PI fuel system, again, and coolant clamps

Bit more progress over the week, which I have been able to finish off this weekend, the fuel swirl pot is now fitted.

At the same time, a bracket has been found for the large fuel filter, it turned out that a wiper motor bracket is just about the right size for my filter. So what we have is the low pressure Facet pump supplying fuel to the bottom of the swirl pot, fuel exiting the bottom of the pot to go to the filter and high pressure pump, a return from the pressure release valve (PRV) going to the top of the pot and a outlet from the very top of the pot to the fuel tank, through which air and excess fuel is bled out.

I've been out for a run since fitting all this up and it works fine, but the only issue I have had is the lack of pressure for the Facet pump to work against. The problem is that these solid state pumps get very noisy when they do not have a sufficient pressure to work against, so I have clamped in a piece brake pipe in the return to the fuel tank to restrict the flow. This has quietened it down a bit, but I don't want to restrict it so much that it won't be able to clear the air fast enough when it really needs to.

With this recent talk of cooling systems and leaks it reminded me that I had some misgivings about one or two or the hose connections and it had been my plan to change the hose clamps. So today a set of eight Mikalor clamps turned up in the post, should get them fitted tonight.

They should hopefully provide a better seal than the thinner jubilee clips and actually work out cheaper than stainless jubilee clips from Car Builder solutions, these were £1.17 each

I've been using Mikalor clamps on exhaust systems for a few years now, but they do seem to have got a lot cheaper and easier to find now, no need to spend over £5 each now.

I did think about the potential for warmer fuel from the PRV getting back to the pump before going to the tank, but seeing as it enters towards the top of the swirl pot, is warmer (so more likely to rise than sink to the bottom of the tank) and that the low pressure pump is at the same time pushing an excess of fuel up though the swirl pot outlet, it should push that warmer fuel back into the main tank. I guess I will have to wait until we get one of those hot days to see how it copes.