It doesn't get much better than that!
Bork, somebody must have told Clev I was food motivated!
When you re-work your in tank assembly, carefully measure the difference in depth of the 2 tanks. My new Spectra tank was about 1" deeper than the factory tank where the fuel sending unit is located. You will also need to transfer over all the plastic caps and rubber tank strap pads from the old tank. I put a layer of self adhesive foil faced rubber adhesive window and door weather stripping on all the parts of the top of the tank that contact the underside of the body. I didn't want metal to metal contact and the 2 factory plastic rub pads were not enough. My Spectra tank did not require any Harpoon mod either, it has short metal fill and vent tubes. I think it is really @ 38-39 gallons! The spectra does have sort of a baffle in front of the tank so I put a gradual Z bend in my aluminum return line to make it go over that baffle. Most importantly, remember that the 6" hole cut out in the Specra tank is even more razor sharp than the factory tank hole. My new filter's first job was to remove blood from the fuel!
Clev, I think Bork might load up all of us van guys from Florida to Texas! You can haul a football team in a 7.3 van! Haha! Sure sounds good though! Not sure when you're wanting to do it but lately I've only been using my van for very short trips. I've been worried about my ball joints and front brakes. I am about to rebuild the whole front end and continue to bullet proof the whole van this spring! All the ball joints, wheel bearings, seals, brake pads, jounce springs, shocks, and Ford Ambulance steering stabilizer parts have been sitting here for a week while I researched what coil springs to get. I can do make new threads with pics if anyone needs info on any of the above. Yesterday, I put on my bellowed up pipes (triple wrapped and taped as well as down pipe?)! front receiver hitch, and rear RV shocks. Heavy duty coils should be here Wednesday, but we'll see! We have my wife's car but that's been tied up lately with our boys' sports. If I can get over there to help you, I will do it though!
Here's what has me a little confused. I can't for the life of me, figure out what AirDog is costing you $600 unless it has an integrated fuel pump (which you don't need). I believe Air Dog uses some patents that belong to Stanadyne for air reduction. Sure, they may put their own twist on it and a heavy marketing campaign, but the designs are nearly identical to $50-$60 Stanadyne FM 100 reverse flow filter heads, and Stanadyne has been making filters even with integrated fuel pumps, heaters, etc. for a long time. The other thing I am wondering is how big is it and how does it mount? I am asking that question because it took me longer to figure out filter sizes, make the bracket, and gather th parts than the whole tank/filter install took. I had an easy install with nice sweeping gradual bends in my fuel lines because I planned it all out to work in that space. I have read all of the famous Cackle threads since Hutchinaugusta first solved the air in fuel lines problem right here on this site. It's not that I want to tell you what to buy, but I'd rather see you get 100 more HP for that kind of money. Your van has one frame rail mounted factory (Bosch) fuel pump on it now, right? These pumps are pretty awesome. So that pump puts out way more flow than your van would ever use even with 100 race tunes and single shot injectors.
What is inside your tank is a crappy factory white plastic pick up cartridge filter with two little cylindrical screens in it about the diameter of a pencil. I put a photo of mine in my filter bracket post which were clogged with the infamous silver lining! Like Bork mentioned, I cut a piece of 3/8" o.d. stainless (about 4-5 inches long). I found a stainless tire gauge in my garage that was about 6" long and 3/8" diameter that I cut to length and connected with a 3/8" to 3/8" brass compression Union. The reason was all of the commercially available tubing had thick walls which decrease the inside diameter (and fuel flow). For the return piece, I bought an air blow gun with an 18" extended tip from Harbor Freight ($12) because it was 5/16" o.d. aluminum tubing which bends easily. I used a 3/8" drill bit to deepen the hole in the new plastic Ford pick-up foot all the way past the by pass valve and then slipped the pick up foot with 2 - 3/8" hose clamps on it over the stainless piece. The length of that piece of stainless is determined by taking a measurement of the tank depth and deciding how close you want the pick up foot to the bottom of the tank. Don't forget to calculate ALL of the parts in your length measurement, including the pickup foot clamped to the stainless, the extra 3/4-1" for the compression fitting, and the factory sending unit. The foot has a flexible bellows on it so I put mine right near the bottom. Even if it is touching the tank bottom it can still pick up more fuel than a 3/8" hose can handle because it has little spacer feet all the way around the bottom. The goal with the return is to simply direct returning fuel and air bubbles away from both the foot as well as the fuel level float, so it is actually better to bend that line towards the front of the vehicle. The only trick there is getting that newly made assembly and the float back into the tank without damaging the float. The other problem that Hutch mod eliminates is the crappy fuel supply lines with a/c type fittings. The return line really doesn't matter because these fittings suck in air only when they are under suction. That means only the fuel supply line from the tank to the pump which will be your 8' piece of 3/8" fuel injection hose (@$25 at the auto parts store). Any fuel filter can be put between the tank and pump. The factory filters are around 5 microns depending on brand. The reason I buy 2 and 5 micron cartridges is that I don't ever need to change the factory filter often in my van! I use 2 micron most of the year and 5 if I'll be driving in freezing temps.
After sending unit is installed in tank, next order of business is to connect new supply hose to top of tank with double hose clamps. Then raise tank to where you can still get your arm up above tank. Plug in fuel gauge wires, connect return line, check your fill vent hoses, and make sure your fuel injection hose is routed where you want it running over towards frame rail. Now raise the tank with a 1 gallon paint can on top of your floor jack and tighten the strap nuts. Plumb into your filter using two 3/8" hose barb fittings with thread sealant rated for bio-diesel. Run hose from top of fuel tank along frame rail, and zip tie it or secure it wherever possible. Cut it to length where it will go over barb fitting on filter inlet. Slide 2 clamps over hose facing opposite directions and slip hose onto barbed fitting and tighten clamps. Take the loose remaining piece of 3/8" hose that you just cut and heat one end with a heat gun or dip into boiling water. Slide that end over the inlet of your fuel pump. You can work it over the ridge as long as it is hot. Clamp it and then cut other end to length and double clamp to the 3/8 barbed fitting on fuel pump outlet. Reconnect all fuel filler/vent hoses, and add 5 gallons of fuel. Cycle the key to on several times without starting engine. This is a good time to check for leaks between key on cycles. Then start her up and enjoy the smooth sound!