I'm making the last big push to get this engine swap fired up now that I have all the fuel system components. I debated for months what I wanted to do here. Early on, I was going to just keep the stock tank and make it EFI compatible like a few others have done on the forum. Then my friend convinced me to move the tank to the rear, so I was looking into the Blazer tank swap. That seemed like a reasonably priced option, however, I did not like how absolutely massive that tank is. Having 32 gallons of fuel sloshing around back there sounded absurd, so I started looking into aftermarket tanks. I ultimately settled on a universal EFI tank from Tanks Inc., PN UT-N-2-T. This tank is 16 gallons and fits
almost perfectly behind the rear end. I just had to trim about 1/8" off each side of the lower part of the "C" of the frame rails. The tank itself is very nice and comes powdercoated already. The dent was my mistake trying to wrestle it between the rails before I realized I needed to trim them.
Mounting the tank was fairly simple using the supplied straps. The existing crossmembers in the frame served as the perfect mounting points for these. I also had to add braces for the top of the tank so the straps had something to tighten the tank up to. The straps only come with one end formed, so you do have to cut these to fit. One mistake I made was to fit them without the rubber pad that goes between the straps and tank. They are thin so I thought they wouldn't make much difference. Wrong. I could barely get the nuts started once I added them to the straps. More lessons learned.
Tanks Inc. also has all the components necessary to complete the fuel system so I made things simple on myself and got everything I needed from them. The fuel level sender is a 1-TAN-GML that is compatible with 90 ohm GM fuel gauges. All I have to do here is reroute my sender wire from in the cab to this sender and the fuel gauge should work. The setup instructions for setting the float were very clear and easy to follow.
Next up, the fuel pump which is PN 1- GPA-4. Again, the setup instructions were very good and I had the pump assembled in about 15 minutes. The GPA-4 is a 255 liters per hour pump which is suitable for up to 630 hp (not that I'll be anywhere near that!).
I had one oversight in setting up this tank, but I ended up getting lucky. One of the cross supports for the bed runs directly over top of the sender and pump, but with the bed adjustment spacers I need to add I have just enough room to clear. These spacers are there because I incorporated an extra 1/2" when raising my bed floor so I could dial in the bed alignment perfectly. On my last truck, I could not get the bed low enough to align the body line properly and it always annoyed me. If you are installing this tank on a truck with a stock bed, however, you will run into clearance issues. The easiest solution I can see is to drop the tank by an inch.
The tank is now fully mounted and installed. With the addition of a 90 degree filler neck I am ready to wire this tank up and start connecting fuel lines. I will update later with line installation and hopefully first startup!
