You asked for, you got it. Three new VaporWorx products.

[wegner426]

Chad,

Some basic requrements:

1) The tank will need to have a 7" - 8-1/2" overall height in the area where the module will be mounted. 8" is ideal. A 1st-gen Camaro has a similar shape to what I believe you are describing.

2) Center of the hole for the module is approx. 4-5/8" from the front of the fuel tray. From there you will need a 3-1/2" radius to clear the module reservoir and venturi/corner pickup lines. The top and bottom of the tank also needs to be parallel so that the module will seat flush against the bottom of the tank.

3) What BSFC is your engine builder basing the fuel requirement on?

David,

I wish I could help but that's out of my control. I suggest talking to Hector at Rick's to find out the status of your tank. 620hp should be OK for yours, but you hit the nail on the head. What is it going to cost you now vs. what is it going to cost to do again?

3) The pump is from a 2010 CTS-V.

I can have aluminum rings made. If there is enough demand I can have some made but there is a setup charge that should be amortized over multiple parts. I there's five or more it would make the cost easier to swallow. So if you're interested in a modified large-flange aluminum ring, please chime in. If a larger aluminum flange was used then the ring could be placed anywhere and simple fabrication processes could be used. No tray needed.

Carl,
Thanks for the response......I think the fact that the top and bottom of my tank are not parrallel will probably disqualify me from adding this to my current aluminum tank. If I give up on it and get another tank made I will certainly call you. I just have quite a bit invested in this one already with a fabricator that I believe got in over his head and did a bit of a hack job.



Chad

[CarlC]

Chad,

No problem. If you find that you can lay the module over a little bit so that the upper and lower are parallel you should still get very good performance. Even if the module was only 3/4-full, and no other fuel was available to re-fill the module, that would supply enough fuel to support north of 500hp for 15 seconds. That's a long time for that kind of power.

[lynetta.everson]

Thanks for this information

[John McIntire]

Hey Carl,
Would this setup be available in a fuel cell design instead of a direct replacement tank for a specific car?
Just curious.
Awesome product!

[CarlC]

If you're talking an aluminum ring to weld into a cell, then yes. I'm working on one now.

[CarlC]

As a follow up here’s the installation of the new fuel system for James Shipka’s OLC.

The OLC has been sporting a traditional fuel system utilizing an external filter and pressure regulator. The fuel pump was also a standard pump-on-a-stick design. More than once the pump starved when the fuel level fell below ½-tank. With the upcoming One Lap of America competition looming on the horizon the last thing one should be worrying about is if there is going to be a fuel delivery problem on the track or on the street. Reliable fuel delivery on the high banks of Daytona is paramount, but being able to make a 704 mile overnight run also means that you don’t want to stop every 150 miles to put gas in the car. There's no time for that.

David Pozzi and I spent the past two days replacing the entire fuel system in OLC. The first step was to remove the old fuel system. For those that have seen the underside of a 1st-gen Camaro with a Lateral Dynamics 3-link suspension, you know that there is not much real estate to work with between the front of the fuel tank and the Watts link. If you have not seen one, imagine a structure with moving components that takes up about 6” of the space between the tank and differential. See the hose, filter, regulator, hoses, etc in the photo? That was all fitted between the tank and the Watt’s linkage.



Getting all of that in there was like fitting 5lbs of stuff in a 5lb hole and was not easy at all to service.

Our task was to take all of that and replace it with this Rick's Tanks part.



So, let’s get cracking.

David and I worked on a plan to try and keep the electronics stealthy but also make them easy to replace if necessary. David whipped up this mounting plate that bolts to the bottom of the package tray. It has #10-32 nutserts to allow for fast and easy component R&R without having to remove the entire plate.




The controller needs to be mounted as close to the battery as possible so that the power leads are short and can be mounted directly to the battery terminals. This is important to keep the RFI noise to a minimum. Pulse width modulation systems that have long primary power wires will create a lot of RFI. Since the OLC has the battery mounted just behind the rear seat, it made the controller placement decision easy.

With the controller mounted it was time to route the wiring. All that is needed is to attach the following:

1) Connect the vaporworx signal conditioning module to IGN+
2) Connect the yellow wire from the Vaporworx SCM to the yellow wire on the DC Controls pwm controller.
3) Connect the two-pin blue/white plug from the Vaporworx SCM to the DC Controls PWM controller.
4) Connect the three-pin connector on the Vaporworx SCM to the fuel pressure sensor connector.
5) Connect power from the battery to the DC Controls Controller input.
6) Connect power from the DC Controller output to the fuel pump.

Most of the above connections above are plug-and-play. For example, 1,2, and 3 are either non-interchangeable Weatherpack connectors or a simple plug-in deal. It’s pretty hard to connect the SCM incorrectly.

With most of the electronics installed it was time to put in the new tank. Unfortunately, it needed the Pozzi Tuned treatment to get it to fit in James’ car. Due to time constraints it was decided to use a tank that was not designed for OLC but thought it would fit. Well, it didn’t. Thanks to the talents of Mr. Pozzi, he managed to turn this….



Into this….



While David worked his magic I continued work on the car by replacing the -8AN hose that ran from the old pump to the engine with a new -6AN PTFE hose. The fuel pressure sensor is located between the pump outlet and the -6AN hose using an Earl’s -6/-6 male union with a 1/8”-NPT fuel pressure gauge tap on one of the flats. The other hose is a vent.




A GM 33-240 ohm fuel level sending unit was used. Since the OLC has a programmable Autometer fuel gauge it was decided to use the custom programming mode to set the full and empty points. This is easy to do with the module out of the tank since the float can be moved by hand.

Once fitted up to the car it was easy to see that David did a great job on modifying the tank to fit around the OLC’s exhaust system. After making the final fuel line and fuel pressure sensor connections it was easy to see that there is a lot more room available in front of the tank.

With everything connected it was then time to calibrate the gauge. Due to the shape of the tank the gauge reading is not linear. In other words, a ½-tank reading on the gauge only takes four gallons of fuel, but the tank is a lot bigger than eight gallons. By putting in one gallon at a time, taking notes, and then making a laminated fuel level card that can be used to keep exact track of the actual amount of fuel in the tank can be done.

Here it is all mounted up.



Here’s the full electronics package. Wire routing was done to keep it easily accessible and make maintenance easy.



The last order of business to do before firing up the engine was to flush the fuel line. After that, the OLC came to life with little drama. With a mechanical fuel pressure gauge mounted to the fuel rail it was difficult to set the fuel pressure due to gauge fluctuations. The batch-fire injector pulses plus the large injectors working at idle would cause the gauge to fluctuate. We relocated the gauge near the output of the pump which reduced the fluctuations but not completely. An extension was used to allow the gauge to be viewed while driving. As soon as any driving power was applied the gauge fluctuations stopped.

At idle the pump only requires 5.1 volts to power the engine and venturi pumps. At cruise 5.9 volts, and at WOT a maximum of 12.1 volts. With 14.5 volts available there is plenty of pump capacity in reserve. This pump is a very nice match to feed the big Katech 427ci LS7 engine on the track, and when combined with the Vaporworx fuel control system both long life and little fuel heating is possible.

Thank you to James for trusting Vaporworx (me). I’m in your corner for the One Lap. Mary, I’m sorry for the spilled milk. David, get some rest!

[Denvervet]

Any word on $ for this setup yet. About to get my tank and will be ordering pump module, etc. Looking forward to it.....I think. ;)

[bri-rock]

Carl, I understand that the discharge for either of the two pumps has AN-6 fittings. Are there any pressure loss issues potentially? I was looking at a 600 hp, forced induction application. The folks at Aeromotive were recommending AN-8 going from the pump to the engine bay for my application.

[CarlC]

-6 is fine for what you want to do. I'm running near that with mine (very similar build to your sig) with -6, and GM runs a lot more power than that on production cars with the same size lines.

The CTS-V has the same 3/8" quick connect fitting. For over 750hp it's a good idea to up-size to a -8 after the pump since the fittings are usually the limiting factor. The OE plastic tubing is really nice since it maintains good inner diameter all the way to the front of the car.

For any fueling application it is good to try to keep the number of fittings to a minimum. When a fitting does need to be used care should be exercised to not use a fitting that will restrict flow. Sharp elbows really hurt flow.

I have pricing done based on an assumption of how much time it will take to make the conditioning modules. I need to make a batch to see how close my estimate is. I should have it done by mid-week.

[Denvervet]

Thanks Carl for all your hard R&D on this. Looks like a great idea.

[newmexicosaint]

Any word on $ for this setup yet. About to get my tank and will be ordering pump module, etc. Looking forward to it.....I think. ;)

I too am in the same boat and would like pricing. Carl, who do we call for pricing info and pump selection details for specific application? Thanks!

[James OLC]

I can't thank Carl, Rick and Hector enough for their help with this! fuel delivery is one area where I think that there have been Huge improvements made overall for our cars over the last few years and I think that the vaporworx setup is now pretty much the ideal solution. With the CTS-V pump and Carl's controller you can have an OEM quality system that can support over 1100 HP without heat issues at idle. One of the things that we found at Silver State year before last was that the Bosch pump really didn't like running in the heat for long distances once the tank reached the half full point. When I got back to the trailer and David and I loaded the car up in Lund the fuel pump was almost as loud as the car was at idle - not a confidence booster. Combine that with the limitations of the old pump/pickup which tended to uncover/starve at some really inopportune moments it was time for something new.

So now we have minimal heat, minimal external plumbing/fittings, OEM parts, dual pickups and a reliable fuel level indicator - too cool!

Thanks again everyone and a big thanks to David for helping make this possible!

[parsonsj]

This is good stuff. I also tried to get an Aeromotive exterior pump and regulator to work for II Much. I moved the regulator around (4 different places), and slowly built an inventory of pumps, hardline adapters, filters, and regulators as I tried several different ideas. When I sold the car it was pretty reliable (and on its third A1000) for several hours at a time.

But this is the way to go. It's the right solution for fuel injection cars that need high fuel rail pressure and want to drive their cars at non WOT for hours at a time.

[CarlC]

My day job keeps getting in the way, and I really need to build a proper website.

PM me for info for specific applications. Please leave your phone number in the PM since voice is much faster and easier than typing.

I spent this evening building controllers to get a good handle on the labor time for production parts. Production includes actual pump testing and circuit tuning. It's a time eater. Testing and potting is next, so pricing should be complete by mid-week. Sorry it's taking a while, I just want to make sure I get it all correct.

[CarlC]

Update:

I have pricing completed, however I'm going to hold off posting it until I have all of the sell-able components in hand and can take pics to display just what you're going to get. In other words, I want to wait until the production wiring, ring terminals, pressure sensors, etc. are here and ready to go. I have ten vaporworx signal conditioning modules and 3-conductor cables completed.

In the above pics everything has Weatherpack connections. To try and keep the price down I'll offer the initial kits without them except for one. I put them on mine since for testing I'm always swapping them out. Since the kits are for permanent installations crimping/soldering is an advantage since the wiring length and routing can be done to your taste.

Here's what would need to be user-connected:

Connect/solder the blue wire from the Vaporworx signal conditioner to IGN + / fuel pump on +.
Connect/solder the yellow wire from the Vaporworx signal conditioner to the yellow wire on the DC Controls controller.
Connect/solder the red wire from the 3-conductor cable to Pin3 on the Delphi fuel pressure connector/wire pigtail.
Connect/solder the black wire from the 3-conductor cable to Pin2 on the Delphi fuel pressure connector/wire pigtail.
Connect/solder the white wire from the 3-conductor cable to Pin1 on the Delphi fuel pressure connector/wire pigtail.
Plug the Weatherpack connector on the 3-conductor cable into the Weatherpack connector on the Vaporworx signal conditioner.
Connect the + input of the DCC controller to BAT+ using the supplied Weatherpack sealed 25A link.
Connect the - input/output of the DCC controller to BAT -. This a common connection for both the battery and fuel pump feed.
Connect the + output of the DCC controller to the fuel pump.
Connect the - input/output of the DCC controller to the fuel pump.

It may seem like a lot, once you get it in your hands it will make sense.

Sorry for the delay guys but I want you to be able to see exactly what you would get before committing.

[newmexicosaint]

Carl

You have the red and the white wires from the 3-conductor cable to pin 3 on the Delphi fuel pressure connector wire/pigtail. Is that correct?

[CarlC]

Whoops. Got my wires crossed (in more ways than one.)

Thanks for the catch.

[HOSTILETAKEOVER]

Just to be clear. This pump / regulator / controller setup is compatable with any vaporworx tank?

I have a vaporworx tank on order through Prodigy and I have a forced induction high Hp LS motor. It would appear that this is the way to go. I just want to make sure I don't need to change my order to make use of this advancement.

[CarlC]

The CTS-V pump will fit in the same ring and clocking as the 5th-gen pump. The 5th-gen pump outlet is pointed straight forward whereas the CTS-V will be pointed at a 45* angle toward the passenger side of the car. If you look closely at the pics in the first post you can see the differences.

The wiring harness will be different. Both the 5th-gen and CTS-V use the same plug body but the wiring is different. The 5th-gen has:

1) Pump +
2) Pump -
3) Fuel level sensor ground
4) Fuel level sensor gauge output.

The CTS-V:

1) Pump 1 +
2) Pump 1 -
3) Pump 2 -
3) Pump 2 +

So, the wiring must be made to accomodate the higher power reqirements of the pump vs. the sending unit.

If your new tank has a fuel level sensor built into it then there is no problem. If you do not have one then there are ways that I offer to get the fuel sensor information in/out of the tank.

The electronic speed control system is compatible with either pump as long as the orginal poppet valve that was supplied with the module is used. The adapted 4th-gen mechanical regulator will not work.

[barraza]

What happens to the pressure regulator on the module when using the pwm system? How is pressure adjusted, and what is the range?