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notlimah

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Everything posted by notlimah

  1. Alright so next up on the agenda is steering box brace and track bar. I went ahead and pulled the trigger on a DOR track bar. It said in stock so I'm hoping I don't run into any long wait issues but I'm in no rush. Other then that I'll just be working on getting fluids changed so I can re-baseline everything and start normal maintenance intervals off those.
  2. Well I went out a recorded some fuel pressure videos. Here they are... Overall I'm extremely happy with this setup. It idles around 19-19.5 and I couldn't get it to drop below 18 at WOT. So at worst its a 1.5 psi drop! I'll take that any day!
  3. notlimah posted an Cummins article in Fuel
    Just putting an article together to document my experience with installing my Drawstraw 5 with a retrofitted in tank lift pump already installed. I want to emphasis that I am by no means an expert in this area, and a lot of what I have written is based on direct phone conversations with Eric @Vulcan. He's a great help and I couldn't of completed this install without his guidance. So to start you are going to have to drop your tank. Now, having more then one person will certainly help, but it's possible to do with by yourself, as I did. It's a fairly straight forward process. BEFORE YOU DO ANYTHING ELSE, disconnect all your fuel lines, the electrical plug from the top of the fuel module and your filler and vent tubes. The fuel lines are a bit tough to get undone. They need to be pinched both on the top and bottom so some skinny needle nose pliers would help here. There's two bolts hold your tank straps down and you'll need a deep socket (15mm) and a good sized extension to get to the forward most tank strap bolt. I ran straps I use to hold the dirt bike down in the truck bed around the tank and a frame rail to help hold it up while I was still under it, and then lowered it down. You may need to loosen the bolts for the carrier bearing bracket in order to get the forward most tank strap off. From there I drug it into my garage to keep it in a cleaner environment. Plus I like to take my time on things so leaving it out in the driveway wasn't a real option. Use a 2x4 or equivalent to gently loosen the fuel module. Once that's completely loosened you can remove your fuel module. BE EXTRA CAREFUL WHEN REMOVING TO NOT DAMAGE YOUR FLOAT. Once removed you'll have this. Keep in mind this is with the in tank pump that was installed by the dealership so yours could be laid out slightly different. From here you're going to start the modification process. I started by removing the wiring from the harness at the top of the fuel module, and the connectors at the bottom. Next you clip the OEM hose down where the yellow plastic forms an 'H' shape. You should end up with a piece that looks like this. Now you should be able to separate the bottom bucket portion from the top to make working on it a little easier. I didn't take any pics of this, but it's a fairly straight forward process, just be careful not to force things to much since this plastic can be brittle. Now you'll have to decide how you are going to modify the top of your fuel module. If you are just going to be installing the drawstraw 5, then this process is a little more straight forward an easier. If that is the case then your best bet it to just shave out the section that the black rubber cap is in. This will leave you with a hole that you can just expand out to the appropriate size and be done from there. In my case, I was adding the 1/2in drawstraw as well as a 1/2in return line so I needed to make a little more room. Make sure you use a step drill for this to avoid cracking the brittle plastic. ***A couple things I didn't mention and should be considered. Don't cut into that lip that circles the outside of the top of the fuel module. Make sure that your two fittings are far enough apart to fit the 15/16ths bolts that need to go under to hold your fittings down. As you can see, I miss calculated my drill center for the left hole and caught an extra bulge. The extra bulge is where you would drill your SINGLE hole if it were just the drawstraw. Well since I did that I added some JB weld for plastic. I put a piece of duct tape underneath and rolled another piece to keep the shape as close as possible to fill the hole. Once it dried it came out pretty good. Just use some fine grit sand paper to get it to fit nicely. This also applies to all the other modification around the top. I had already done some fitting checks to make sure everything would work out. This is what it would look like from the top. So all the fittings look good with the holes where they are. From here the next hurdle is the bolts and washers underneath. You will more then likely need to grind down the washers to make them fit underneath. I just used a sharpie to mark where the two washers overlapped and ground them down on a bench grinder. Mine came out like this. From here you can install your bolts that secure the fittings down. You can stick a screwdriver down the top of the fittings to help counteract you tightening down the bolt from underneath. That works much better then using vise grips! Next you want to move on to the bottom of the fuel module. You will need to remove the stock in tank lift pump which is secured by the black plastic tab that was shown in previous pics. It has 3 pinch points so the way that worked for me was to get 3 small screwdrivers, shove 2 in to completely break the pump free of those tabs, hold onto those 2 and insert the 3rd screw driver in and use that one to pry it out. It sounds so much easier, even typing this out, unfortunately it wasn't as easy for me. Big thanks to Eric again for walking me through this one. The bottom of my fuel module was fairly dirty so I sprayed it out with a hose and then took the air hose too it and let it dry overnight. Be careful not to damage or remove the small reddish plug that you'll find in the bottom. Mine could move around a bit, but I would've have to try and remove it. You should end up with this piece once everything's cleaned up. This will not go back into the fuel module. ************************************* You should also pop off the screen ^^^ on the very bottom of the bucket to make sure it's not clogged. ***Make sure you reinstall this piece. Now you should drill a 1/2in hole 2-3in from the bottom of the bucket. It doesn't really matter where you put it, but Vulcan's instructions give you an area to do it so I copied that as best I could. Now re-install the top and bottom portions of the fuel module. Your end result should look similar. The red fitting is attached to my drawstraw 5 which is fitted into where the old lift pump was. The silver fitting is my new return line. From here you can snip the larger of the 4 wires on the connector as they no longer has a spot to be plugged in. They're the black and yellow wires. LEAVE THE BLUE WIRES ALONE. I also decided to plug the OEM supply hose since it would no longer be needed. This is what my final product looked like. Make sure your wiring harness is plugged in!! This is the way I came up with a way to plug the old supply line so nothing can sneak down in there and get dirt in your tank. I found a rubber screw cap and filled it with jb weld and slid it over the return line like this. Once that's done you should be good to put your module back in the tank and put the tank back in the truck! An extra note here, if you had to loosen the carrier bearing bracket bolts, you might want to grind down the forward most tank strap to help avoid that if you ever need to drop the tank again. This is how mine turned out. I probably still could've ground down the sides a little more because I still needed to use a small pry-bar to get the holes lined up but it worked for me. Hope this helps, if you have questions feel free to ask and I'll do my best to help out.
  4. So if I take off the return line from the steering box, I'll probably need to put a different hose on there to be able to put into my flush bucket correct? That way I'd have the original return hose off into my bucket, and the new hose added to the steering box to help with the flush?
  5. @IBMobileSo #2 is the correct return line to attempt to disconnect right? **EDIT I can't seem to put in a copy of the engine diagram but it's page 338 #2 on there. @01cummins4ever Where exactly is that? I'm not sure I even know where the hydro boost is! pspump.tiff
  6. Alright I've searched and searched the forums and for the life of me can't figure this out! Where do you actually drain your power steering fluid!!?? I want to do a flush because my fluid is bad/low. I would just do the turkey baster idea for now if I knew for sure it was power steering fluid that was used last but I don't so that's why I want to do the full flush. So whatcha got?! Pics would be great too!
  7. @TFaoro Hey Tyler, DOR has track bars in stock right now, so should be no worry on the wait times!
  8. It's hard to beat snap-on when it comes to quality of tools, but that price point?! Geesh! I currently have a Home Depot brand and for my use, it works fine. If it were something I used very often, I would look at getting a snap-on.
  9. Nice, sounds pretty conviniant!
  10. I've seen the regulator FASS offers but I think it was around 140 bucks!
  11. Yea JAG that's the way I'm looking to go with my setup. I don't tow very often so I'm not too worried about the rear end squat, but eventually bags in the back to prevent that would be nice.
  12. So here's a question, could you use Luke's links on a stock track bar with a 2in level kit? I have one sitting in the garage waiting to go on but I'm starting to wonder if it'll even be worth my time.
  13. Ah that's right, I forgot about the steel vs plastic. Good point!
  14. Not neccesarily. Like IBM said, you can see starting issues. You could also cause issues to your VP. It's not really a more the merrier type thing. You want the sweet spot of 15-20psi. More then 20 isn't needed and obviously under 14 and your overflow valve isn't working. I'm not sure how much the return line matters in the overall psi, but maybe that could be a difference as well.
  15. Could be multiple things. -fuel line size -using stock fuel filter as well -return line size -the spring in the FASS itself No wot on that run, probably 1/2 a 3/4 throttle though. I'll do an official wot run soon
  16. So I managed to snap this video, it's not the best quality (shaky! My trucks not as smooth as I thought! ha!) but it at least shows my fuel pressure spread. I'm really surprised that my fuel pressure spread is as low as it is! Overall, I'm really happy with everything!
  17. Yea you could measure, not like that would hurt anything! I believe the whole eye ball thing came about because if it looks out of alignment, it probably is, but if it's close enough to look equal on both sides, alignment is probably good, unless your all over the road or something!
  18. Ah ok, well if you're wondering about that you can always do an eye ball calibration. Just look down the side and if one seems out further then the other, you probably would need an adjustable one.
  19. I think everyone's pretty much hit the nail on the head here. I just installed a fass 150 and did everything everyone's already mentioned. As far as the lift pump tone, you'll know when it's different.
  20. Well I'd say, if it aint broke don't fix it!
  21. So I don't have any first hand experience with this, but I am about to install a lukes link on my stock track bar. According to their instructions, they actually recommended installing a small lift (1-2in) to keep things from rubbing in the case of the front end springs settling over time. Unless someone knows for sure, I think you'd be ok without the adjustable track bar. Also, if the lift has been on the truck for 5 years, I'd say your probably in the clear. Are you getting any signs of the track bar loosening up?
  22. I trust the gauge. Was more concerned of having my t valve too close to the vp and getting water hammer regardless of my needle valve. I think I got it figured out. Ill try and post a video later
  23. Man that'd interesting to hear the actual explanation as to why the truck might lope under lower charged batteries with bigger injectors.
  24. Well drive into work showed the following numbers. 19psi @ startup and idle - showed 0 deflection even under load with grids cycling. 20-21psi while driving - showed practically 0 deflection even while hard acceleration. I'm really wondering if I'm really just getting that solid of numbers? I might crack the needle valve a TINY bit more to see if I can get the gauge more responsive and see if that changes my numbers.