I was curious if anyone has done an install with the walbro 450 into the 1998 Camaro fuel tank. Im wondering what all I need to do to the fuel pump buckets to make it work. All I have found is fuel pump install for the 99 but nothing for the 98s.

 

interested myself! I'm about to try it out soon myself.

 

You will have to consider modifying the yellow bulkhead connector on the hat of the 98 fuel pump assembly. The tiny terminals on the plug can only handle 14 amps max. Compare that to the new and improved bulkhead connector for the 99-2002 fuel pump assembly with two of its four terminals in the connector that can each handle up to 28 amps (dual 450's if needed).

Some in this forum have run a larger gauge wire thru the metal hat on the 98 fuel assembly directly to the positive terminal on the pump. Same for the ground. The two remaining terminals on the yellow plug are for the purple fuel sender wires. They are not polar specific. You do have to modify the intermediate harness that connects to the stock yellow bulkhead connector.

There isn't a lot of room on the metal hat to drill another hole + it has to be sealed adequately after running the wire thru it. The grounding wire can be grounded on the inside to a ground post drilled thru the hat at well.

See pic below. The ground wire is attached to any one of the bolts that hold the hat in place on the tank. The yellow plug in pic is a plug only. A short intermediate harness connects to the yellow plug and then connects to the Racetronix harness that is supplied with Racetronix dual 510 LPH fuel pump kit the 98. The intank harness to each pump is modified to use two of the four terminals on the yellow plug. One terminal for each pump. Since the 255 pump's max draw is 14 amps the two terminals are adequate for 255 pumps. The ground wires from each pump run to a drilled hole in the hat. It's the grounding post. The remaining two terminals connect the purple sender wires.




BTW, there is no bucket on the 98 fuel pump assembly. I did have to modify the hinged bracket on the 98 fuel assembly because I could not get the filters on the two 255 pumps to hang freely on each pump and not interfere the rubber bumper on the bottom of the hinged bracket.

FWIW: It wouldn't take but a day for a CNC programmer to design a bracket to hold one or two pumps on the bottom 98 hinged hanger. The custom bracket could be machined from Delrin or some other material compatible with gas or e85 and would simply bolt onto the hinged hanger. I had to customize the stock plastic bracket on the hinged hanger to work with the mounting plate Racetonix supplies with the dual 510 LPH kit for a 98. See pics below.





Lastly: Another issue on the 98 fuel assembly hat is the 5/16 inch pinched end of the return line that runs into the tank. Is it or will it be a restriction when running a 450 lph pump during daily driving when over 90 percent of the fuel is returned back into the tank due to little fuel usage? I cut the pinched 5/16 inch end off. The line into the tank is 3/8 inch (6an) after cutting off the end. I also ran the return line on the fuel tank side nearly to the bottom of the tank same as the stock line rather than simply let it spray into the tank with a shorter hose connected to the return line inside the tank. I just assumed there is a reason why the stock line runs to the bottom, so I did the same.

 

so, is that bulkhead terminal on the 98 hat needed running the 450/525 walbros by themselves or is that just so you can upgrade to a dual pump setup?

 

The bulkhead connector on the 98 fuel pump assembly hat is the plug used to get power into the tank in order to get power to the pump or pumps and to the fuel sender. If stock with a stock pump two terminals on the plug are for the single pump. One is ground, the other is hot. The remaining two terminal connect to two purple wires on the fuel sender on the fuel side. The purple wires are not polar specific.

Because the terminals are so small they don't support more than 14 amps. Larger pumps that require more than 14 amps require larger terminals (it's kind of like comparing 16 gauge wire to 10 gauge wire). There are pics on this forum showing a melted yellow terminal.

Racetronix explains on their website the upgraded 99-2002 bulkhead terminal that is 150/280 instead of the stock 150/150. The two 280 terminals on the connector can each handle up to 28 amps (they are twice as large as the 150 terminals). Unfortunately, the upgraded 99-2002 bulkhead connector won't plug into the smaller hole on the 98 fuel pump assembly.

So is there a workaround?. Yes and No. It depends on the size and amp draw of the pump or pumps. And obviously the wire harness running to the alternator and the relay size.

For example, if you have two dual pumps that each require 14 amps or less, then Racetronix sells a harness and modular yellow 98 bulkhead connector. Each of the two terminals of a total of 4 power a single pump. This still leaves two of the four terminals for the fuel sender. Each ground from each pump is connected to a grounding post on the fuel side by way of a single grounding post drilled thru the hat.

So two 255 pumps will work for 510lph dual pumps. Two 340's are borderline. Not sure about two 450's or larger. According to Racetronix, their 510lph dual pump kit with the correct harness and relays will support up to 1000 rwhp (gas only). This system uses the modular yellow 98 plug. The only difference between it and the stock yellow plug is that it is a plug in whereas the stock plug is bonded to a wire harness. See pic below.




Or some bypass the yellow plug and instead drill another hole in the hat and run power to each pump making sure of course to properly seal the plug so gas fumes don't vent to atmosphere thru the plug.

Or toss the 98 assembly and replace with a custom assembly.

Be aware that the fuel tubes on the 98 fuel assembly hat are 6an feed and 5/16 return I would imagine there is a bottleneck if running 10an feed and 8an return when running big pumps necessary for big hp (1000 + with E85).
.

 

ah ok, so I would be better off wiring the 450 directly thru the hat and eliminate the bulkhead connector. which would be easy enough. so im assuming the hotwire is only good for one pump at a time? so an additional harness and pump comes with the dual kits right?

I'm starting to feel I need to just go ahead and order the dual 340 kit, and just stick in a couple 450s in place of the 340s, for ease of installation.
I already have a dedicated return system and BRFPR up front, so I can control and regulate a 450 or duals. juat trying to see if i can just tie in another pumo to the already installed racetronic pump and hotwire i already have.
so is this the one im looking for? and can 450s run on this when im ready for more pump?

 

You will have to contact either Racetronix or W6 store about the specifics on how they regulate power to the dual 340's and if they still use the yellow bulkhead connector. Perhaps they use a different method than my system which uses the yellow bulkhead connector. My kit is about three years old. It included a modular yellow bulkhead connector. See pic in post #3.

You will have to ask the power requirements for two 340''s and/or two 450's.

Racetronix spec'd my kit for my 98. It actually has two harness's and relays. One for each pump. So instead of one wire running to the alternator, there are two. There are two relays, two fuses. The intermediate harness connects the two pumps to the two harness's.

There is a plus with the Racetronix harness and where each terminate. See pic of two fuses. Each fuse complete the circuit. The kit includes a Hobbs switch to control the second pump. The kit includes a Hobbs harness that connects to either the blue or red connector terminating plug. Red is primary and blue is secondary. So in a matter of seconds, you can switch the primary pump to secondary, and the secondary pump to primary simply by changing the Hobb's switch harness to one terminating plug or the other. The Hobbs switch controls when the secondary pump fires typically based on boost. You can even controls hours of usage per pump if you switch the pumps periodically.

You didn't mention your rwhp goal or fuel type (gas or E85). Why do you think you need two 450's. Dual 450's output is nearly twice the lph of the 510 lph kit that supports up to 1000 rwhp on gas. Two 450's pump 238 gallons in an hour. That's about 14 tankfuls.

Be aware that one 450 recycles the fbody fuel tank about 6 to seven times in an hour during normal cruise assuming if it is full when you start..

 

I had to do some serious modification to the 98 fuel pump assembly to mount the dual pumps. The 98 fuel assembly is entirely different than the 99-2002 fuel pump assembly. I attempted to mount both pumps at the same level as the stock pump. The bottom part of the hanger interferes with the filters as well so I had to trim the assembly. Connecting the fuel lines from the pump to the feed and return fuel tubes is also an issue to address as you can see in a pic in an earlier post in this thread.

 

I'm prepping my fuel system to eventually support a 6.0L with a s480 turbo with 15lbs of boost and a turbo cam. im shooting for about 900 on 93 pump and meth injection, with plenty of room to grow when i can afford a stroker build.

 

Since you have a 98 and if it were me I would opt for a custom fuel tank assembly or check with Lonnie's and get his opinion with respect to your goals since your goal is 900 rwhp or more. Since you have to send your assembly to him for modification I am sure he accounts for the deficient 98 bulkhead connector. Perhaps he has a better system for the 98 than the Racetronix version.

Simply put, I don't like the way I had to hack the hanger to get the two pumps to mount on the hanger in addition to the fact that the yellow bulkhead connector is limited to smaller pumps. Don't get it right and the filters interfere with metal baffle in the tank on the 98.

BTW - plan on routing your hose differently than the stock route on the 98. The bend radius for -8 an or -10 an PTFE hose is significant. Doubt you can make a 90 degree bend like stock to attach the -8an or -10 fuel hose to the fuel pump assembly. Or if you can, then the stress due to the 90 degree bend will stress the feed tube on the assembly. When you get your hose, it will make sense. See pic in previous post.

 

Well for now, im holding off on 450s, and went with the 340 kit from racetronic. it wasn't too bad, other than some work on the hat,, and i only say this cause I was expecting how the original hotwire kit had a step by step instructions, this one did not. I think this will allow me to grow when im ready for more now that the harness is complete front to back now.

The grounding lug needs to be placed appropriately for sure. maybe measurements would be nice to know. i woukd say right near that crease to make sure its away from the two terminals.


it does look god though lol

that hose is a pain, aint gonna lie.

pretty striaght forward here

so this is what i warn of running a 450 pump on the old 98 fbody hotwire. i might have burnt out the relay and this pin shorted somehow on my old hotwire. i will say that if youre gonna do a hot wire, just do the intermediate harness if it doesnt already come with it. it just makes this so much more cleaner and takes the fuel system nearly completely off the old harness.

 

PM sent..