Nissan 370Z Forum - View Single Post

TBatt · 06-26-2017, 12:02 PM

The CJM fuel pump goodies were installed this weekend. I would like to say that everything worked out good but it is nearly impossible to enjoy working on the Z's fuel pump. It will fight you all the way!

All of the CJM goodies are truly top notch! No, I'm not plugging CJM because of any discounts or any affiliation with Charles, I'm just a very satisfied customer that appreciates quality.

Here are few things that may help you out if you do the top hat upgrade. First and foremost, DO IT! When I removed my fuel pump I saw that one of the metal rod mounts was fatigued. Plastic will turn white when it has flexed and that is what I saw on one of the rods. When I tried to remove the rod by heating the plastic it just broke off. It was a problem waiting to happen.

Tools needed:
Flat blade screwdriver
14mm wrench for seat removal (not required but makes the job easier).
10mm socket for access panel removal
8mm and/or philips head screwdriver for pump removal
Old towels to protect the interior and sop up the fuel that WILL SPILL.

You must not have a full tank of gas before you remove the fuel pump. I had filled the car up the week before and had planned on driving out at least half a tank before getting started but Cindy showed up, Cindy the tropical storm that made it rain buckets all last week. I drove my truck instead and the Z so I had almost a full tank.

I disconnected the fuel line from the pump and placed a rubber hose on the fuel outlet and ran the hose to my gas can. I then hooked up a 12 volt battery directly to the fuel pump connector and pumped out about five gallons. The CJM instructions shows which pins to connect to so it was easy to hook up with some clip leads. I used one of my batteries from one of my RC planes.

Make sure you have lots of ventilation! I had both garage doors open and my shop fan running as well as having both car doors open and the hatch. You can see one of my big monster RC planes. 12ft wingspan and weighs 43 pounds wet.

The instructions that CJM provides are very good with a couple of exceptions which I will get to later. Read the instructions fully. Mark out the sections that you don't need (the instructions cover a bunch of fuel system options). Now go back and read them again. Nothing hard here but you only want to do this one time!

I used the top hat kit and the fuel pump installation kit that comes with a foam insert to keep the pump in place as well as PTFE OEM type hoses. This is way better than what Stillen has you do and just have the fuel pump dangeling inside the housing. With the foam around the fuel pump you get a nice firm fit. I used a little WD40 to lubricate the foam to help it slide in place.

Wiring the fuel pump is pretty straight forward but I would like to see a table that the installer could use to keep the wire colors/function and new connector pin out organized. What I did was to write out to the side of the connector picture the color of the wire and then the terminal on the new connector and then the body wiring color. You don't want to get things crossed up so take pictures and keep good notes.

One other small issue with the wiring. The crimp terminals supplied are for a very heavy gauge wire and are difficult to manage with the stock sensor wires. Usually I double up the wires to increase the diameter but the wires were still too small. I did not have a wire crimper for these terminals so I was using a combination of needle nose pliers and common wire crimper tool. I found that by trimming the ears of the terminal to remove the excess material the metal would fold over with out a lot of excess material. If you have too much metal sticking out the terminal will not seat in the connector. Luckily plenty of extra terminals were supplied in the kit so I could do some experimentation. After removing some of the terminal ears the crimp process was MUCH easier. I did go ahead and solder all of the connections as a backup.

The other thing that I found that could be improved with the instructions is pointing out for dummies like me the proper orientation of the new top hat. I initially installed the top hat backwards and when I went to put the pump back in the tank I saw the problem. The instruction show the correct way it should go on but if you are caught up with getting everything back together you can miss that very important part. The CJM logo will be on the opposite side of the fuel level sensor and facing the front of the car when installed. Look at my pictures and you will see that completed pump on my table is WRONG. Don't do it this way! It was simple to rotate it around and the only thing I had to do was to loosen the outlet fuel tubing clamp on the top hat and then rotate the whole assembly (undoing the rod mounts of course).

Speaking of fuel tubing, like I said already, the kit comes with PTFE (the generic name for teflon) and was easy to install. You must heat the tubing so that it will expand over the fitting barbs. I used a hot air gun that I use for my RC models. It gets hotter than a hair drier so I had to be careful. I heated up the end of the tubing a little and then tried to push it on the barb fitting. It wouldn't go so I added more heat. I kept repeating this until the tubing would slide on the fitting with a moderate amount of force. Don't heat it up too much or you will ruin the PTFE. Just experiment like I did until you get the tubing just right. Your heat application will vary with your heat source so you will have to use some trial and error. Just keep the error portion to a minimum. One other issue you will have is with the fuel clamps getting in the way. They will only open up so far so you can't easily leave them on and still get the tubing over the barbed fitting. Some of the fittings are easier than others so be patient and don't force the tubing as you could break the fuel pump. Keep in mind that fuel pump parts are not sold separately and if you screw up something a new pump assembly is around $500, ouch!

Several of us have seen the top hat fail or starting to have failure issues. Once your Z is packed with extra power and handling capabilities, this will cause more stress on the stock fuel pump top hat. The flimsy plastic is fine for most Z owners but for us boosted freaks, we will overstress this part. The pump is not secured at the bottom so it can and will move inside the tank. This is what causes the plastic top to fail.

Reps welcome and appreciated!