orangefj45
Supporting Vendor
i'm constantly trying to find new ways to make things easier to service and install as part of my conversion work. it's a constant evolution and every swap i do seems to be a little different than the last.
right now i'm working on a couple that need to pass CA emissions inspection so all the oem smog stuff has to be there and working. part of the system is the oem fuel tank sending unit. it's usually part of the fuel pump assy / cartridge. the cartridge contains the sending unit, fuel pump, fuel lines, evap line ( some models ) and the tank pressure sensor.
one solution that does work out well is to modify the tank with one of the vetteworks adapters and sink an entire "cartridge" in them. the problem with the fj6x series taks is that they are very shallow. there's only about 6.75" of debth to the tank in the one and only suitable location. most of the gm cartridges range from 9 to 12" in height. i looked at quite a few and it should be possible to modify one and make it work.
for this application i did'nt need the fuel pump or tank pressure sensor since they'd already been installed ( alternative solutions; frame mounted airtex pump and pressure sensor on one of the evap pipes on the tank ). so i tried to come up with ideas on how to get just the gm fuel level sensor in the tank.
option one: use the vetteworks adapter and sink part of the cartrigde in the tank after some mods to make it fit. this would require a vetteworks adapter, a complete or partial fuel cartridge, cutting a 3.75" hole in the top of the tank and then welding the ring on. might be tough to get a good seal and welding tanks that have already had fuel in them can be somewhat dangerous. ( a chunck of dry ice and a little water will produce enough CO2 to displace all the O2 in the tank and make it safe to weld/cut. straight CO2 will do the same thing for ya but dry ice is cheap and easy to get. i just hate putting water in a good tank although it's not that hard to dry the tank properly when the job is done.
option two: find some other sending unit from a steel tank and graft the late model gm sender onto it. i thought about doing it this way so i could weld an entire sending unit retainer ring to the top of the tank after cutting a 2-2.5" hole in it. would make for a better seal than the vetteworks unit ( imho ) and could be installed in more than one location. in a perfect world, i would try to find a sending unit that had two wires coming out of it and no fuel lines going thru the top of it. i looked at fj60 sending units and mounting rings but there's only one wire coming thru and this option would still require some cutting and welding. see option one.....
option three: graft the gm sening unit onto the stock fj60 sender and make them both work in the same location. hmmm, this might just work. would require no cutting, no welding and as long as i could mount the gm sender in such a way that i could pass the entire assembly thru the oem opening it outta work somehow.
so i decided to pursue this option.
here's a pic of both sending units side by side.
right now i'm working on a couple that need to pass CA emissions inspection so all the oem smog stuff has to be there and working. part of the system is the oem fuel tank sending unit. it's usually part of the fuel pump assy / cartridge. the cartridge contains the sending unit, fuel pump, fuel lines, evap line ( some models ) and the tank pressure sensor.
one solution that does work out well is to modify the tank with one of the vetteworks adapters and sink an entire "cartridge" in them. the problem with the fj6x series taks is that they are very shallow. there's only about 6.75" of debth to the tank in the one and only suitable location. most of the gm cartridges range from 9 to 12" in height. i looked at quite a few and it should be possible to modify one and make it work.
for this application i did'nt need the fuel pump or tank pressure sensor since they'd already been installed ( alternative solutions; frame mounted airtex pump and pressure sensor on one of the evap pipes on the tank ). so i tried to come up with ideas on how to get just the gm fuel level sensor in the tank.
option one: use the vetteworks adapter and sink part of the cartrigde in the tank after some mods to make it fit. this would require a vetteworks adapter, a complete or partial fuel cartridge, cutting a 3.75" hole in the top of the tank and then welding the ring on. might be tough to get a good seal and welding tanks that have already had fuel in them can be somewhat dangerous. ( a chunck of dry ice and a little water will produce enough CO2 to displace all the O2 in the tank and make it safe to weld/cut. straight CO2 will do the same thing for ya but dry ice is cheap and easy to get. i just hate putting water in a good tank although it's not that hard to dry the tank properly when the job is done.
option two: find some other sending unit from a steel tank and graft the late model gm sender onto it. i thought about doing it this way so i could weld an entire sending unit retainer ring to the top of the tank after cutting a 2-2.5" hole in it. would make for a better seal than the vetteworks unit ( imho ) and could be installed in more than one location. in a perfect world, i would try to find a sending unit that had two wires coming out of it and no fuel lines going thru the top of it. i looked at fj60 sending units and mounting rings but there's only one wire coming thru and this option would still require some cutting and welding. see option one.....
option three: graft the gm sening unit onto the stock fj60 sender and make them both work in the same location. hmmm, this might just work. would require no cutting, no welding and as long as i could mount the gm sender in such a way that i could pass the entire assembly thru the oem opening it outta work somehow.
so i decided to pursue this option.
here's a pic of both sending units side by side.