My CJM Road Race Pump Experience, Tips, and Review

dP3NGU1N · 04-04-2016, 11:39 PM

Hey All,

This is going to be a TEXT HEAVY REVIEW! TL;DR version is that anyone who sees the track regularly needs to get this product, no exceptions. It is as essential as an oil cooler in my opinion.

Preface:

I was a part of production round 4 but was lucky enough to have a unit shipped early in time for the track. Phunk was kind enough to forgo anodizing my part so it showed up as raw aluminium. Fine by me, this is going in the gas tank anyway. The kits weren’t all complete so he said many pieces were pulled from previous production runs so, rest assured, no one’s unit was delayed strictly due to anodizing. As I understand it, there was still plenty of machine work to be done and Phunk works his *** off (as illustrated by 12AM PST text messages and he’s still at the shop; Phunk is from Chicago which is UTC and 2 hours ahead which means he was answering texts at the shop at 2AM)

IMG_2241.jpg

Now here’s something about Charles, he went the extra mile to get a unit to me early simply because I asked. He told me, “If you can’t enjoy the parts when you need them what’s the [point] in having them.” He was scrounging parts left and right to get me a complete kit. At the end of it he told me he was missing a single brass fitting. I told him to send me the part number and I’ll order it myself.

IMG_2243.jpg IMG_2242.jpg

Thursday evening he contacts me and tells me the kit is basically ready to ship but it’s 5 days to Cali. We looked up overnight shipping (parts from japan for the mad scientist, yo!) and it came out to $168. DO IT. Package went out Friday and arrived, safely, on Saturday (march 19).

IMG_2246.jpg

The Install:

After laying out all the parts I got to work. The instructions are well written and fairly straight forward though, as some have mentioned, seriously need page numbers. Charles has already mentioned that he’s rewriting the install guide with some of the suggestions others have brought up. The kit he put together had done away with the individual hoses that earlier models required and came with a loom that was already pre-plumbed. All I had to do was run it along the front of the fuel tank.

Modification of the factory fuel pump was simple enough, though nerve wracking. This was the point of no return since it required cutting some plastic bits that weren’t going back. A sigh of relief came when the modifications were finished and it looked similar to the illustration in the guide.

The hard part:

This is the part where you want to put on your most calming music, have a beer beforehand, and say goodbye to your family. You also want to let everyone know that if they come near you during this time they have a high probability of receiving bodily harm.

I had neglected to read the tips that other members on the forums had and thought I could simply reach into the tank with some hose pliers to pull the hoses through the tiny gap between the hole in the tank and the stock fuel pump assembly. Wishful thinking. I eventually looped some zip ties through each other to pull all the hoses out – twine would probably work better. Furthermore; the new loom that Charles made was constructed of nylon, which Charles said was a more reliable material. However, the stiffness of the nylon meant that it didn’t want to navigate tight corners and I was too afraid to force it into position. After a bit of begging and crying (real man) I was FINALLY able to negotiate the hoses into a position where they would fit over the brass fittings. HARD PART DONE! I thought I was home free at this point. Total time stuck on hard part 1.5 hours…. I wouldn’t wish this **** on my worst enemy.

Putting everything together on the surge canister was cake and I was able to do it within 15 minutes. Placing it into the tank took some doing since space is limited. Once the hoses were plugged in and the canister upright all that was left was wiring everything up to see if she would fire.

The wiring:

I should lead off by stating that wiring really isn’t my forte. I’m a deft hand with a soldering iron but only have basic working knowledge of relays and electric motors.

Wiring an electric motor up only needs a positive input and a path for electricity to run to ground. I was stumped for a short while trying to figure out where the negative terminal was supposed to go, I feel dumb for not figuring (remembering) that out initially, but I figure others could learn from that little tidbit.
In the instructions, Charles has the user draw a pin out for themselves. Due to the way the product is designed, there’s a right angle connection from the inside (in-tank) connector and the outside connector. I confused myself and reversed the connectors at this point. Once again, People more familiar with working with wiring harnesses likely aren’t going to have the same problem I’m having. So I had all the wiring done (or so I thought) and ran the power cable along the outside of the car for an initial test fire.

Clutch in, press the start button.

Crank, crank, crank….. Nothing.

Crank, crank, crank, crank, crank….. Nothing again.

At this point I was too tired to argue and went to bed.

NEXT DAY

I had plans during the day so I didn’t get back until around 6pm to start up again on this. Pulled the plugs out to try to figure out what a did wrong. Because I had the internal pins assembled correctly, my multi-meter was giving me good readings across the board which confused me even further. It wasn’t until I looked at the two corresponding harnesses together where I realized my mistake; that wasted a good couple of hours.

With all the connections in place, test fire commenced once again.

Crank, crank, VROOM. Car started up just fine. I turned the car off, disconnected the battery, and proceeded to begin wiring everything up properly. Found the best place to splice in was (if I remember correctly) the 80A wire feeding the driver side fuse box. Also, the nuts holding down the metal shield panels above the fuel tank are grounded sources so it’s easy to use a ring terminal to ground the auxiliary pump and the relay.

IMG_2244.jpg IMG_2245.jpg

With the wiring done, I fired the car up and drove it around the block, smelled gas, so drove it right back into the garage.

Charles had warned me about this. Some thread sealant on the screw posts on the surge tank closed everything up neatly and prevented fuel from sloshing out.

Problems:

With the tank sealed up and the car running I was pretty happy with myself. I had failed to notice that prior to installation I had two dots of fuel left on the gauge. With the installation complete the car didn’t show any. I chalked it up to evaporation or messing with the fuel sensor so I started filling the tank with my 5 gallon gas can. When I turned the car on again to get a fuel reading and nothing showed up I realized I had a problem.

Went back in, checked my wiring. Something wasn’t picking up. I couldn’t get a reading from my multi-meter so I went deeper in. Broke loose the thread sealant and opened the fuel tank up again. Disconnected the terminals and took the float sensor out. Turns out at a certain point it doesn’t pick up a reading and, the best I can figure, the sensor was running into interference somewhere. So I double checked the clearance and reinstalled everything. Turned the car on and I had a quarter tank magically appear.

Whew.

With everything back in place I drove to my local Costco and filled up. When I got in the car, what did I see? Half tank. Only once sensor was working.

FCUK!!

I didn’t feel like dealing with it so I went to Laguna Seca with half a read out on March 26.

The Review:

Now some might figure at this point, it’s hardly worth the bloody effort. Yes, I can partially agree with that. But when you’re on track and you can get it down to 4 gallons without any hint of fuel starve you realize what all the blood, sweat, and tears are for. Corkscrew was no problem, nor was the fast right hander two turns later. Car ran strong all day and I never had to go refuel. Five 20 minute sessions.

The fuel sender is quite loud but once all the insulating material is back in place you can’t really hear it except a slight whine at idle if you don’t have any music playing and/or aren’t talking to someone.

I only just got the fuel level sensor fixed last week. It was an obstruction on the driver’s side. Took everything apart, put it all together, and the car reads just fine. Hopefully it holds this time.

Total working time: 12-14 hours

Total estimated time if I did it now: 5-6 hours

Tips:

Do yourself a favor, number the pages. Don’t care if you do it by hand or figure out a way to do it digitally, do it.
Double check your pin out. Leave enough time to wire everything up and check it. I made the mistake of wiring everything up. Going to bed, then continuing the wiring process afterwards and that screwed me up immensely and was difficult to trouble shoot.
Splice power from driver side fuse box
External nuts on the fuel tank door are acceptable grounding points.
Use string to route hoses during “the hard part”
Use physical identifiers for the hoses. I found that permanent marker becomes less permanent when soaked with gasoline. I used different length zip ties.

Conclusion:

If anyone needs help installing these things in the LA/OC area, I’m basically a ******* expert at this point. I’ve ripped open the fuel tank so many times I’ve lost count. Anything that could have gone wrong, basically has with me so I know how to fix it. This thing is a NIGHTMARE the first time but will be easier the second, especially now that I have all the tools necessary. If you want to skip crying in a pool of gasoline and would like someone to put this together for you, reach out and we’ll set something up.

I will edit later with pictures that I think will add to the narrative. For now, I think this is enough to read.

Cheers!

Felix 808 · 04-05-2016, 12:03 AM

Hey thanks for sharing your findings & letting me know that Murphy doesn't just show up on my jobs

I might be hitting you up when I get mine.

Thanks again for sharing

Rusty · 04-05-2016, 09:14 AM

Welcome to the club.

I've been in your shoes and walked in them.

ban25 · 04-05-2016, 08:05 PM

Great review! Ironically, fuel cut at Laguna Seca is not bad...now, Buttonwillow CW13, ACS, and Big Willow, those are bad! I'm very eager to get this fuel pump into my car and put it to the test! Hopefully in May...

Elmo370z · 04-06-2016, 06:00 PM

Wish you lived closer to Florida

dP3NGU1N · 04-06-2016, 10:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Elmo370z

Wish you lived closer to Florida

I'm sure it's not that bad if literally-everything doesn't go wrong.

Elmo370z · 04-06-2016, 10:49 PM

Yeah, im sure ill be cussing up a storm

Zauskycop · 04-07-2016, 06:57 AM

Nice, and correct, write up. How many cuts on your arms and hands??

Tracy Ramsey

phunk · 04-08-2016, 10:15 PM

I appreciate you sharing your experience and the kindness. I was very happy to hear when the product was performing as expected after it all, as I have been in each scenario that I have received feedback.

Thank you! And thanks to everyone else who has purchased and endured the installation of this product! I hope that that everyone feels that advantages of having it inside the fuel tank rather than outside is worth the trouble after its all said and done.

dP3NGU1N · 04-09-2016, 01:09 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zauskycop

Nice, and correct, write up. How many cuts on your arms and hands??

Tracy Ramsey

I count three, including the one on my leg from.... I don't know where.

Mike · 04-09-2016, 05:01 PM

Quote:

But when you’re on track and you can get it down to 4 gallons without any hint of fuel starve

First time I used mine on track I took it all the way down to where I got fuel starve in a straight line. I limped to the gas pumps and put 20 gallons in, so it is able to pump all the way down to fumes. I have some indication errors at full and at bottom, but now I just fill up at 100 miles of track use, but my car is track only now.

Elmo370z · 09-22-2016, 02:14 AM

attempting my luck with this and the top hat with another member. wish me luck

Elmo370z · 09-22-2016, 11:39 PM

So everything went well, fell 2 crimp connectors short to connect the hardwire and the last connector. Thanks Charles for reaching out today during the install. He answered any questions me and my buddy had. Just waiting on the additional parts to come in to try and finish up the install and pray we did everything right.

Elmo370z · 09-30-2016, 01:37 AM

I used zip to mark the hoses accordingly. These goes to the passenger side.

Elmo370z · 09-30-2016, 01:48 AM

We scratched little markings if you can see to mark the driver's side

04-04-2016, 11:39 PM	#1 (permalink)
dP3NGU1N A True Z Fanatic Join Date: Feb 2011 Location: Irvine Posts: 1,682 Drives: 13 PW sport 6mt Rep Power: 18	My CJM Road Race Pump Experience, Tips, and Review Hey All, This is going to be a TEXT HEAVY REVIEW! TL;DR version is that anyone who sees the track regularly needs to get this product, no exceptions. It is as essential as an oil cooler in my opinion. Preface: I was a part of production round 4 but was lucky enough to have a unit shipped early in time for the track. Phunk was kind enough to forgo anodizing my part so it showed up as raw aluminium. Fine by me, this is going in the gas tank anyway. The kits weren’t all complete so he said many pieces were pulled from previous production runs so, rest assured, no one’s unit was delayed strictly due to anodizing. As I understand it, there was still plenty of machine work to be done and Phunk works his * off (as illustrated by 12AM PST text messages and he’s still at the shop; Phunk is from Chicago which is UTC and 2 hours ahead which means he was answering texts at the shop at 2AM) IMG_2241.jpg Now here’s something about Charles, he went the extra mile to get a unit to me early simply because I asked. He told me, “If you can’t enjoy the parts when you need them what’s the [point] in having them.” He was scrounging parts left and right to get me a complete kit. At the end of it he told me he was missing a single brass fitting. I told him to send me the part number and I’ll order it myself. IMG_2243.jpg IMG_2242.jpg Thursday evening he contacts me and tells me the kit is basically ready to ship but it’s 5 days to Cali. We looked up overnight shipping (parts from japan for the mad scientist, yo!) and it came out to $168. DO IT. Package went out Friday and arrived, safely, on Saturday (march 19). IMG_2246.jpg The Install: After laying out all the parts I got to work. The instructions are well written and fairly straight forward though, as some have mentioned, seriously need page numbers. Charles has already mentioned that he’s rewriting the install guide with some of the suggestions others have brought up. The kit he put together had done away with the individual hoses that earlier models required and came with a loom that was already pre-plumbed. All I had to do was run it along the front of the fuel tank. Modification of the factory fuel pump was simple enough, though nerve wracking. This was the point of no return since it required cutting some plastic bits that weren’t going back. A sigh of relief came when the modifications were finished and it looked similar to the illustration in the guide. The hard part: This is the part where you want to put on your most calming music, have a beer beforehand, and say goodbye to your family. You also want to let everyone know that if they come near you during this time they have a high probability of receiving bodily harm. I had neglected to read the tips that other members on the forums had and thought I could simply reach into the tank with some hose pliers to pull the hoses through the tiny gap between the hole in the tank and the stock fuel pump assembly. Wishful thinking. I eventually looped some zip ties through each other to pull all the hoses out – twine would probably work better. Furthermore; the new loom that Charles made was constructed of nylon, which Charles said was a more reliable material. However, the stiffness of the nylon meant that it didn’t want to navigate tight corners and I was too afraid to force it into position. After a bit of begging and crying (real man) I was FINALLY able to negotiate the hoses into a position where they would fit over the brass fittings. HARD PART DONE! I thought I was home free at this point. Total time stuck on hard part 1.5 hours…. I wouldn’t wish this on my worst enemy. Putting everything together on the surge canister was cake and I was able to do it within 15 minutes. Placing it into the tank took some doing since space is limited. Once the hoses were plugged in and the canister upright all that was left was wiring everything up to see if she would fire. The wiring: I should lead off by stating that wiring really isn’t my forte. I’m a deft hand with a soldering iron but only have basic working knowledge of relays and electric motors. Wiring an electric motor up only needs a positive input and a path for electricity to run to ground. I was stumped for a short while trying to figure out where the negative terminal was supposed to go, I feel dumb for not figuring (remembering) that out initially, but I figure others could learn from that little tidbit. In the instructions, Charles has the user draw a pin out for themselves. Due to the way the product is designed, there’s a right angle connection from the inside (in-tank) connector and the outside connector. I confused myself and reversed the connectors at this point. Once again, People more familiar with working with wiring harnesses likely aren’t going to have the same problem I’m having. So I had all the wiring done (or so I thought) and ran the power cable along the outside of the car for an initial test fire. Clutch in, press the start button. Crank, crank, crank….. Nothing. Crank, crank, crank, crank, crank….. Nothing again. At this point I was too tired to argue and went to bed. NEXT DAY I had plans during the day so I didn’t get back until around 6pm to start up again on this. Pulled the plugs out to try to figure out what a did wrong. Because I had the internal pins assembled correctly, my multi-meter was giving me good readings across the board which confused me even further. It wasn’t until I looked at the two corresponding harnesses together where I realized my mistake; that wasted a good couple of hours. With all the connections in place, test fire commenced once again. Crank, crank, VROOM. Car started up just fine. I turned the car off, disconnected the battery, and proceeded to begin wiring everything up properly. Found the best place to splice in was (if I remember correctly) the 80A wire feeding the driver side fuse box. Also, the nuts holding down the metal shield panels above the fuel tank are grounded sources so it’s easy to use a ring terminal to ground the auxiliary pump and the relay. IMG_2244.jpg IMG_2245.jpg With the wiring done, I fired the car up and drove it around the block, smelled gas, so drove it right back into the garage. Charles had warned me about this. Some thread sealant on the screw posts on the surge tank closed everything up neatly and prevented fuel from sloshing out. Problems: With the tank sealed up and the car running I was pretty happy with myself. I had failed to notice that prior to installation I had two dots of fuel left on the gauge. With the installation complete the car didn’t show any. I chalked it up to evaporation or messing with the fuel sensor so I started filling the tank with my 5 gallon gas can. When I turned the car on again to get a fuel reading and nothing showed up I realized I had a problem. Went back in, checked my wiring. Something wasn’t picking up. I couldn’t get a reading from my multi-meter so I went deeper in. Broke loose the thread sealant and opened the fuel tank up again. Disconnected the terminals and took the float sensor out. Turns out at a certain point it doesn’t pick up a reading and, the best I can figure, the sensor was running into interference somewhere. So I double checked the clearance and reinstalled everything. Turned the car on and I had a quarter tank magically appear. Whew. With everything back in place I drove to my local Costco and filled up. When I got in the car, what did I see? Half tank. Only once sensor was working. FCUK!! I didn’t feel like dealing with it so I went to Laguna Seca with half a read out on March 26. The Review: Now some might figure at this point, it’s hardly worth the bloody effort. Yes, I can partially agree with that. But when you’re on track and you can get it down to 4 gallons without any hint of fuel starve you realize what all the blood, sweat, and tears are for. Corkscrew was no problem, nor was the fast right hander two turns later. Car ran strong all day and I never had to go refuel. Five 20 minute sessions. The fuel sender is quite loud but once all the insulating material is back in place you can’t really hear it except a slight whine at idle if you don’t have any music playing and/or aren’t talking to someone. I only just got the fuel level sensor fixed last week. It was an obstruction on the driver’s side. Took everything apart, put it all together, and the car reads just fine. Hopefully it holds this time. Total working time: 12-14 hours Total estimated time if I did it now: 5-6 hours Tips: Do yourself a favor, number the pages. Don’t care if you do it by hand or figure out a way to do it digitally, do it. Double check your pin out. Leave enough time to wire everything up and check it. I made the mistake of wiring everything up. Going to bed, then continuing the wiring process afterwards and that screwed me up immensely and was difficult to trouble shoot. Splice power from driver side fuse box External nuts on the fuel tank door are acceptable grounding points. Use string to route hoses during “the hard part” Use physical identifiers for the hoses. I found that permanent marker becomes less permanent when soaked with gasoline. I used different length zip ties. Conclusion: If anyone needs help installing these things in the LA/OC area, I’m basically a ***** expert at this point. I’ve ripped open the fuel tank so many times I’ve lost count. Anything that could have gone wrong, basically has with me so I know how to fix it. This thing is a NIGHTMARE the first time but will be easier the second, especially now that I have all the tools necessary. If you want to skip crying in a pool of gasoline and would like someone to put this together for you, reach out and we’ll set something up. I will edit later with pictures that I think will add to the narrative. For now, I think this is enough to read. Cheers! phunk, Mike, ban25 and 13 others like this. __________________ 35% Hooper Optik \| Takeda Attack CAI \| F.I. HFC \| Hotchkis Sway Bar \| Stillen 24row \| OS Giken Super Lock LSD \| TK Shift Knob \| EVO-R Carbon Diffuser Last edited by dP3NGU1N; 04-09-2016 at 01:38 AM. Reason: Uploaded some pictures for color

04-05-2016, 12:03 AM	#2 (permalink)
Felix 808 A True Z Fanatic Join Date: Oct 2011 Location: Camarillo, CA Posts: 1,063 Drives: 2011 PW/Grey T/S 7AT Rep Power: 2807	Hey thanks for sharing your findings & letting me know that Murphy doesn't just show up on my jobs I might be hitting you up when I get mine. Thanks again for sharing __________________ Semper Fi Μολὼν λαβέ

04-05-2016, 09:14 AM	#3 (permalink)
Rusty Ronin Samurai - Assassin Join Date: Dec 2011 Location: Fayettenam,Pennsyltucky Age: 68 Posts: 35,172 Drives: 2011 Nismo GM 6M Rep Power: 2684437	Welcome to the club. I've been in your shoes and walked in them. __________________ 浪人 - 殺し屋 "The Difficult Anytime, The Impossible By Appointment Only" http://www.the370z.com/members-370z-...o-journal.html

04-05-2016, 08:05 PM	#4 (permalink)
ban25 Enthusiast Member Join Date: Nov 2009 Location: SF, CA Posts: 339 Drives: 17 C7 Z06 M7 Rep Power: 65	Great review! Ironically, fuel cut at Laguna Seca is not bad...now, Buttonwillow CW13, ACS, and Big Willow, those are bad! I'm very eager to get this fuel pump into my car and put it to the test! Hopefully in May... __________________ 2017 Corvette Z06 7MT \| 1LE \| Stage 3 \| DSCSport

04-06-2016, 10:49 PM	#7 (permalink)
Elmo370z A True Z Fanatic Join Date: Apr 2013 Location: st. petersburg Posts: 5,709 Drives: 09 nissan 370z Sp M6 Rep Power: 295378	Yeah, im sure ill be cussing up a storm dP3NGU1N likes this.

04-06-2016, 06:00 PM	#5 (permalink)
Elmo370z A True Z Fanatic Join Date: Apr 2013 Location: st. petersburg Posts: 5,709 Drives: 09 nissan 370z Sp M6 Rep Power: 295378	Wish you lived closer to Florida

04-07-2016, 06:57 AM	#8 (permalink)
Zauskycop Base Member Join Date: May 2011 Location: Hinckley IL Posts: 228 Drives: 2012 370Z, '16 Miata Rep Power: 14	Nice, and correct, write up. How many cuts on your arms and hands?? Tracy Ramsey

04-08-2016, 10:15 PM	#9 (permalink)
phunk A True Z Fanatic Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: Chicago Posts: 3,668 Drives: 370 Rep Power: 974723	I appreciate you sharing your experience and the kindness. I was very happy to hear when the product was performing as expected after it all, as I have been in each scenario that I have received feedback. Thank you! And thanks to everyone else who has purchased and endured the installation of this product! I hope that that everyone feels that advantages of having it inside the fuel tank rather than outside is worth the trouble after its all said and done. dP3NGU1N and Rusty like this. __________________ Charles @ CJ Motorsports : Website \| Facebook \| Instagram \| YouTube Home of the 9 second, stock longblock, stock drivetrain 6MT 370z. 9.91 @ 142mph

09-22-2016, 02:14 AM	#12 (permalink)
Elmo370z A True Z Fanatic Join Date: Apr 2013 Location: st. petersburg Posts: 5,709 Drives: 09 nissan 370z Sp M6 Rep Power: 295378	attempting my luck with this and the top hat with another member. wish me luck phunk likes this.

09-22-2016, 11:39 PM	#13 (permalink)
Elmo370z A True Z Fanatic Join Date: Apr 2013 Location: st. petersburg Posts: 5,709 Drives: 09 nissan 370z Sp M6 Rep Power: 295378	So everything went well, fell 2 crimp connectors short to connect the hardwire and the last connector. Thanks Charles for reaching out today during the install. He answered any questions me and my buddy had. Just waiting on the additional parts to come in to try and finish up the install and pray we did everything right. phunk and Rusty like this.

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