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Moos,
How did you plumb in your fuel pump to the fox fuel reservoir box? I have read that some people are using a Facet fuel pump (like you would use on carbs) to pump the fuel from the tank to the reservoir and then use a high pressure pump like your f150 pump from the reservoir to the engine. Or are you only using the f150 fuel pump?

Also I found the reservoir online at http://www.europartsdirect.com Just look up a 1987 VOLKSWAGEN > FOX (L4, 1.8L, GAS, FI, N, UM, GL)
Fuel Filter At Tank
I've never used that vendor, just trying to be helpful.
Thanks

surfbeetle wrote:Moos,
How did you plumb in your fuel pump to the fox fuel reservoir box? I have read that some people are using a Facet fuel pump (like you would use on carbs) to pump the fuel from the tank to the reservoir and then use a high pressure pump like your f150 pump from the reservoir to the engine. Or are you only using the f150 fuel pump?

I am only using the F150 pump. The gas gravity feeds from the tank to the top port on the end of the box. The fuel return line goes into the same end. At the other end (closer to the passenger side), the box has a larger (~3/8 hose) fitting, which goes to the inlet side of the pump. There is also a vent port on top of the box, and that is plumbed into the vapor return line next to the filler neck, on top of the gas tank.

I spent a lot of time in junkyards under various cars, studying how the factories plumbed their systems. I have mine set up just like a stock VW Fox. I used the F150 fuel pump because they are available for cheap at any parts store should this one fail. The F150 pump I pulled is an OEM Bosch pump, FWIW. I think there is a lot of leeway regarding fuel pumps for these engine swaps. As long as you grab an external pump from a car with similar HP to the engine you're putting in, you should be fine.

Here is it mounted on the passenger frame head. The bracket is a modified Fox bracket. Sorry for the blurry pic, but the flash on my camera decided not to work!

Thanks very much for the reply. Up until I read your thread, I was having a hard time figuring out what I would do. I am going to get the fox reservoir and do what you did. Thanks again!

I ordered the Fox Fuel reservoir from my local VW speed shop, $30.00. It'll be here next week. I gave the part number and they said it was also from an older Scirocco in case that helps anyone. When looking through a junk yard, you have another option to look for.

When you guys ran your fuel line into the tunnel on the pan, did you go from the front access panel and feed it back? How do you get it to bend out the new hole in the front by the gas tank? Approximately how much 5/16" steel line did you use and did you secure it somehow inside the tunnel? Is your outlet from the gas tank the original factory size? Sorry for so many questions, I think I probably should start my own build thread...

I didn't run the fuel lines through the tunnel. I ran both lines right down the center of the car, on the bottom of the floorpan. They are secured to the floor with rubber 'P' clamps and small bolts. At the front, they come up through the frame head on either side of the tunnel (return line near the master cylinder, and the feed line on the other side). At the back of the car, the steel lines end at the back of the transmission, and then I used rubber EFI hose to connect to the engine bay. I saved the fuel filter bracket from the donor Subaru, and mounted the fuel filter on the passenger side of the engine bay. It is just the Legacy filter.

I used almost a whole roll (25 ft.) of 5/16" steel tubing from a local hardware store. I straightened it out, and then bent it to fit the car using a nice tubing bender I bought at Sears. I also used a flaring tool to put a barb on the ends of the tube. Make sure you buy a NICE tubing bender for this project! There's nothing worse than fighting cheap tools while doing a project...


And yeah, start a build thread, and post up your pics!


Nick

Thanks for the advice on the bender and flaring tool. I will do that.

Here's the build thread I started.
http://shoptalkforums.com/viewtopic.php ... 7#p1052817

Nick, what did you use for the outlet at the bottom of the fuel tank? Is it the stock one or did you change the size? Also what size is the fitting on the tank itself if I need to screw in a different size outlet?
Thanks
Craig

surfbeetle wrote:Nick, what did you use for the outlet at the bottom of the fuel tank? Is it the stock one or did you change the size? Also what size is the fitting on the tank itself if I need to screw in a different size outlet?
Thanks
Craig

I used one of these:

http://www.vwparts.net/CSP201221113A.html

It is an 8mm (5/16) outlet that goes in the stock location on the tank. You just have to open up the hole in the tank nut and the fiber washer to fit this new tube. This was the last piece of the puzzle, and by using it, you can make every fuel line connection on your car 5/16" (except for the outlet fitting on the VW Fox fuel reservoir box (3/8").

Nick

sent you a PM

*UPDATE 5-6-2011*

COOLING SYSTEM--->Version 2.0

Ok, here is an update from the last month or so. It has been my desire to make this car as easy to service as possible, and in trying to do that I have ended up re-doing much of the car as new ideas pop into my head, or I see pictures of other setups that work. One thing I wasn't happy with was the cooling system, specifically filling and bleeding the system of air. It could be done with the setup I was running before, but it was always a pain the ass, and it involved lifting the front of the car with a floor jack (much like bleeding a Vanagon). For this project, I wanted to slightly modify the cooling system to make filling and bleeding it on level ground easier. I wanted to make it so that if I had to change a radiator hose on the side of the road, I could bleed the system without having to move the car. Luckily, I found a contact in the local VW club that TIG welds, and I traded some parts and labor to him in exchange for welding up some aluminum pieces.


So, to start with, the BEFORE shots:

Radiator and fan (Saab electric fan mounted in front of the radiator)




And my bleeder tank at the back of the car (off of a Mazda MX-6)




Now, the Mazda bleeder tank was just T'd into the upper hose from the engine with a 5/8" heater hose, so there was always the chance that some of air bubbles wouldn't make it into the bleeder tank, but instead would pass by that T and continue in the cooling system to the next high point (by the transmission). In order to remedy this, we made a small header tank about 4x3x3", with a long filler neck on top, and 2 1.5" outlets on the bottom. ALL of the coolant leaving the engine now has to go through this high point in the system, where the air will get separated out. There is no chance for air to miss the header tank.






It tucks in nicely between the intake elbow and the air filter box, and can be filled much more easily than the Mazda tank.


Up front, the low mounting position of the radiator meant that the radiator cap was not the highest point in the system, so filling the cooling system involved raising the front of the car until the radiator and the Mazda tank at the back were at the same height. I didn't like this system of filling it, so some changes were in order. I also felt that, while powerful, the Saab fan wasn't moving as much air as I'd like, and that mounting it in front of the radiator probably wasn't the best since the big fan motor actually blocked a lot of the surface area of the radiator. A search through the junkyard again yielded a fan and shroud assembly off of a late 90s Mitsubishi Mirage, which was almost a perfect fit for my Afco radiator. I mounted it with a couple strips of aluminum. While I had the radiator out, we also fabricated a long filler neck for the radiator that moved the cap up to the height of the top of the gas tank, and actually even with the new header tank at the back of the car. Our last modification was to change the lower radiator outlet from 1.75" to 1.5" to match the rest of the connections on the car. I had been using a Gates adapter hose to connect this large outlet with the 1.5" steel pipes on the car. Now, every bit of rubber hose on the car is 1.5" or 5/8" heater hose.









And in the car. I have finally replaced the temporary cardboard fan shrouding in the front with aluminum pieces. I think it turned out pretty nice! I am going to add some insulation and carpeting over the shrouding to match the rest of the trunk area.




All in all, the mods worked as intended, and the car can now be filled with the car level. I also wired the fan control to the computer, as my aftermarket fan control was bogging the engine down when it turned the fan on. With the ECU now in control, it raises the idle to compensate for the draw from the fan. I did have a bit of a scare when I started it up for the first time, because the fan took a long time to come on. I thought something was wrong, because my temp gauge was creeping close to 220F! The fan kicked on, and I measured the actual coolant temp with a thermometer in the header tank (I had it running with the cap off): only 205F at the tank. Looks like my cheap water temp gauge reads about 15 degrees high! All is well now, though, and the ECU turns the fan on at 205F, and off at about 190F. It takes about 15 minutes of idling in the garage for the fan to even turn on, so I'm confident the car will cope with traffic without overheating.


These modifications will really get a workout this summer, as the Las Vegas heat is brutal to cooling systems!

Nick

Nice work Nick, it makes life so much easier when the cooling system is easy to fill.

I spent ages planning out mine so I wouldn't have airlock and bleed issues.
Running my header tank inline with the hotside out and at the highest point means I can just fill and drive, no bleeding air out.
trapped air goes straight into the header tank and cant go anywhere from there

Reading your post was like dejavu, I remember when I first got mine running letting it idle for nearly 15 mins waiting for the fan to kick in, and it got to 103c/215f then it cut in so my temp gauge was out by about 7c too.

gen1 EJ engines like this turn the fan on at 96c/205f and back off at 90c/195f so thats a good indication of how accurate a temp gauge is.

Dood! NICE. Inspiration for the rest of us, thanks!

Buggin_74 wrote:
gen1 EJ engines like this turn the fan on at 96c/205f and back off at 90c/195f so thats a good indication of how accurate a temp gauge is.

Yeah, my gauge reads about 218-220F when the computer turns the fan on, and it turns it off a little over 200F. So, at least it seems to be consistently 15F high.

I actually don't think it's going to need to run the fan that often. I drove it around today in 95F heat, and the fan never turned on once, even sitting in traffic for a few minutes.

My problem for tomorrow is going to be messing with the speed sensor again. My magnet thing isn't working too well, and I'm getting the stalling problem while pulling up to stoplights again. Very annoying. So, looks like I'll be surfing eBay for a proximity sensor and building the "wheel of death" for the CV joint. Do you happen to have a link to the scale drawing of it? I think I've seen the template for the Vanagon guys, but do Vanagons use the same CV bolt pattern as beetles?


Nick

kyle_pc_75 wrote:Dood! NICE. Inspiration for the rest of us, thanks!

Thanks!

My advice to anyone looking to do a really clean swap is to find a person to do some TIG welding for you. There are sooo many things you can make that will make the swap easier, and will look good too. If you're paying for it, you can get off a little cheaper if you fit the pieces yourself and mock everything up in advance. Mark everything well, and then just have the parts welded. I found most of my materials at the local steel yard, in the remnant section. Most places throw all of the leftovers into a pile, and will sell you remnant pieces by the pound. It's much cheaper to buy it this way, rather than buying pre cut pieces at the hardware store...

I wish I had a TIG of my own. Once you have a couple things made, you can't stop! Now I'm thinking about doing a custom exhaust setup, a kafer cup brace, a tach bracket, etc.


Nick

Nice clean work u have going on there. Makes me want to make mine pro looking.