Your message is a little confusing. You said you put a 90 degree bend in the pickup but you ment the return right? I was going to bend the return 90 then extend it to the other side of the tank. And I know the pickup needs to be on the bottom but I’m wondering how far off the bottom you put it. Did you retain the factory pickup foot? I was going to take the factory pickup foot and place the pickup tube 1/2 inch off the bottom.

 

Fuel generally does not gel in the tank or filters. It is usually in an exposed steel fuel line that stops the flow. Moisture in the fuel is the leading cause of a ‘gelled truck’.

Auxillary Heat is not necessary. These trucks are designed to start at -10*F and can operate in those conditions without issue.

 

Jason, it hits as low as -25 here in the winter so the heaters on the outside of pre/post pump filter will still be wired in. I’m going to put them on a toggle switch though so I can turn them on when I want which will only be on the coldest of mornings. And maybe I would be fine without them but it would give me some peace of mind that’s for sure. I have read a few guys posts about the post pump filter getting gelled up for guys that operate in really cold temps. Could have been bad fuel or moisture in the fuel but who knows. I do know that I would be more confident in my system if I could turn on the switch and heat the filters when it’s in the low negatives here though. But I agree with you that the heater in the engine valley bowl is probably useless. I mean it gets fairly hot in the valley anyways so I’m not sure it wouldn’t matter once your warmed up.

 

10-4

i do not know the operating parameter either but can look them up when I return home next month.
i doubt its function applies to everyone but just like the intake heater or the block heater its function was important enough to include it on normal production runs snd not a “cold weather” package. but sure, not everyone needs it.

on the mixing chamber. been since these trucks were new that I researched its function. so rather then speculate i need to freshen up on them but seems to me it was not related to cold wether but rather limiting air into fuel.

 

No, I just cut the return hose in the middle of 180* bend. No need to extend it. Air rises. It won’t be sucked horizontally into the intake.

You’ll see in pic below the mixing chamber has to been replaced with a compression union and a piece of tubing with a 90* bend at the bottom. This 90 sits directly on the bottom of the tank.

 

People tend to really over complicate the in-tank and pre-pump mods.

All we need to do is get rid of the failure prone umbrella (Number 1 reason I’ve done these mods) and relocate the pre-pump filter to a serviceable location.

There is a a lot of hoopla about sucking air in QD fittings and air in the fuel rails and being pushed through injectors. I just don’t find any merit to this based on my experience with LOTS of these trucks. I have done this mod exactly like pics above to literally several dozen trucks. You can SEE if there is air in the WIX 33972 or RACOR PS120. We never see air unless something isn’t put together right.

 

I don't intend this to be argumentative, but after the Hutch/Harpoon my truck runs noticeably much quieter with less "cackle" and loudness.

My screens and inside of tank were pretty clean @ only 92k miles on the truck. I extended the return line by 18" toward the rear of the tank, i removed the umbrella which broke during the pounding removal of the tight ring and extended the pickup tube to the bottom similar to Jason's picture. Then i shoved ULSD rated hose over where the quick disconnect was on the tank and double clamped it, then ran to the Racor120, then to the pump, using none of the quick disconnects and double clamping at each connection.

Whether it was air from the mixing chamber, pickup tube/umbrella from the overhead return line, or the quick disconnects i don't know, or really even care at this point. But somewhere there was obviously a change since that was the only work i did that day.

The FRx also helped quieten down the motor, not to the same extent, but very noticeable. Probably by 65% of the H&H but i also gained the future control of fuel pressure with that mod, and about 4 months later i bumped pressure up from stock when i changed springs.
That was mostly done because after a few months of watching my post filter fuel pressure gauge dip on grades towing heavy with a new bowl fuel filter I'd see 50psi, and departing the next day for a 6k mile cross country trip towing the 5th wheel i didn't want to see 45psi or lower after the filter might get more restricted during that trip.

But that's just my $.02 on my experiences

 

no argument here, if you are happy with it and it works for you then right on.

however your solution wouldn't convince me to do it for the simple fact you did 3 separate mods and dont know which one was the fix that made it run quite.

my guess would be if it was running noisy due to air in the system the most likely culprit for that would be the quick disconnect was the source of the cause as they do tend to develop leaks over time.

extending the pick up to the bottom of the tank is great if you want to get every last drop out of it but for me that also means any water in the fuel is going to be sucked out of the tank first. even without mine extended to the very bottom i worry about water but I also travel into Baja Mexico extensively and aside from the gas stations and their fuel infrastructure not being on par with the usa systems it is common to buy fuel out of drums from ranches or road side vendors in remote villages. i just don't want to risk water or crud getting picked up. same reason ford and others dont put the pickup on the very bottom.
but again, if you want yours that way, no argument from me.

edit, thinking about it, i might even raise my pickup some. fortunately in the usa diesel is cleaner and more refined then when these trucks were built. the ultra low sulphur requires more refining which makes the finished product much cleaner. If I ran Jet A fuel all the time i would be willing to suck it right off the bottom, that is even more refined diesel and my truck loves the stuff, but I only get to run that occasionally when we have extra left over on a job.

 

I think on my pickup I’m going to cut it 1/2 an inch off the bottom. I don’t think I’m going to bend it right on the bottom.
Jason, on that picture did you put rubber line in the tank? I was going to use stainless for the return to extend it but if your using diesel rated fuel in tank and it works fine I may just use a small piece of that. Also it’s good to know that you don’t see air in the pre filter ever that’s good to know. Makes me confident in my voice of the 4 line feed instead of regulated return setup.
Pirate, how far off the bottom did you put your pickup?
Did either of you use 5/8 inch pickups or 1/2 inch? Did you stick with the 3/8?

 

YOU MUST PUT THE PICKUP ON THE VERY BOTTOM OF THE TANK!!!

First, if you got water or debris in your tank - how do you get it out?? It’s not like it’s just going to stay on the bottom 1/2” or even 3”.... The fuel gets mixed up driving and by the suction/return from the pump.

Second, if water did stay on the bottom - an ecosystem forms (algae, etc).

The reason the pickup is on the bottom of an in-vehicle fuel tank is so any water or debris is immediately removed and is dealt with by the filters. The probability of having issues from a pickup not on the bottom is much greater than problems from the way I do it.

I don’t add any fuel hose to inside the tank. I do not ‘extend’ the return line either. One could argue that on very low fuel conditions - my design ‘could’ allow any air that is returned to the tank to be sucked into pickup. MY EXPERIENCE says this is just a non-issue. This is quantified by observing the clear pre-pump filters I use.

I also call Chicken Little on the ‘leaking QD fittings. I’d love to know how many of these I’ve done (easily several dozen - no exaggeration) - but I can definitively say I have yet to see a leaky QD fitting (that was assembled correctly...).

‘THE’ reason H&H quiets many trucks down is we are eliminating the MIXING CHAMBER from the tank. This chamber recirculates any air removed by the very effective stock filter back into the suction/pickup!!!! So, if you didn’t cycle the key after opening filter, etc - the air removed by filter is sucked back into pump - over and over again. This absolutely causes ‘cackle’ and it can last a looooong time. Same thing happens when stock umbrella fails and the little duckbill things on the pickup assembly fall off - you are sucking some air every time you get near 1/4 tank.

My position is the in-tank mods are 100% necessary. I seldom see a truck with intact umbrella, etc or with filters that are not restrictive (restrictions create turbulence/air). I prefer the WIX 33972 filter because it closely replicates what we removed from tank. (It’s a 50mic filter) I only use RACOR PS120 for high HP applications because it’s only 240mic filter. While it has the ability to collect free water (WIX 33972 can’t really do that), it does allow larger debris to get to the fuel pump. There is no issue with QD fittings. In fact, they are quite nice and make dropping the tank much easier. I’ve seen quite a few people using regular hose clamps on rubber hose - these are waaaaaay more likely to suck air than a clean QD fitting.

It is human nature to defend the decisions you’ve made. My intent is not to attack your decision - but to give others making a decision something other than the common mantra to think about.

 

3/8” pickup can supply dual stock pumps and make 600hp.

Unless you are running a pump with bigger inlet/outlet - increasing the size of the pickup tube is moot.

 

how to get water out of the tank, ?

i will have to go dig through my old pics and see if i can find a funny pic for you. it was in mexico in the middle of the desert dropping the tank to drain it. a old as father time looking cowboy dude rode to a nearby rancho on a little burro to get us some clean fuel. anyhow pic is me laying in the dirt under my truck with cowboy guy bringing me a jug of fuel on his burro. its classic.

as for my pickup, mine is stock, just saying if i were to change it it would be to make it up off the bottom not closer to it.

as for mixing chambers, hmmm gonna have to defer to you on that. just saying back in the day when these were new and everybody was guessing what it did and what to do with it i looked into it and decided i was leaving mine alone ( other than cleaning it if needed ) haven't thought about it since.

if yours recirculates air bubbles then do what you think is best. I like to think mine does what ever the engineers intended it to do better then what i could make since I am unclear on its need or function.

 

What are QD fittings, quick disconnect? I figured I would just use push lock fuel fittings.

 

I would recommend adding a fuel tank drain if you decide to stray from the standard OEM design of pickup directly on tank bottom.

If I understand correctly - the ‘function’ of the mixing chamber is to moderate the temperature of the incoming fuel while mitigating emissions from the fuel tank by not dumping ‘warm’ fuel back into the tank.

Engineering and design is always about compromise. The need to lower emissions was greater than the need for longevity for the designers.

With 100’s of 1000’s of cumulative miles on trucks I’ve modified like this - I am very, very confident this is a good design.

 

now you have me thinking about tank related mods,

i want a aircraft style valve to inspect fuel and drain if required. this would be a worthwhile mod.