Generator mod - vacuum fuel pump, external/high capacity tank

[FlyFishermen]

Has anyone modified a gravity fed fuel delivery system on a generator to a vacuum style fuel pump pulling from a large auxiliary tank? Where did you tap for the vacuum line to the pump? Intake manifold or crank case somewhere?

If you have done this - how did it work?

 

[dwh]

That's a common mod done to the Honda inverter gens which already have the vacuum fuel pump.

I had a cheap Chinese inverter gen that had the vacuum fuel pump. It was powered off the intake manifold. Pretty sure the Hondas are too.

I've thought about it, but the little generators I normally use for battery charging run out of gas just a while after the charger reaches float, so haven't needed to actually do it.

Should be easy to do and work fine as long as the pump doesn't have to pull the fuel uphill too far.

 

[FlyFishermen]

Should be easy to do and work fine as long as the pump doesn't have to pull the fuel uphill too far.

That was one of my concerns. The tank I have is a 12 gallon boat tank with Johnson fittings. I was looking at adapting that to the generator. My fuel line is 15ft or so with a primer bulb (thats not to say I can't make up a different hose for the generator). The primer bulb will be good to get the fuel through the line. I would hope a vacuum pump would have enough suction to draw fuel through the distance of line and enough flow to keep up with the motor.

The generator is a Wen Power 2200w, 5.5hp motor. Nothing special, CCJ (cheap chinese junk). Price was right - free from the grandparents. Grandpa let fuel sit in it so long it turned to varnish. I had to clean out the carb etc a few years ago to get it running. The tank was worthless. It was packed full of varnish so I threw it away. At the time I used an old style 5gal plastic jerry can with the nozzle up as the vent and the vent port attached to the fuel line propped up on blocks to feed the float. It worked for a week, but isn't a good solution.

 

[dwh]

Thinking it over, probably best to use the intake so the pump only sees vacuum pulses, rather than the crankcase where it might see alternating vacuum and pressure pulses.

 

[IdaSHO]

Not sure about your generator, but the honda EU2000 I have set up to support the house during power outages will draw fuel right out of a fuel can with minimal mods

5 gallons goes a LONG way on this generator. :ylsmoke:

 

[Hillbilly Heaven]

 

[Ducky's Dad]

Lots of videos on YouTube about extending run time on small gens with aux fuel tanks. There are aftermarket tank kits available for the popular gens like Yamaha and Honda, so you might be able to adapt those kits.

 

[FlyFishermen]

Thanks for the video link. That explains a lot. I will have to take a look at the generator here and see if some of the parts match up. I checked out the kit for that generator - $250 for those parts. For a $6 fuel pump, $8/ea brass fittings x3, roll of teflon tape, $20 worth of hose (if that), a $10 fuel primer bulb, $5 fuel filter, and a couple bucks worth of hose clamps that guy is making a killing off of those if they really sell.