coblanchard

Pros and cons of each?
What you have?
What you would get?

P.J

Electric: Pro- no fuel in the cab
Con - expense, possibility of isolator or sensor failure

Mechanical Pro- cost, accuracy
Con- possibility (slim) of failure

Have had two trucks with fuel running straight to the back of the guage, NO issue, no leaks, no suspicion of inaccuracy.

Use common sense, I have learned from the old heads here how to "sheath" the tubing with a larger size (NAPA) fuel hose for protection. Works like a charm.

mpracehemi

All Mech. gauge- I use a ss braided -4 straight to gauge. No problems-no leaks
except trans.temp is elect.

Pooter

I want to do the same, im sick of this plastic line(that came with the guage) leaking.

How do you bleed the air out with the stainless line?(or how can you tell youve got all/most of the air out?)

Or do you just run the braided line into the cab with no isolator?

jrussell

Electric is the only way to go for FP.

Mexstan

I have a mechanical and went overkill on a SS braided line rated at about a zillion psi more than I can ever use.
The downside is that the braided hose tends to transmit the fuel pump pulses into the cab as a vibrating noise. This is easily cured in two ways. At the pump, use a short section of regular rubber and fabric fuel line. (rated at the right press etc) At the coupling between the rubber line and the braided line, install an oriface. This is very easy to make. The hole in the oriface should be about 1/64th to 1/32" max. This serves two purposes. It dampens the pulses and will also restrict the flow of fuel into the cab if something breaks.
Yeah, yeah, I know about the safety reasons for no fuel in the cab, but his is diesel, not gasoline and is a lot less volatile. Also, has anyone ever heard of a fuel gauge or a fuel line suddenly letting go in the cab? I have not.

jlibert

you could always add a valve that you could turn off in the event that a leak would occur.

CamperAndy

Do not worry about the little bit of air trapped in the fuel gauge line. It will have no impact on the accuracy of the reading and will only sightly dampen the (slow) the response.

No one worries about their boost gauges having air in them do they?

P.J

I respectfully disagree. Not only is it not the only way to go, there is poll here from a few years back that showed a majority using mechanical.


I've had needle valves in both of mine, not only is it smart for an emergency cut off, it barely lets any volume through in the unlikely event you were to have a problem.

Snoxracer

If you ever want to run at a Drag strip and they tech your truck you will not be able to run because of the fuel line running into the cab. At least that is the way all of ours track around here are.

But as far as my preference, I like the electronic, I've run Autometer electronic guages for years and only had one problem on a 24v truck with the sensor failing.

mike moore

I have the electric dipricol for lift pump pressure,works perfect.Your only getting like 10 psi from a stock lift pump.No need to make thing difficult on yourself,keep it simple.

mpracehemi

Since you already have a mech. gauge. I bought my ss line through jegs, summit has it also. I run it with no isolator, tried using a isolator and it just would not work right. Went through 2 plastic lines before I gave up. The ss -4AN line is $45 6' long. You'll have to get an adaptor for the gauge end. PM me for part #'s if you want or just look up online. There are 3 diff. lengths to work with and if you need to have a short and a long or whatever length, there is a male-male -4 AN fitting to connect.

All I did was start the truck up and loosen the fitting to let some fuel go through, (I used plastic garbage bags to keep my interior dry). I'm using the steer. gauge pod (holds 2 gauges which I got through jegs- it's autometers' $32 ) check out my pics. I pulled the gauge through the pod and out aways to bleed it. After I was done, no fumes were inside the cab, my wife has a nose and if she smelled fumes, she wouldn't ride in the truck.

After all, diesel fuel is kinda hard to light/catch fire.

mpracehemi

There are ways around tech. and depends who is the tech. inspecting. If everything 'looks' up to spec., it'll go through. I left my isolator mounted with lines still connected to it.

When I go to the track with my car, whoever it is, they sometimes do a quick look then there is the by the book tech.'s. At one of the tracks, they know my car and just sign my card. I'm constantly changing stuff on that thing.

Pooter

Really I like the isolator, it works fine, just the dang plastic line keeps leaking, but some of it has to do with the junk brass fittings in the "kit" from autometer, the "ball" rolls over in the fitting and pinches the plastic line, or leaks. So its either leaking or crimping the line.

Do you think theres an easy way to bleed a stainless line from the isolator to the guage? Im assuming just run some antifreeze thru it, then shut it off like the plastic line. I know you dont need to get all the air out, but the more responsive the better. Im already running a braided stainless line from the cp3 to the isolator.(Too bad its too short to run into the cab all the way to the guage)
Thanks for the info, if I still cant get it to work with the isolator, ill give it a shot without.

jrussell

No, but those measure air pressure not liquid pressure. Air and diesel fuel do not compress the same.

I'm not saying it won't be accurate enough with air in the line, but I am sure it's not as/more accurate than a digital gauge at that point.

It was a figure of speech.

I bet every day that old poll gets closer and closer to the majority using electric. You mechanical guys with your lines full of diesel fuel, isolators, needle valves, and anti-freeze will see the light one day!