Replacing entire fuel system

Well - interestinger and interestinger. I knew it would be tight. And it is. Managed to get it in and out WITHOUT the return tube. We'll see what happens with this set up. You have to hold your mouth 3 ways from 'just right' to implant it or remove it. Just an 1/8" larger diameter on the hole would make all the difference. And the frustrating thing is that it's only as small as it is because of the orientation detent --- which you don't need if you know what you're doing. Of course, I'm brainstorming how to remove that and perhaps enlarge the hole. But I can't come up with a way to do that without getting a bunch of debris inside the tank - not to mention, well, fire. Not good. Cross fingers....I'm going to test fire it to be sure the pump works; and test the sender to be sure the gauge is still working before I try to put it in. Because if I can get that danged thing in -- I'll worry about taking it back out later!!

This morning involved measuring tank depth (about 10.75" from bottom of rim to bottom of tank) and then setting the pump/float height, pinching off and soldering shut the unneeded supply and vent lines; routing wires and sealing off what little of the old supply line isn't filled up with wire (gasoline-proof sealant), flaring/bending hard lines on new supply/return, connecting the short hose sections. Every clamp I put on (2 on supply line and 1 on the pump itself) had to be re-oriented to get it in the tank.

Well - first attempt = fail. With the hard return pipe in place -- just too big. Finally pulled my head out (of the gas tank....) and actually measured the opening with calipers -- and used those calipers to test my second attempt. Used a piece of 3/8" aluminum, then hose down to a piece of the original supply line. Looked like this....



And as you can see from the shot below.....victory. Went in pretty danged easily all things considered. New o-ring and retainer ring from FCP Groton.



I believe (careful here...) that the tricky part is over. I now have a DW300 in the tank with -6AN supply and return fittings to hook up to. Now it's simply 1) remove (demolish) the old system; 2) route/secure the new lines; 3) create a new electrical circuit to run it. I tested the fuel gauge/sender with the unit sitting in the trunk. I now know what max full and completely empty looks like on the gauge. One thing is certain --- when the gauge gets close to the red, I need to be seriously looking for fuel. I'll spare you pics of the demolition -- imagine the inline pump/accumulator gone, the fuel lines gone and the firewall mounted filter gone. I will snap a few shots of the filter installation (likely above the rearend on the bulkhead that supports the chassis end of the Panhard rod) and new hose routing.

Rear harness just about ready to go back in. Used the factory sheath and grommet. Pulled the connector for the hot side of the pump out of the factory plug and took it apart so I could put larger gauge wire from the plug to the pump wiring harness. That's the yellow wire in the picture. I've done this several times. If you're careful you can pry the crimp up on the factory plugs and put larger gauge wires in. I recrimp and then solder the connection - then cover with heat shrink. I added a fourth wire - a separate ground for the pump. Based on feedback further up the thread -- a good ground for the pump is a must. So I ran an additional wire (black) that will directly ground the pump to the battery. The brown wire is the factory ground -- still use it to ground the assembly so the sender works. Yellow wire is hot for the pump. And the black sleeve/gray wire is the sender unit.

A couple of posts up the page you can see where the new plumbing will start - at the tank. Below is where we're running to -- kind of underneath the 5.0's alternator on the passenger side.



And here's the result of the demolition today - Volvo 240 fuel system de-constructed. I left the metal clamps in place that held the factory supply line. May be able to modify the rubber 'biscuits' and use those and the clamps to hold the new return line. Run the supply line up the other driver's side of the car. We'll see what it looks like when I get under there.



Miracle of miracles -- no gasoline spilled on the floor!!! Some observations - first, it's damned difficult to get the hard fuel lines off without a lift and without a bunch of other stuff out of the way. As in the car almost torn down and on a rotisserie... Luckily I knew I wasn't re-using any of it -- so the tubing cutter was a miracle worker. Second -- I'm amazed at the shape the rubber bits were in at the back of the car. 30-year old rubber tubing is not supposed to look that good... Third -- the SAE30R7 hose I used to connect the return line near the Volvo filter (firewall) to the fuel rail was in TERRIBLE shape. 10 years old and it's a miracle that it hadn't started leaking it was cracked so bad in some places. In fact, when I tried to remove it from the barbed fitting you see in the picture above - the outer rubber delaminated from the textile reinforcement. Saving grace was only that the return is under very little pressure. Just a psi or two above atmospheric. Won't be using that again. The SAE30R9 hose I used on the high pressure supply side held up just great. So -- if you're plumbing the system to last I recommend the SAE30R9 spec for both supply and return. Fourth -- removing the filter from the firewall left a gaping ugly mess. Gotta figure out how to hide that behind.....something.

A little more progress today. Got the filter mounted -- and I believe I figured out how I want to route the new supply and return lines. The filter is a 12" Russell 10 micron filter with replaceable filter element.

I removed the metal support between the front of the fuel tank and the unibody. I used a piece of angle to mount the filter to the backside of this bracket. It puts the filter very near the top of the fuel tank. The supply line to the filter will be less than 6" long. Hard to photograph without the car on a lift -- here's a couple of shots to give you an idea. The first is just the filter on the bracket, the next two mounted in the car. I wanted to find a location up front that provided a bit easier access. But I felt any locations that on the route from rear to front left the filter to exposed. The only reasonable location was in front of the passenger side front tire up under the fender. But a minor accident could turn major pretty quickly if a fuel line ruptured. This location is about as safe as it gets.







The supply line will exit the filter on the passenger side and I'll route it with new insulated hangers along the same path that the stock lines take up the driver's side. The return line will use the same factory insulators that the original supply line used. There are 5 metal clamps that simply bend out of the way -- and rubber donuts can be removed. The original supply line sat inside of these.



I found I could easily cut away most of the internal section of the insulator so it looks like this:



With it opened up the new series 8000 push-tite line in -6AN fits inside as if it were made to. I'll put it right back in the stock supply line location.



More to come. This filter location is going to require 2 more fittings which I ordered from Summit today. These are 90 degree fittings - one side is -6AN female to connect to the filter, the other is barbed to accept the Push-Tite hose. One end of the filter will then be pointed right at the -6AN fitting on top of the pump-plate; the other will be pointed towards the front of the car. $17 - a piece from Summit. Yuck. But it's the right thing to do - vs. trying to 'bend' the hose tightly on both ends of the filter. Not good.

Well - after two folks I respect asked about the wisdom of having the tie-wraps sitting in gasoline for long periods of time, I decided I better do something about it. I think it would be ok -- but no need to take any risk as other alternatives are available. After the same amount of holding my mouth just so -- the unit came back out. I removed the tie-wraps -- and one of the large clamps that was making clearance a challenge. And I used some annealed stainless wire to hold things that need to secured. Picture below. I'll attach the electrical wiring permanently tomorrow morning and put it back in the tank. Last 2 fittings should arrive Monday -- and I'll start routing hose from back to front.

Thanks Joe and Brad -- turns out that the 'holder' on one of the tie-wraps probably would've interfered with the sender float going all the way to the top. Good that I took it back out now - while it's relatively easy.

Pulling the assembly back out and modifying it was a really good move. MUCH easier to install with a few adjustments that I made as I moved clamps, removed clamps, removed tie-wraps, etc. Got it wired up before I installed it, and ran a dedicated ground from the battery (trunk-mount = easy) over to be sure the pump is well grounded. The big brown truck brought my 2 90-degree fittings so I can start plumbing tomorrow. Or not....

I bought $6 worth of 3/8" clear tubing at Home Depot. I was willing to sacrifice 6 bucks in order to not drag the 'nice' new textile covered fuel line all over the garage floor (not to mention the bottom of the car) while I was laying out line and installing padded clamps. As planned - ran the return line out the stock triangular shaped opening in the Panhard support, through the clamp at the top of the driver's side frame rail and along the path of the original supply line. It will be supported in the original supply line clamps/rubber isolators.

I ran a short line from the pump outlet to the inlet of the filter. I modified the bracket that used to support the stock in-line pump to hold a second clamp on the passenger side (same location as the new return line) -- and basically hung about 6 clamps between there and the front of the car to locate the new supply line just inside the frame rail on the passenger side. Both return and supply lines are clamped at the stamped piece that holds the A-arm bushing and again on the leading edge of the engine crossmember.

I'll have to make a small heat shield around the cat on the passenger's side - already have one on the driver's side since all the lines passed through there originally. Once I have it plumbed up with the actual fuel line -- I'll take some pics. Getting close...

Looking good sir! On an off topic note, will you be at cars and coffee this Saturday? I'm going to go ahead and assume the 240 won't make it but you still could.

Correct - the 240 won't make it; don't know whether I will or not. You goin'?

I'll be there in my 240. I got it out of the garage and up a muddy hill yesterday, and it runs okay. I should be able to tune it a little today and nurse it the mile and a half there tomorrow.

I'll try and make it. You can text me at 704.996.4493... ??Is '...up a muddy hill...' a pre-Cars/Coffee test??

Here's an idea of what we're dealing with on the new supply side. Didn't have the camera with me when I was under the car yesterday -- just 'leaned in/under' to take this one.





Keep in mind - once I have final routing with all clamps in their final locations -- I'll pull all the fittings/clear tubing and make everything up with the 'good' hose using the clear as a template. Then it will simply bolt right in. And fit.

Started work on the electrical circuit today. Remove back seat; pull the wiring from the inline fuel pump through the floor into the interior. Extend the hot wire into the trunk. You can see it laying up against the base of the wheel well here inside the corrugated protection...



I remove the male connector from the fuel pump/sender plug in the trunk. I've gotten pretty good at opening up these factory connectors ---- I'll add the additional wire into the plug. This way the wire for the original in-tank pump will be augmented by the wire for the inline pump in terms of carrying current to the new in-tank pump.



Here you can see the finished plug -- both wires connected. Now when I plug it in - the factory connection for the pump remains intact; and I have plenty of wire/capacity for current to the new pump. In the background you can also see where I ran a dedicated ground from the battery to the ground for the pump/send housing.



Now to the front -- here I've removed the female connection from the factory fuel pump relay -- this is the source of 12V+ to the two wires pictured in the back. I'll use the output of the stock relay (the male connector where these wires connect) to 'trigger' a new, heavier duty relay. The new relay will get it's hot input for the pumps and for the relay coil from the hot input to the stock relay. I'll ground it to the chassis -- and the 'output' of the relay will be connected to the stock fuel pump wires you see in the picture. This will provide the factory fuse protection -- but reduce the amount of current through the stock Volvo relay to next to nothing. Dave Barton has a great detail of this upgrade on his site www.davebarton.com -- click on 240 mods and scroll down.

Another great update. Thanks.

Spent the day in the front footwells and under the hood with a test light, 35 aligator-clip jumpers, a DVM, a Volvo manual and a Probst Ford EECIV manual --- and most of the time, a very puzzled look on my face. I didn't do the conversion on the car -- it was one of the early ones done by Frank Plumbley in Augusta, GA back in '96. In fact, IPD did a newsletter feature on the car right after Frank converted it -- sometime in the fall of '96 I believe. The car has been remarkably reliable since I got it in 2000 -- Frank did a nice job. But I don't know exactly how or where the Ford engine harness and the Volvo harness connect. That lack of knowledge is particularly acute when it comes to how the Volvo fuel pump relay fires the fuel pump. The stock connections (Volvo relay) to the neg. coil and the regulator/idle valve are clearly not connected to those things any longer as none of that stuff remains. But they are connected to something because something was triggering it in a 'factory' fashion - it primes for a second or so when the ignition is switched to 'run'; it will prime for 3 seconds or so if the starter keeps turning but the engine doesn't start. Of course if the engine fires - the pump keeps running. I started having problems with the circuit about 6 months ago. Replaced the Volvo relay - worked for several months, but I began having problems again just before I started this project. I suspect -- just a guess -- this has to do with the last little bit of the 30 year old Volvo engine harness that is remaining and trying to connect Ford things to Volvo things under the hood. I cleaned up most of that when I pulled the motor for some hot-rodding back in '02 -- but I didn't get all of it. Should have.

The Ford ecu provides a ground to the Ford FP relay coil that functions the way I've described above. Get a temporary ground to prime -- but if it doesn't see the motor running pretty quick (PIP signal at the dizzy) it kills the pump. I've checked the Ford fp relay - and it seems to working just as it should. But all is dead at the Volvo relay. So --- I'm going to use the Ford fp relay output (that would normally go to the hot side of the pump) as a 'trigger' for a new 40A relay to fire the pump. The ground and hot side will come from the Volvo relay circuit. Should work. I'll report back assuming I don't let all the smoke out of it.

That seems to be pretty much what I did. Used the Ford PCM ground signal to operate the Ford FP relay, which supplied fused power to the Volvo in tank pump fuse #5 and connected using the Volvo wiring to a new relay in the rear to operate both pumps. The original Volvo fuse panel supplied 8A on fuse #5 for the tank pump and 16A on fuse #6 but now the wiring to the rear is only 'signal' power to operate the relay.

The original converter is most likely using your Ford computer to operate the Volvo FP relay as the original operation was direct connection from the ignition switch to the relay to the pumps.

Original operation was more complex than that Tom. It used a 6-pin relay (essentially a 'double' relay in one housing) that looked not only for 'ignition on' but also checked to see if the engine was running. In the event of an incident that shuts the engine off but not the ignition (accident) it stopped the pump. And it only primed for a few seconds at start unless the engine started. Similar to the way the Ford methodology works -- but it got there entirely differently. Ford did it with an ecu-switched ground. Volvo did it with a miniature circuit board inside the relay that looked for ignition and engine run signs. However, the Volvo relay and plug are intact and were firing the fuel pumps. So there is some connection to the Ford system -- it's just not the switched ground circuit. My guess is that it replaced whatever it was looking for to determine engine running with something similar from the Ford ECU - probably the PIP signal from the dizzy. But, I'm just making that up....

My relay will be up front essentially in place of the old one -- I can take the hot "in", ground and hot "out" (to the fuel pump) pins out of the existing relay plug and hook them straight to the new relay. And then connect the 'output' of the Ford fuel pump relay (which is controlled by the Ford ECU) as the new trigger.

PIP signal from the dizzy?

You don't have one. The Hall-effect sensor that tells the system when/where #1 is so it can sync the injector signals. It's at the bottom of the distributor housing.

Distributor housing?