"It's ALIVE!! It's ALIVE!!"
Day's 31 and 32
Well, if you couldn't tell by now, it is alive! But I'll get to that later, for now I will start with updates from Day 31. Day 31, Sunday night, after a late return from Four Wheeler's Top Truck Challenge I was left with little time to work on the truck. But I made due. I set to work on putting the fuel cell back together, getting it flushed out and bolted in. Once the cell was reassembled I was able to work on getting the plumbing finished up. As you can see the fuel cell plumbing uses a mix of -6 -8 and -10 AN fittings. It runs -8 from the pickup to the filter, -10 from the filter to the pump, -6 from the pump to the regulator, -6 from the regulator to the return on the cell, -6 from the regulator to the engine, and -8 for the vent. For hose I went with a braided stainless steel, to keep with the stainless steel look I had started with. The fittings are all anodized aluminum AN fittings that are of the push lock variety. Word from behind the parts counter is that the push on variety of fittings will hold over 300psi, and if you ever had to pull one off you know they are right. The hose has to be cut off of the fitting to remove it. But in favor of redundancy I chose to add a hose clamp to each fitting to make extra sure that they will never come off. You may also notice that the hose between the filter and pump is blue aeroquip, not braided, sue me. The fuel pump is a Pierburg pump that develops over 90psi. My trucks injection system needs 65psi so I had to add an Aeromotive bypass pressure regulator. With night falling on Day 31 and the parts house giving me the wrong hose I had to call it a night on plumbing.
Since I still had a couple of hours until it was time to get ready for work the next morning I pulled out the can of POR-15 and went to town on the frame and some of the tube work. POR-15 is a super rust inhibitive coating that dries to form a hard 'candy' shell that is impermeable. Moisture can't reach the metal, the metal can't rust, and it's simple as that. A little bit goes a long way with POR and the 1 Pint I bought over a year ago is only half empty. I also started coating some of the tubes with it, due to some remaining fab work I didn't coat all of them, yet.
Day 32, Monday.
With the remaining lengths of hose procured I was then able to finish the plumbing of the fuel cell. With the plumbing complete, filler in place, and five gallons of fresh Shell in the cell all that was left was wiring. With the help of my friends at www.Ranger-Forums.com (and one man in particular) I was able to figure out the pump wiring from the stock harness. With everything in place, and all the fitting connections checked it was time to hook up the battery and turn the key. With the fuel system primed she roared to life for the first time in 32 days! And on that exciting note it was time to call it a night.
Jason Gonderman
Online Editor
Photo Captions:
- Frame coated in POR-15
- Ditto
- Ditto
- Fule filter/pump mounts
- Regulator
- Fuel pump/filter mounted
- Cell plumbed
- Cell plumbed