CamT's build thread

lol - I came across it but it's crazy expensive, I think it was about $800 or so. I would have tried skinning my own part but the aluminum piece is pretty pricey as well and I didn't want to risk messing it up. Knowing what I know now, I'd be more comfortable taking a stab at skinning the cover. But yeah - that on top of a carbon console would be too much. The silver gives it a really nice clean look and separates it from the rest of the console.
 
I didn't even bother looking at the price, but all the Neidfaktor is crazy expensive in general although awesome quality. I agree, silver looks perfect as is with the carbon console. Little envious the RCR gate is so small in comparison. :)
 
It's been quite a while since I've added anything to my blog. There hasn't been much to write about until recently; the San Diego winter makes it pretty tough to drive this car so it hasn't come out very much. ;)

As y'all recall I was happily driving along when my engine cut out for no apparent reason. It's not obvious in my "stranded" video but I could tell something was up pretty quickly. For those running the Bosch 044 external fuel pump in their HP position, you'll know that the pump makes a good amount of noise when it's cycling. It was very clearly not cycling in my video (at least from my perspective).

So that was a pretty big clue for me. When I got the car pushed off onto a quieter street I started going through the usual fuel pump checks. Relays, fuses, loose wires, etc. Everything came back clean.

I got the trailer out there and we trailered the car home. For giggles I decided to cycle the engine when we got there and wouldn't you know it? It fired right up. This is consistent with how my last Bosch 044 pump failed - that's right, this is the second pump failure I've had!

There's a multitude of reasons for what I think could have caused my failure - I won't go into all the details here, it's a bit boring. I was faced with 2 options; simply replace the pump and keep my fingers crossed it would last or go big and make some real changes to the fuel system. I decided to take the Nuclear option and I'm ripping my fuel system apart and redoing it completely.

Here's some in-process photos when I originally laid my system out:

Low pressure Walbro pump in background, low pressure filter, Bosch high pressure pump in foreground.

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With the surge tank installed and a few more lines plumbed. I located both my fuel pumps so they're below the ports that feed them to try and ensure they're constantly primed.

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And here's a sneak peek of what's to come:

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If you're a bit masochistic and want to read all about my thoughts on why my fuel pumps are dying and why I've taken the Nuclear option, click the link to read my latest blog entry!

63. It's all fun and games until someone runs out of fuel
 
you've seen this?


Well ... if you read my blog you’d see that I linked that very video in my post!

Yeah after watching that I’m all but certain the two pumps I got were counterfeit. Both came in the older style yellow box (which was opened and crushed when I received the second pump). I’ll do a post mortem on the pump currently in the car to see if I can identify any of the indicators, the first pump was tossed quite a while ago.
 
UGH I have counterfeit FP.
Cam, Why didn't you just install a factory Bosch pump? ( Thanks for saving me from getting towed!)

Rich - I didn't like how RCR recommends you setup their system. Their kit includes mostly straight AN fittings and I wanted to use 90s even though there's more pressure loss with 90s; I figured for my HP level and pump specs the added losses would be negligible. Maybe if I had a good pump ...

Throw up some photos of your pump, I'd be curious to see what you see.

Here are some comparison photos I found on the web:

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And here are some photos of mine as well as some things to look for:

My pump's body has a dull sheen - the legit units have a shinier appearance.
akhCio4.jpg


The closing and staking features at the top of the pump are creased on my pump. The legit units appear to use a rolling type operation and leaves more of a radius feature instead of sharp indents.
m4w3Kzk.jpg


The binding posts for both my terminals are the same length. The legit ones have a longer binding post for the positive terminal.
wr3AgkI.jpg


Much of the searching I did yielded posts from a few years ago, nothing comparing counterfeits to legit units in the last year or so. I purchased my pump within the last year and it came in the YELLOW Bosch packaging (which is no longer used by Bosch). The genuine pumps come in BLUE boxes and have a code written on the outside which can be entered on their website to verify whether your pump is real or fake.

That said, my pump did have 2 features which were commonly used to differentiate real from fake:

The inlet side of my pump has a helicoil, prior counterfeits did not.

The inscription on the side of my pump body is stamped, not applied via a vibro-peen type operation. The prior counterfeits used a dot matrix style printer to inscribe the part number information.

A few more details and photos on my blog, but the above will help anyone else trying to figure out if their pump is legit or not.

64. Fake! Fake! Fake!
 

Roger Reid

Supporter
Cam
I'm in the home water filtration business. Products that we make are knocked off by the Chinese, Italians, and Koreans on a regular basis. On one of our more popular products there are over 30 different overseas companies making knock offs. Some are remarkably close to the point you have to cut them apart to see internal differences to prove its not yours. knock offs fail causing water damage to floors etc, and insurance companies come after us as if its our product that failed. My point is that there are probably multiple copycats out there and all look slightly different. It won't be long before Chinese copies come in blue packaging. The easy copies to avoid (yellow packaging) are easy to avoid if you know what to look for. FiTech (G-SURGE) should not be a company to put Chinese internals into their product so you are in safe territory now. Your best bet is to buy from reputable sources that will take the product back if it fails and has a good warrantee.
 
FiTech (G-SURGE) should not be a company to put Chinese internals into their product so you are in safe territory now. Your best bet is to buy from reputable sources that will take the product back if it fails and has a good warrantee.

Oh man Roger, you would not believe what happened to me this weekend. I had installed my new FiTech surge tank and gotten everything plumbed when I went to install my electrical leads. First lead to go on was the ground wire. As I was running the nut down to secure the wire the binding post literally BROKE apart in my fingers. Imagine my surprise ... :eek:

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A couple of design related issues that I see here. The included washer and wire clip are just BARELY thick enough to keep the nut above the last thread. Poor design. The overall stackup should leave the nut well away from the last thread to ensure it doesn't bottom prematurely.

The brass binding post is CAST. Yeah ... cast. Looks like a porosity issue to me. Generally not a good idea to cut threads into a cast piece, especially not something as weak as brass (or whatever material this stuff is).

I called Jegs and they dropped a replacement pump in the mail while I take care of returning this first unit back to them. First rate company to do business with for sure!

Yes, definitely agree about purchasing from a reputable vendor/distributor to handle issues like this. FiTech quality ... I'm hoping the internal pump is of a higher quality than their binding posts and that these posts are serviceable items! I'd hate to have a post break apart due to fatigue a year from now and have no recourse but to buy some other manufacturer's equivalent (because I ain't going back to FiTech if this fails!).
 
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It's crazy to think any manufacturer would make cast binding posts, just sounds like a failure waiting to happen.
 
Del. It’s not crazy. They all build cheap. Then sell for crazy money. Manufactures forgot about the end user just to maximize. Profit. Mistake. Just like cam said. He won’t go back to them if it fails. And rightfully so. People will pay for quality. They just need to know that it is quality.
 
I had some free time to knock another item off my to-do list; the installation of an oil catch can for my PCV system. Apparently these LS motors are a bit dirty in this regard and it's common to install one of these. I didn't think it was much of an issue until I pulled my intake for unrelated work and noted a good amount of oil pooled around my throttle body.

There's a separate thread I followed where this topic was discussed; https://www.gt40s.com/threads/how-to-vent-ls3.52698/

I purchased the Elite Engineering catch can recommended in that thread. It's a bit pricey but looks good and I'm sure will function well. Actually, I'm surprised at how well the unit is priced given the manufacturing used to make this; billet aluminum, lots of features/processing, anodized, etc - it's a really high quality piece.

Some photos:

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It appears the filtering media is stainless shavings:

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Underside:

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And installed:

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Unfortunately the included adapter can't be used for our setup so you'll have to come up with your own mounting method. I hung mine off the rear chassis brace, close to the throttle body.

I opted to only install 1 can on the "dirty" side, read the thread above or my blog below for a more detailed discussion:

65. Catch me if you can
 
That's a perfect spot for it and easy access. Will look forward to seeing what all it catches over the coming weeks.
 

Ken Roberts

Supporter
The valve covers should be connected together and joined to the intake tube between the MAF and T-Body. The top of the catch can gets connected at the back of the manifold to the tube coming from the valley cover (as shown in post #3 of the link you mentioned).
 
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