Im trying to set up the fuel system for my 13bt in my first gen. To those of you who are doing this right now did you change the fuel pick up size? The 12a fuel pick up is 3/8 and the bosch fuel pump im going to use has a 1/2inch inlet and 5/16 outlet. I was wondering if I should drop my tank and put a GSL-SE pickup in which is 1/2inch or just stick with the 3/8 and adapt it to the 1/2 inlet. I am concerned about flow and just want to know what you guys think I should do.

 

I did the exact thing that your talking about. I felt if the fuel pump has a 1/2" suction the liine that leads to it should be no smaller. But yeah, the only difference between the -se lines and the 12a ones are the suction line comming out of the tank, the -se has the same 3/8" line going to the engine.

 

Thanks for the response setzup you have convinced me I am just going to drop the tank and put a GSL-SE pickup in. What are you going to use for the return line? The return line on the 13bt fuel rail is the same size as the main fuel line. The return line on the car is like 1/4. I dont know how important the return line is but I was thinking of running a new 3/8 fuel line into the rail and using the old fuel line as the return. But I will have to have a larger line welded in to the fuel pick up for a return. What do you think?

 

Just went out to the garage to look at the 12a lines vs. the -se ones. The -se has 3/8 for the pressure and return, the 12a return does look smaller (~ 1/4"). How big are the lines on the fuel rail for the 13bt? I was kinda thinking about just getting a spool of bendable alum fuel line and making my own 1/2" pressure and just using the 3/8 return but I don't really know what I'm going to do yet. Another thought I had was to just get myself some thin wall tubing from work and make my own JIC line. I figure I'd use -8 line for the pressure and -6 for the return, I have all the tubing bending/flaring tools at work it's just finding the ambition to do it. But then again it looks like the outlet on my bosch pump is only about 3/8" so hell I don't know what to do

ANOTHER idea I was kicking around was to use a swirl pot but I think I'll just do it the regular way at first to see if it works out alright.

But I'd deffenately use the larger -se fuel pick up.

Do you have your engine-trans yet?? I think I'm going to order mine in the next week or so, have any sugestions where to get them from??

 

i used the stock 12a pickup and graphed the turbo2 intank set up on to the 3/8" line. then i bought some copper 3/8" line (couldnt find much else) and bent it to the shape of the stock 3/8" main lines. it looks fine to me and it tested to 60psi with air and no leaks or anything. i dont know if i want a cosmo pump inside the tank or use a surge tank and a hi volume -an style one. but it will work fine for for starters to get the car up and going.
imo i dont think you need to graph a 1/2 line on there, there are lots of fc's that run a big fuel pump and the same size line and dont have alot of trouble. if you were going to that kind of trouble just run -10 earls line.

 

If you are going to drop the tank then disregard modifying the standard pick up.

This is the setup I had for 2 years without problem.

I had a section cut out of the bottom of my fuel tank about as round as a coke can. Onto that cutout I had a 'pot' about half the depth of a coke can welded to the bottom of the tank. Onto this, i had 2 1/2 inch outlet barbs welded on. Out of these I had 1/2 inch lines going into 2 bosch pumps and then up to the engine.

Like I said I ran this setup for 2 years on the street with an engine making around 400rwhp on 15psi and never had surge problems. This setup only became a problem when I put slicks on the car and it would surge. Now, i still have the swirl pot on the bottom, but it feeds a low pressure high volume carter pump which feeds a 3 litre surge tank. The surge tanks then feeds 2 Bosch motorsport pumps and then up to the front.

 

Thanks for the responses guys I think Ive decided what im going to do. The stock fuel rail on the 13bt has a inlet and return of 3/8. I picked up some bendable aluminum 3/8 fuel line and im going to run that from the pump to the rail and use the orignal line as the return. I would have done what you had sugested AJC13b but my dad has that setup on his truck and it sticks out to much on the street with the braided line and all hanging out underneath. Ive already got a GSL-SE fuel pick up and it looks like Ive got to drop the tank anyway to change the old crusty lines coming from the stock one so I might as well put it in.

Setzep Ive had my engine for about 3 months and ive had the tranny for about 6. I tried a few places to get my engine like corksport,nippon motors,and a little import place in carson california that tried to sell me two blown engines . I wanted an 89-91 engine and they were hard to find no one new when they were going to have one in stock. I ended up getting my engine from mazdaracing for $1400 and I payed way to much but I did not want to wait any longer so just got it anyway. If I were to do it again I would probally go with www.fc3s.org because they have a good price on the 13bt and there website says they usually have them in stock. A few people in the second gen forum also said they were good. As for the tranny I found that on accident while looking for other stuff at the pick your part style junk yard. There was a turboII there no engine but the tranny was still there took about 5 mins to get it out and i got it for 90$. Thanks for the help guys ill let you know how it turns out.