JRock636

Greetings! Been having a intermittent no start issue since I bought my vette last year. Some times it will fire up all day with no issue, other times, it just cranks and wont start or fires briefly then dies. I put it in storage this winter, and changed the battery to an Optima, and it was fine for a month or 2. No issues at all starting, now, its back.

I replaced the FOB battery thinking it may be something funky with that being that the vette is wired to high hell. I replaced the fuel pump relay, Ran some seafoam through the tank, and nothing seemed to really help. I finally checked the rail recently and discovered no fuel coming out of the schrader valve when its doing this. So I suspect my pump is on its way out. It came with the RaceTronix rewire kit installed already, so I will need to check that before making the final plunge to lose my hair pulling the tanks.

All that BS being said, Has anyone built a completely external pump setup? No not the stupid external boost a pump setup either. I mean a real in tank pump delete. Tapping the bottom of the tanks, running a Y with 2 AN lines, and using a Magna Fuel external pump or the likes to now fuel the car. This car has one of the worst fuel systems I've ever seen, so I'm looking for a way to make it easier, and maybe help some others in the same boat down the road.

Unreal

Have not seen that done successfully, as the fuel gauges will not work along with other issues. If it is a race car, it could be done, but for a street car, replacing a pump isn't that bad and definitely not worth the hassle of doing that.

JRock636

I've not had my car long enough to know how the electrical stuff works in these, but it seems like the fuel gauge issue could easily be dealt with. Even if you had to run a pair of fuel gauges. Maybe its me, but it seems like these tanks are NOT easy to take out and put back in, and the cross over tubes seem to cause a ton of issues if things are not "just so" when reassembled. Seems like if something were more trouble up front, but made life easier down the road, that would be worth the trouble. Maybe not?

Unreal

It isn't that bad. It isn't fun, but it is better than making custom gauge drivers, having the ECU/BCM freak out because of no gauge signals, etc. If you are going to do a custom setup, I would just put a fuel cell in the back and ditch the tanks all together. That would be easier than connecting the bottoms/etc.

JRock636

O debated the fuel cell as well. The issue with that is location location location haha. Room is limited, but may be able to utilize the rear cubby holes or something as well. I'd like to avoid hacking the trunk to bits if possible haha.

Unreal

Or just put in a fore/ecs/A&A system that has been proven to work wonderfully.

schpenxel

Yeah, no reason to re-invent the wheel here. Replace the stock pump, install one of those vendors kits and be done with it

Worst case getting the tank out you break a hose or something. Replace it, put it back together, lube it well and be happy that your fuel gauges work normally

I've built a simple little device that turns a fuel cell sender into the two outputs the computer wants but it's really not worth bothering unless you're going full retard (and then it probably doesn't even matter)

CI GS

Sounds weird that it's intermittent, but electronics are like that. But I would've thought that if a pump fails, it stays that way. Now a bad connection will give you these kind of problems. Could it be the ground on the RT harness? I would definitely check all of that before pulling the tanks out. Don't these cars have some sort of safety fuel pump shut-off, if the oil pressure drops, or it crashes? Could it be some sensor taking a ****?
In any event, if it is the pump failing, my recommendation would be along the lines of what Unreal said. I would drop the tanks, put a new GM Z06 pump in it and use that along with the RT harness for regular driving/cruising and, if you're FI or need the extra fuel, then do an ECS or similar external pump system for WOT boost. IMV, the good thing about having an external auxillary fuel pump is that, if it fails, you can easily troubleshoot it and then chuck it away and buy a new one.