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The Summer of Ven: IDI Fuel System Teardown and Electric Fuel Pump Retro-mod

chorl

This series of posts will detail the first major system modification I perform to the IDI 6.9 liter engine of Spool Bus, inspired by the work of other enthusiasts like Nick Pisca.

After finishing the brake system work and getting it driving well, I noticed that it suffered from a pretty badly aerating fuel system. As I mentioned in the Murdervan post, the IDI engine family depends on a fuel system that is fully primed and free of air, or they tend to have severe starting issues. Coupled with a mechanical fuel pump that’s crankshaft driven, and it means a lot of work is dropped upon the starter (and therefore batteries and heavy power wiring) to turn over and keep cranking an all-original engine with dried or cracked rubber hoses to pressurize the system. Spool Bus definitely exhibited this problem along with a non-functional glow plug circuit, making things even worse.

To make up for it, I would do the unspeakable thing and feed it a tiny puff of ether (starting fluid) if cold starting. It would always getup and go immediately, which indicated to me there wasn’t really anything wrong besides the aerating fuel lines. With fall and winter on the horizon, I decided to go for the mod both as a quality of life improvement and because the system needed addressing anyway.

The changes entail removing much of the OEM fuel delivery system and replacing it with an electric low-pressure pump to feed the high-pressure injection pump unit, as well as relocation of the fuel filter mount from its basically-impossible-to-service OEM location under the engine cave ceiling.

See, a lot of these parts would be perfectly reasonable from a service perspective with overhead access in the pickup truck line. But when you shove all of it 2 feet backwards with the engine squarely under the dashboard, those OEM locations just make you go what. how. WHY. I keep saying Ford (and other manufacturers!) should have just committed and kept the van line cab-over, but I say that as a die-hard defender of the Church of the Cab-Over Van.

So here we go! Part 1 will focus on deconstructing the original fuel system, basically acting as a pictorial guide if you might ever want to fix one. Next will be the installation of the new electric fuel pump, and then I’ll clean and wrap up everything with new glow plugs and return lines.

Up in the “Service Position” it goes! I promise, this is far less sketch than it looks, as for some reason the slope of the driveway is exaggerated by the framing of the picture. That’s also what wheel chocks are for. The previous renter of this place left these big cut up railroad ties that worked suspiciously well as ramps, so maybe we had the same idea!

We’ll start with the underbody inspection. So, Spool Bus has no less than three fuel filters. I think people just added more fuel filters as they got clogged or something, not gathering that’s not how it works. I’d been getting some fuel feed problems before this where it feels like it’s running out or pulling air, losing some power while cruising. Having experienced this in Mikuvan back in the old’ dirty gas disaster days, I figured this was another impetus to finally making the mods, which is basically another chance to dig through what previous owners had done. The state of service of a van always tells a story, often a tragedy.

The item shown above and to the right of the yellow (new!) from shock absorber is the OEM fuel-water separator fitment. I figured it was OEM, as it was located in a spot that only Ford could have installed BEFORE they put the van part of the van on the van.

Next, moving just a few feet back, on the frame was another fuel-water separator unit. This is plumbed in right before the fuel tank selection valve, just inboard of the frame rail from it.

….and I know it’s hard to see exactly what I mean, but the white object immediately behind the A/C compressor shown at the bottom is the OEM fuel filter and its mounting fitting. Yes, far as I can tell, to remove this thing and replace it you have to actually unbolt the A/C compressor.

I always felt like the van line of any car company got the most disposability treatment. I mean, why not? They’re generally the most vocational of the product line. Buy them for your contractor, plumbing, environmental disaster response, etc. fleet, run them for 50,000-70,000 miles, and then throw them away before anything becomes a problem.

So the OEM water separator has a little cable coming out of it that leads to this knob under the driver’s seat. You pull it to pull up on a plunger inside, and theoretically with water being heavier than oil, all the water collected at the bottom will drain out. Pull the plunger too long and you drain out your fuel system as well ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I decided to dismount and mess with all the filters to see if they were exceptionally clogged or something to cause the fuel feed issue. I mean, the answer was Probably Yes, but I wanted to be thorough and see it firsthand anyway.

I yanked off the frame-mounted filter and… eww. It was chunky inside from an uncertain source of brown. I read that algae and other simple life forms can begin growing in situations where oil and water sit together too long. Whatever, I don’t care. Obviously, we needed a replacement here.

With a bit of hose following, I found out that the OEM water separator was actually no longer in the picture. I might uninstall it one of these days, but not right now.

To uninstall the OEM filter, I had to remove the intake hose and luckily was able to sneak a strap wrench in there just enough to start breaking it loose. There was just barely enough vertical volume to wiggle it out afterwards!

So here we have the two “Original-to-me” filters. I decided that the existing frame-mounted filter head was fine and dandy for anything I wanted to do – no use to purchase a new one, even if it’ll be fancy. I’d mount the electric fuel pump right next to it on the frame, and just run a hose straight from there to the engine.

There does need to be an air purge method located at the highest point of the fuel system. For that I brewed up a plan to use an electric solenoid valve connecting that point to the fuel return system, and so I can activate the P U R G E from inside if need be, instead of having a manual fitting like the Schrader valve on the OEM filter head.

Time to start deconstructing from the back side in order to remove the rest of the fuel system. Remember, this bullshit is what I’m dealing with. There is a LOT going on inside the engine cave of the Ford van chassis, even without Dashboard Turbo giving me the side-eye here like he owns the place. Nick’s assertion that the most valuable real estate on a van is under the hood and inside the engine cave is absolutely correct – whatever I can remove from here is added service access and airflow.

First to go is this torn up plastic coated metal coil intake hose. So it’s just been pulling air from wherever the hell it felt like all this time, huh? I’ll order a proper new one when I get to that point.

This is the view from the driver’s side of the engine cave, out towards the front. On the left, the shiny cylinder is the rear of the A/C compressor. To the right of that is the OEM filter head location, and to the immediate right, the black casing is the turbo compressor’s outlet adapter to the intake.

That’s right, there is NO blow-off valve or intercooler here. Just straight in…. as well as straight out. There’s no wastegate attached to the turbo either. It’s just “sized right” and with a 1000 pound blob of cast iron underneath it.

The view going the other direction, peeking in just under the hood apron. At the end of this adventure, the metal tower that is the OEM filter mount will be gone.

I’ve got a bunch of other hoses removed now, and also have removed the crankcase pressure regulator (the can at the bottom), which I’m led to believe works like a very overgrown PCV valve. This was enough volume for me to get a read on where to route and mount everything.

Fast forward a few days, and a combination of Papa Bezos and RockAuto have #delivered. I also just took the old filter to an O’Reilly and held it up to them and went ? ? ?, picking up a combined filter and water separator (that little knob at the bottom loosens to drain and also cover you in diesel-water poop)

Also in the order is the electric pump itself. I went for the near universally recommended one, a Facet DuraLift unit, and also ordered a bunch of brass fittings to match.

I also picked up a “fuel pump block-off plate”, seen in the middle of the fuel hose coil. I obviously didn’t know this, but it seems like every mechanical fuel pump for decades was the same hole pattern in the side of the engine, so there’s like only 2 products that cover up the hole for every American vehicle ever.

Step one of this whole disaster: Remove the mechanical crankshaft-driven fuel pump. Apparently the diaphragms inside these pumps can eventually (or prematurely) fail, which then dumps fuel into the crankcase. Great!

This photo makes it look like a reasonable service position. It is in fact not. I’m looking upward from just inside of the front passenger side wheelwell. The structure at the left is the engine cradle/crossmember. The orange b u l g e is an aftermarket coolant filter some previous owner installed (hmm, this is a good idea in general) which was absent on Murdervan and made this whole adventure that much harder to navigate.

Of course you can’t see the bolts either. If you ever want to work on vans of any sort, you have to be really comfortable with “Braille Servicing” out of sight and only having your proprioception and tactile feedback to let you know if you landed the socket or started the thread.

Face Down, Ass Up, That’s the Way We Like to [adjust the power steering belt tension on a 1975-1991 Ford Econoline]

I got a start on it with removing the fuel feeder line coming from the switchover valve (rubber, bottom nipple) and unscrewing the rigid line going to the OEM filter head (flare nut, upper fitting). The bolts holding the pump on are standard 3/8″ with 9/16″ wide heads.

I went ahead and pulled up the rigid line from the front of the hood after undoing a few clamps holding it to the engine.

The rigid line has a heater element attached to it that’s powered from a fusible link system coming from the passenger-side (primary) battery. I have no particular use for this, but will be tapping the power for the fuel pump later.

To remove the fuel pump, I actually found it easy enough to use a standard box end wrench. I didn’t have a ratcheting-end box wrench or a socket that would actually fit in these confines, so I just suffered through it with the initial loosen, and then the removal by hand was easy enough.

And here it is dumped out the bottom. Installation of the block-off plate was far more pleasant, as there was now nothing in the way.

Next up is to remove the OEM filter head and its fittings, also easy enough with a 9/16″ ratcher, though the approach angle is better from the front-right position (shown here).

Here we have the pile of scrap generated from this evening’s operation. Well, I suppose the intake pipe adapter isn’t scrap, but it happened to be laying here as well. Some of these rigid tubes will be harvested for their fittings and make it back into the operation.

Next up, re-plumbing the engine fuel feed and adding the electric lift pump!

A Tale of Too Many Piles: The Exploits of Big Chuck’s Towing and Recovery

chorl1 Comment

Here at Big Chuck’s Robot Warehouse and Auto Body Center, we have a lot of piles. I get them for myself, but it turns out, I get them often for other people, too! Being back South now means I have access to many rust-free husks of once-useful machinery, which is unheard of in the northeast as everything slowly dissolves from road salt if not salty sea air from the coast.

Vehicles more than 10 or 15 years old were rare sights on Boston roads, as nobody keeps them beyond the age when nut and bolts on the underside get hard to remove and rust bubbles start peeking out from places. “Little Rust” is always a lie in used car ads (which are horribly expensive if it’s even remotely still together) and underbody inspections are part and parcel for purchasing anything. It was a constant battle keeping Mikuvan from dissolving with preparation every fall and remedying every spring.

While the same rust-free “Abject Vehicle Market” is true (and better) for the western states, the nice thing about the southeast is that it’s still a short one day’s drive from much of New England. So as a result, in the past couple of months, I’ve played “pile relay” by fetching and storing something that my Northerner friends have purchased nearby, for pickup later when they’re able to make it down. I’ve inspected a couple more things for purchase later or by other means and other people. These adventures have taken me all over the Former Confederacy, usually down some miles of 2-lane county roads and dirt roads where I wonder how they’ll ever find the body if I don’t make it back out.

Collectively, we’ve called this pattern of “Hey, can you go recover this terrible pile that’s been sitting in the forest for 10 years?” OPERATION: PileDriver. Here’s a selection of the exploits of Big Chuck’s Towing and Recovery, which is now desperately in need of its own logo, T-shirt, and website.

The Freedom Jeep

Pretty much everything here is going to be Jeeps, because these friends have a peculiar interest in collecting and restoring various old Jeeps. The first one of these adventures I was called upon for was for a barn-find 1942 Ford GPW, basically the original Jeep. It was located near Centre, Alabama, roughly a 2 hour trip by state routes and back roads.

This was to be highly American™ activity. It’s the weekend of Independence Day, the most premium of all-American days, and I’m taking Vantruck (an all-American object), to fetch something which is known and proven by its serial number to have served in World War II, an all-American defining experience. America!

Of course, the first thing to do was to take on lots and lots of gas, also a favorite American pasttime. I set out from Atlanta around 9am and was planning on meeting the seller around lunchtime. I went northwestward on I-75 before splitting off on US 411 towards and beyond Rome, GA.

The story was the usual; Granpappy passed away and left me this barn full of 1. rat poops, and 2. machinery that I now need to deal with. Likely the same fate assigned to my own grandchildren, let’s all be honest. This Ford GPW was full of more itself, as well as probably many pounds of rat turds.

There was also even more of itself (and likely most of another Jeep, I couldn’t tell) in parts strewn about the barn.

Luckily, the 60-something year old tires did hold air once we hit them with a compressor, but one of the rear wheels was seized up, probably seized brakes. So the seller towed the Jeep towards the barn door before I moved into position.

I brought along all my “Pile Getting” gear in Vantruck’s tool chest. This has expanded to include two 50 foot chains, a chain binder, the 4-ton Harbor Freight come-along, and a drill-powered cable winch. I “invested” in most of the gear for the Murdervan recovery trip, and pulling a little lightweight Jeep onto the trailer deck was pretty straightforward.

Indeed, a very American picture. The whole trip was about 6 hours or so – two to get out there, two to load up, and two back home.

Oh, yeah, I didn’t clean off any more rat poops than I had to. The rest of it just blew off all over the road as soon as I picked up any speed. Sorry not sorry, everyone behind me. Enjoy your face full of Freedom.

This assemblage got a lot of thumbs up and nods as I rolled back home. After I confirmed everything was back home, the Pennsylvania Jeep Bros began driving down.

Here we are the next morning, doing a butt-to-butt trailer transfer.

And away they go. They managed to bomb down to me and back home to Pennsylvania in the span of one weekend, taking turns driving. Now that’s some dedication, which is probably well worth it for this well-preserved WWII certified-legit GPW. It’s currently undergoing a complete restoration.

“Moldë”

The next adventure was in October, and involved going back to Alabama (….again) a little south of Heflin.

This was one of those “Miles down 2 lane county roads” adventures I alluded to. Perfect country song territory, no doubt. Vantruck and trailer were about 110% of the width of the lane, generally speaking.

The object affectionately named Moldë by the Jeep Bros is a 1989 Jeep Comanche, the “jeeptruck” that eventually finds itself as the Jeep Gladiator today. Whereas the Gladiator is a “midsize” truck of today (a.k.a huge), the Comanche was a compact truck that shared most parts with the XJ Cherokee.

It was very, very MOLDY. The story with this one was a “Ran When Parked” scenario….back in 2011? or so. It’s been sitting in the woods somewhere in mid-Alabama since then, so the entire thing was covered in lichens, spiders, and other small mammal nests. The interior was pretty disgusting, albeit easily cleanable looking and really not all that much worse than Sadvan was. Of course, instinctively, I dove under to perform the New England Underbody Inspection and promptly found myself covered in organisms.

The seller has 4 or 5 other Jeeps of varying vintages and plenty of other motorized implements in varying states of despair on his property. He moved to this little spot in Alabama after retiring, it seems. Hey, more power to you. One day I’m sure I’ll have the same, but in strange vans and giant-ass drones (as by that time, I’m sure I can pick up a junked Uber Air or what have you cheap on Facelist)

This load was actually even simpler than Freedom Jeep; for you see, the property is on a long slope that ends at its lowest point at the road. I just set up Vantruck and the trailer on the driveway, got into the Moldë oh god it’s crawling on me fuck FUCK and the seller pushed down the hill to build up steam while I aimed carefully. You only load once.

And here you have two vehicles, neither of which are common found in truck form, in tow formation. The memes write themselves and I’m happy to encourage their proliferation. As usual with anything Vantruck does, it was a hoot pulling into gas stations and at red lights.

The Comanche was light enough that I could actually push it backward up the yard slope after locking out the U-haul trailer’s surge brake. Therefore, I positioned it in the Yard Hole so it could roll off, but not before….

…positioning Mikuvan inside to be a yard shuttle. I set the parking brake slightly so it wouldn’t just freely roll down the trailer ramp, and then just wound up one of Vantruck’s tow chains to about 4 feet long and pulled it over to the “Pile Corner” of the yard. The best part was that Mikuvan can make the turn around behind the pile of tree debris that neither I nor the landlord have taken initiative to clear up, so I was able to just pull the thing into a good resting spot.

This trip was performed on behalf of Alex of Wedge Industries, whom I also picked up the Benchmaster Master of Benches from when I went the other way. There’s just a freely-flowing trade of heavy and questionably-working machinery up and down the I-81 corridor.

Operation Florida Man

The third and most recent pile adventure finally saw me go somewhere besides Alabama to the Lake City, Florida vicinity. This time, it wasn’t even a complete Jeep, but the husk of one. So, no car trailer for this haul, just a 6 x 12 utility trailer.

It was a rainy and foggy day the whole way down to Florida, as this time was about when the entire eastern seaboard was being smacked around by a winter storm. Quite possibly the most awkward weekend weather-wise to do it, but hey, gotta get ’em Jeeps.

The wonderful thing about this affair was that Vantruck rolled its 100,000 mile mark somewhere just over the Florida border. I bought it at 75,000 miles – original and documented, not a rollover figure! so that means I’ve put about 25,000 miles on it.

If you go by the average per-gallon gasoline cost of the 2017-2021 timeframe, and the usual mileage this thing gets, that means I’ve spent anywhere between $6500 to $7500 on it just in gas.

Why do I put up with you….

Here we go, once again down some network of Florida county roads. How the hell do you guys keep finding these things. The sandy consistency of these unpaved Florida back roads is interesting. It’s a solid surface, but you can definitely start the slip and slide quite easily. I suppose I’m used to either pavement or packed gravel, which is a different vibe. I passed a few flocks of kids riding ATVs and side-by-sides, plus the odd tractor or two.

I didn’t take many photos of the process, as rain was moving in and there was only the seller and I to load up. This is the husk and frame of a 1962 Jeep CJ5, one of the first civilian models made after World War II, plus a bunch of spare parts.

The Jeep Bros let me know exactly where to space up the frame and body to not damage them by strapping them down, so I packed a bunch of my cut-up workbench spare 4×4 lumber pieces. It turns out that Jeep husks aren’t very heavy. I was concerned about just picking up a vehicle frame and throwing it in a trailer, but it wasn’t bad actually. It was like lifting a very long, deformed Overhaul.

This trip took almost 12 hours because of the weather. What was supposed to be a 4.5 hours in and 4.5 hours out trip instead was beset by heavy rain and fog, at times with “terrifying pile-up crash video” level visibility, so I really had to keep it slow. Traffic coming back to Atlanta made it even worse.

This isn’t to say they had it any better. They set out the day before, but got caught up in one of the many ice storms along I-81 and didn’t make enough progress in one day. The next day saw more ice storms and snow, before also fading to rain. This photo was taken something like 10PM instead of the anticipated 6 or 7.

So there you have it, a curated selection of the adventures of Big Chuck’s Towing and Recovery. It’s funny to me that as more of my friends are aging into houses and yards, no longer artificially limited by city or dorm/apartment living, the amount of heavy things we’re accruing is rapidly increasing. Chances are I’ll go on more of these PileDriver adventures this year.

I’m half-heartedly building up Spool Bus to be the fetching vehicle. While Vantruck is a funny meme, the fuel economy is an unmitigated disaster and having dual rear wheels makes it fatter than it needs to be for most car-ish-sized hauling. Spool Bus has in fact been part of two additional recent pile-getting trips already, which will make it onto this site as time progresses.