High travel, high clearance & high octane, a streetable adventure LJ story

taylormade73 said:
No. The tray is raised a bit.
Click to expand...

Quite a bit of clearance actually... I should have thought about this earlier... play dough to the rescue.

I cut a notch out - 3/8 tall, 2 1/2 inches long and 7/8 deep and the woofer sits flat. I'll add some gasketing foam around the woofer to seal it up so that will add just a touch of clearance as well.

IMG_5603.jpg


I've also looked at the ILX-w650 for another vehicle... impressive unit. I'm trying to stick to a more factory look with a single din unit, otherwise it would be my first choice.
 
that's no dam good. they gonna waste time looking for something they haven't scanned in days? or proceed as a loss?

IIRC it's the shipper's problem, as you never entered the chain of custody.
get on the horn with them and they can start the loss paperwork. and hopefully send your replacement unit out sooner than later. those things can take 2wks or more to iron out.
 
someguysjeep said:
that's no dam good. they gonna waste time looking for something they haven't scanned in days? or proceed as a loss?

IIRC it's the shipper's problem, as you never entered the chain of custody.
get on the horn with them and they can start the loss paperwork. and hopefully send your replacement unit out sooner than later. those things can take 2wks or more to iron out.
Click to expand...

I called Genright and they supposedly talked to their FedEx rep who said they aren't able to accept any more claims currently. I have a feeling they made that up but I suppose it's possible since I have had 6 other packages get lost or delayed in the last few weeks (I've never seen such a high number). They still think it could be delivered today but I have extreme doubts. I pushed and GR isn't willing to help until the end of the week. Seeing that it took them a week to ship this one after I placed my order and it normally takes a week for it to travel, I wouldn't be surprised at this point if I don't see the fuel cell until after Christmas. Seeing that KOH is right around the corner and I don't have my coilovers even sent to the tuner yet (waiting on the exhaust which is waiting on the fuel cell) I wouldn't be surprised at all if Im not able to break in gears until March or April. Which sucks. That said if I can get the fuel cell in this week I have a shot at breaking in gears much much sooner.
 
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i feel your frustration. all i can do is stockpile crap and wait for spring, be lucky to be rollin by june.

this is a shit time of year for shipping, all carriers are overloaded right now and theft is rampant (with all the xmas goodies).

sounds like GR is stallin, they really cant do squat until 24 or 48 hrs after the designated delivery time, and are praying it pops up and don't have to make the claim.

i hate it for yah, hope it shows.
 
I converted the rear coilovers to DSCs to gain an even better ride out of them. I needed 2 of each of the following:

  • DSC Reservoir Assembly: FOX-810-03-002-KIT
  • 3/4-16 ORB X -10 fitting: FOX-020-50-089

For looks, I'd have liked to placed the coilover side fitting to the inboard side with a tighter 90* fitting (FOX-020-50-058) but the fender covers I previously made didn't allow enough room. I don't feel like redoing the covers at this point but in the future I may make that change along with a few other changes to the rear.

20191209_fox-dsc-conversion.jpg
 
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I reused my Savvy rockers. I had previously cut them to fit with MetalCloak fenders so the cut in the front isn't perfect for the Genright fenders. Rather than buy new, next summer when I have more space and can paint outside I'm thinking I'll weld onto the steel rail to cover the front area.

Rear cut:

20191208_cut-rocker-rear.jpg


Front cut:

20191208_cut-rocker-front.jpg


Installed with fender flare:

20191213_savvy-rocker.jpg
 
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I gave Fedex another call to check on my fuel cell and it is finally in town! They couldn't deliver it due to snow so I picked it up after work. To recap this is the Genright BST-4000.

20191212_fuel-cell-arrived.jpg


I finally have answers to all my questions!

1) I'm going to have to adjust or remove the "patent pending special labyrinth sump" on the bottom of the tank to clear the TJ sending unit float:

20191213_sump.jpg


2) There are baffle walls on each side. They are 15" apart. Thankfully that gives plenty of room for the pump.

20191213_baffle-wall.jpg


3) The OD diameter of the filler is 2-1/4". The cap is a bayonet style.

20191213_filler-diameter.jpg


4) Oddly the fuel cell isn't the same size as Genright lists... it's only 13" tall not 14" which means that it's 21.6 gallons not 23 gallons.

20191213_height.jpg
 
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sweet you got it. that's nice lookin.


is your pump loose, and you know the sump box is gonna need trimmed or speculation?

i wonder if the arm could be shortened and the float adjusted. your not concerned about knowing when it's full. you just need 1/2 tank and lower to be accurate.
 
Yesterday Mrs Tox and I loaded up the fuel cell in her TJ and drove 4 hours through a 4am blizzard to Superior WI to get it modified. I wish I could recommend the welding shop but I had an awful first experience there. Upon arriving the guy who I had been talking to and who scheduled me for 8am did not show. The rest of the staff seemed grumpy that I'd expect it to be done same day and wanted me to just drop it off (my contact understood that I needed the work done same day to avoid 2 long trips). They refused to start until the guy I talked to came in (turns out he was the president of the company) but they were unable to get in contact with him. I went over all of the work to be done again with the shop foreman, grabbed drinks with Mrs Tox from the nearest gas station, and waited out in the cold parking lot hoping the president would show. Finally an hour later my contact, for the sake of privacy we'll call him Darrin (because that is actually his name), shows up and stumbles into the parking lot. He is clearly hung over from drinking the night before. The bright morning sun reflected off the fresh snow was doing him no favors. He explained that the guys on the floor don't know what they're talking about and would get to it today starting in about 30 minutes but they might not be able to finish today. I told him to give me a call around 2 to let me know the status. I felt comfortable that the guys actually doing the work would be able to handle my fuel cell project so we left Darrin to go do some other errands which we were now getting a late start on (shout out to Discount Tire for fitting the khaki TJ in for a tire balance and rotation and Duluth Trading in Duluth). Darrin called me back 3 hours into the errands to let me know that they were done. I asked Darrin a few questions about the work but he said he didn't know and to ask the other guys once I got there. There were still a few stops remaining but I wanted to take a look at the work while there'd still be time to fix mistakes. 30 minutes and a long bridge crossing Lake Superior later I arrived back at the shop. I managed to find someone down a dark hall way too preoccupied on his computer to help me and guess who it was? Darrin! He told me to go onto the shop floor to find my fuel cell. I went out and the guys in the shop were kind and went through the changes made with me. I loaded everything up and asked who to pay and had to go on a hunt to find Darrin again who was still on his computer and hardly seemed to care if I paid at all. There's no way this guy started a business; I'm pretty sure he inherited daddy's business ...It's been difficult to find a decent shop that doesn't charge $200/hour and can't get to work for 2 months...

I'm happy with the result:

20191217_fuel-cell-modified.jpg
 
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someguysjeep said:
i wonder if the arm could be shortened and the float adjusted. your not concerned about knowing when it's full. you just need 1/2 tank and lower to be accurate.
Click to expand...

That would work however sometimes a trail only uses a 1/4 tank of gas so it can be useful to know if it's worth filling up before the next if it's at 1/2 or if I can wait it out especially when the pumps are full. It's a minor concern but I also don't see much benefit to that sump with the TJ pumps since they kind of have their own one way valve sump built in?
 
Here's the features of my new and improved fuel cell:

  • The pump plate has been lowered by approximately 1-3/4". This allows the pump to touch the bottom of the tank.
  • 6x Blind 1/4"-20 threaded bosses (https://fueltankparts.com/collectio...ss-with-shoulder-small?variant=30206823530545) have been added to the sides of the pump to allow a "bash plate" to be placed over top of the pump in case somebody throws something heavy on top of the tank.
  • 1x Blind 1/4"-20 threaded boss has been added near the fuel line so that the line can be clamped to prevent movement. In the event of a collision that could severely distort the body of the Jeep this will prevent the fuel line from pulling and breaking off the fragile plastic pump. Hopefully that will never happen, but it is a safety measure that was easy to implement.
  • 2x -8 AN ORB bungs (Aeroquip FCM2404) were added to allow for any possible future changes such as a fuel return or large breather for fast filling via dump can. The bung allows for more options compared to an AN fitting. I have no plans to use them but it was relatively cheap to do them now than later. For now they will be plugged.
  • I also rolled 4 retention straps to secure the tank. This was a last minute addition and I only had 1/16" aluminum strap on hand. If I had time to redo I would make them with stainless steel. The shop welded the ends closed. I'll go into more detail on these later.

I mocked up a few pictures to show how it'll go together.

The pump is off center to allow for the sending unit float to clear the baffle walls. The pump can be clocked in any direction with the float arm directed to that side and the float will clear.

The sump labyrinth box on the bottom of the tank has been removed. It was in the way of the pump when mounting the pump off center. I don't have any concerns not having it with the TJ pump and know of other Jeeps running on extreme trails with out such a sump or even baffle walls. I'm not an expert on the matter so correct me if I'm wrong.

20191217_fuel-cell-layout.jpg


One mistake is that the plate was placed 1/4" too high for the pump to rest on the bottom. I can only assume they measured from the bottom of the tank and didn't take into account material thickness. So that the pump will suck off the bottom and not loose that half gallon I need to extend the pump slightly (I talked about gaining 1" before, it'll be easy and doable on replacement pumps if ever doing a trail replacement).

20191217_fuel-cell-notch.jpg
 
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i assume that's the GR pump ring?
does the actual ring portion thread all the way to the bottom of the threads?

could you possibly have a thread or 2 milled off that, could that net your 1/4"?.

and also since the sump box is removed (i know they're not cheap) but a Holley mat could help trap fuel at a low level, if that's a concern.
 
someguysjeep said:
i assume that's the GR pump ring?
Click to expand...

It is. For an 05-06 TJ pump (which also fits JK pumps).

someguysjeep said:
does the actual ring portion thread all the way to the bottom of the threads?

could you possibly have a thread or 2 milled off that, could that net your 1/4"?.
Click to expand...

This is a good idea. I'm catching up on work today but I'll look at that once I have a minute. If the ring bottoms out, rather than also mill the ring, I could put a spacer on between the pump and ring.

someguysjeep said:
and also since the sump box is removed (i know they're not cheap) but a Holley mat could help trap fuel at a low level, if that's a concern.
Click to expand...

Do you have a link to that? Any idea how it'd adapt to the TJ pump assembly? It's not a concern right now, but it is something I will be paying attention to and I'll be doing a couple of tests this week to see how the pump works as-is with a low fuel level. I don't have anything to compare to, but I'd like to see the last 1/4 gallon get sucked up.
 
if that dam welder weren't so far out, you could also take the threaded portion of the ring and weld it directly to the cell. sorry it didn't dawn on me earlier.

again the Holley HydraMat is not cheap but they are designed as a mat style p/u. i'm not aware of what it may take to connect to a TJ pump, this would require some more research.

https://www.summitracing.com/search...ups/product-line/holley-hydramat-fuel-pickups
 
someguysjeep said:
if that dam welder weren't so far out, you could also take the threaded portion of the ring and weld it directly to the cell. sorry it didn't dawn on me earlier.
Click to expand...

No worries! Had you thought of it earlier it probably wouldn't have solved anything. I gave it to them with the fuel cell. If I had asked for it to be welded they would have just welded that too high. I actually opted to leave it bolt on just in case at some point I find a reason to switch back to the earlier model pump on my 04 engine I can use that version clamping ring from GR.
 
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Ha, great story about the shop that did the welding work. It's amazing that a place like that is still in business. If I had to guess, they won't be in business forever, since clearly that guy has no idea how to run a business.
 
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