Holley Multi-Point Fuel Pickups and an RCI Fuel Cell
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By: John Nutter - 5-1-03
A Fuel System That Fits Behind the Back Seat.
Changes to my Jeep forced me to relocate the gas tank from it's stock location. My solution was to use RCI's 2161A fuel cell behind the back seat, but this left me concerned about fuel starvation on side hills. Holley had the answer with a product that seemed to good to be true.
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| The multi-point fuel pickups doing their job. The pickup near the top left is not covered with fuel at all, and it is not letting air into the system either. The other pickup (not pictured here) is submerged and still drawing fuel. |
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| One of the Holley pickups outside of the tank. |
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| Back view of the pickup. The instructions say you can use either the horizontal or vertical port, but the other must be capped off. What appears to be a port on the opposite side from the hose on the picture has no opening. |
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| The fuel cell holds 15 gallons and fits well behind the rear set on a CJ7. The black piece leaning against the hose fitting if the filler neck fitting that came with the cell. I had to order the 4" cap sepparatley. |
I had replaced my Dana 44 rear end with a Dana 60, and the Dana 44 was already very near the gas tank. I also re-located the rear spring mounts to stretch the wheel base by 3". These modifications eliminated any chance of using the stock 15 gallon tank unless it was moved or modified. I don't like welding on gas tanks, so I looked for another solution. I found the answer in the Summit catalog, the RCI 2161A fuel cell. According to RCI's literature, this cell is meant for street rods and Jeeps. This cell easily fits between the rear seat and tailgate on my '85 CJ7. Installation of the cell is simple. Drill 4 holes and bolt the cell to the floor, then plumb your fuel lines. I had to add an extra bulkhead fitting to the cell because my EFI requires a return line. The cell comes with a neck for a hose to connect to a regular fuel filler on the side of a vehicle. I decided to purchase a 4" cap made by RCI instead of mounting a a fuel fill neck on my roll cage.
The fuel cell comes with -8 AN fittings. Aluminum -AN fittings are not cheap. Chuck Pedretti gave me a tip that really saved some cash on the fuel system plumbing. The -An fittings are the same as JIC 37 hydraulic fittings. You can find JIC fittings in steel for a fraction of the price of the anodized aluminum fittings you see in racing catalogs. Be careful though, becuase there are variations among JIC fittings and you need to get the fittings with the 37 degree flare. I used a small amount of -8 braided stainless hose and a handful of aluminum fittings from Summit, the rest of the fittings were purchased from fittingsandadapters.com.
The fuel cell is long and narrow, and I knew I'd draw air into the fuel system on steep side hills unless I did something about it. Holley had the answer. The idea behind the Holley Multi Point Fuel Pickups is that they will only draw from a pickup that is submerged in fuel. I really thought the idea sounded too good to be true, but I decided to try them anyways. I was very impressed when I tested them. I parked my Jeep on a side hill and left it idle with one pickup uncovered for over 10 minutes. The steady stream of fuel coming back in the return line told me there was no air getting into the system. These pickups are packaged individually and are not cheap, but I'm happy that I purchased them.
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