Dual battery tray & fuel filter hassles

[Ben_W]

I decided to make my own battery tray for a dual battery install. My vehicle is a 2005 D22 ZD30. No snorkel so I decided to place the auxiliary battery at the rear LHS of the engine bay & relocate the fuel filter. I bought a small tray from Supercheap, some flat bar from Bunnings & used some 40mm x 40mm x 3mm angle offcuts I had lying around. I spent the better part of a day measuring, cutting & welding it up then painting it. I was pretty happy with it.





So this morning I bolted it in, re-mounted the fuel filter to the new bracket & thought Bob’s ya uncle! Until I was about to head off to buy a battery…
Now, at no stage had I disconnected the fuel hoses from the filter, I just unbolted it from the original mounting bracket & wired it back out of the way, so I was expecting to the motor to start & run normally. Which it did for a few seconds then stopped. I thought ok, somehow got a bit of air in the line. I pumped the primer until it was hard & tried to start again- no go. I then began the bleeding process starting at the filter and working down to the injector pump inlet. After several attempts in this fashion, including cracking no. 1 injector I still wasn’t getting anywhere.
Now by this stage I was getting worried about damaging the injector pump with the dry cranking. (The I.P. is brand new. I had it installed only a month ago costing me $4,000. I’m understandably toey about mistreating it!) I was aware of this issue though & only turned the engine over in short bursts (I reckon no more than about 8-10 seconds). It was actually firing intermittently but wouldn’t start.
At this point I thought ok, it’s time to eliminate the variables. So I pissed off the battery box, replaced the original filter mount, re-bled & primed. After a bit more cranking she fired up! Sounded pretty rattly at first & I was shittin bricks about the new pump being stuffed. I let it idle for a bit & kept pumping the primer, and it settled down. I’m hoping it was just a bit of residual air in the system. I went for a short drive and she seems to be running fine now & sounds ok.
So the question is: what caused this? The only thing I can think of is the position of the fuel filter. Mounted on the battery tray it was certainly a bit higher than the factory mounting bracket, but the highest point of the hand pump was still lower than both fuel hoses and the hard lines at the top of the firewall, so I didn’t think there would be a problem.
I thought I would share this experience & see whether anyone can shed any light on this subject. Could having the filter that little bit higher, prevent the fuel being drawn up correctly or cause it to suck air?
I’m going to lower the filter mounting bracket on the battery tray & see if that makes a difference. In the meantime, does anyone have any advice?
As a newcomer to this forum, I have already learnt heaps on here, thanks to every one who makes it such a great resource.
Cheers.

 

[baylock]

I would say that you have just pinched the fuel hose between the steel lines and the filter,
One fix it to bend steel lines around a bit, but my fix in my case was just to buy some more fuel hose and run a loop around the back of the filter using some of the brackets i removed from the old filter to secure the line so it doesn't flap around all over the place.

 

[Ben_W]

Thanks Baylock, you're probably right. I did notice that I had to pull the hose on the inlet side of the filter fairly tight to get the bolts into the new housing. It didn't look kinked or too constricted, but possibly the angle of the hose bending around from the flared ends of the hard line caused the problem. I think I will still modify the mounting bracket on my battery tray. You can see in the photos, I welded the angle & nuts for the filter mounting facing inwards meaning it sits about 10-15mm inside the edge of the tray. I did this to maximise the distance between the filter & the turbo. But the result is that when I measured everything up with the tray installed, the distance between the filter & the seam on the side firewall is about 230mm. The smallest 60ah deep cycle I can find is 235mm long. I had resigned myself to just using a 40ah but wasn't happy about it. Since the tray is out again I may as well change the filter mount & try to squeeze a 60 ah in there. I will take your advice & put longer fuel hoses in before I connect it up again. I'm determined to get this dual battery system sorted as I've been planning a camping trip for 4 or 5 days next week with my missus & daughter.
Thanks for the reply. I will post the results when it's finished.

 

[baylock]

When i did mine (Using a piranha tray in the same location) it recommended an Exide ED4, which is a wetcell of about 45Ah, i was able to fit a Bond Calcium battery in the same hole with about 65Ah, much better than a pitiful 45Ah, but not as much as i would like, but on a full charge (Off a charger) it runs my fridge for just under 3 days before the low voltage cuts in at about 11v

 

[Ben_W]

I considered the Exide as I had looked at the Piranha website before I started making my tray. Maybe my tray sits a bit higher than the Piranha one, but at 215mm high I reckon I would be pushing it to clear the bonnet with the terminals. I had pretty much narrowed down my choice to the Supercharge Amptech D48 or All Rounder MRV48 (both 60 ah and 204mm & 208mm high respectively). Or the less appealing option was the much smaller Amptech DU1 40ah, which would swim in the tray space but cos of how I welded on the filter bracket it was looking like the only option I had. Would you happen to know the dimensions of your Bond calcium? It could be a good option- I would be rapt with 3 days fridge running!
If I can't get a 60 ah in as it is now, I am going to re-design my filter bracket. I'm on Dad duty today so it will be tomorrow's job. I did go and buy some more fuel hose though. Thanks for the advice.

 

[baylock]

Ill try and remember to have a look at the exact battery model when it stops raining, ast for terminal contact, when i put terminals on the battery i had a little problem with the negative fitting without rubbing on the bonnet, but the positive had plenty of room, a little creativity with the negative terminel (i just turned the bolt over) fixed that, and even then, its only the negative, so it can touch if it wants to. ill try and get pix later.

 

[charlie strayarc]

If you have no snorkel, why not get rid of the pre filter and put it at the front lhs. Heaps of room for an 80ah battery and if you want a snorkel get a nissan one for the yd25 and get the joining pipe bit you need from nizzbits so it lines up on the zd30.
A few of us have done it. (Lots of info on here about it). Then its easy to put catch can hanging of fuel filter bracket.

 

[baylock]

This is the sucker....

 

[Ben_W]

Well, I finished the dual battery install. Thanks for the info fellas. Charlie strayarc, yeah I probably would have been better off putting the auxiliary battery at the front. I considered it initially, then dismissed the idea as relocating the fuel filter seemed easier at the time. If I put a snorkel in down the track sometime I might rearrange it all & put an 80 ah up the front as you suggest. Baylock, thanks for your advice. I looked into the Bond batteries but couldn't find a supplier up here.
I ended up re-welding the filter bracket on the battery tray to give me a bit more room, and extended the fuel hose either side of the filter. For the battery I ended up going with a 60ah Supercharge All Rounder, which fits nicely and can be used as a deep cycle and an emergency cranking battery.
I used a Redarc isolator with 60 amp fuses either side, and ran two cables from the auxiliary battery into the cab to a Narva outlet on the side of the passenger foot well. We gave it a good test run last week, camping at Flora River, west of Katherine for 4 days. Running a 35 L Evakool set on -8 degrees, the system performed fairly well. The fridge did cut out (low voltage) overnight a couple of times and I had to run the car the next day to top up the battery, but overall I was happy with it & the meat etc. stayed frozen.
The last couple of days of the trip I had starting problems and had to pump the primer and crank repeatedly to get going. I suspected the filter o-ring wasn't sealing properly after sucking air when I moved the filter & was pinching the hoses. But after we got back I had a look & could see diesel leaking from the return line from the injector pump to the tank. I thought it was a loose banjo fitting but turns out I must have damaged the hose when I was bleeding the system (see my first post in this thread). Replaced both hoses to injector pump. Problem fixed & now all good.
Here are a few images of the final result.

 

[baylock]

What setting did you have your fridge on for the low voltage cut-out??

 

[Ben_W]

Minus 8 degrees! Probably overkill hey? We had mainly meat in there & ice packs for the esky. After it cut out it got up to 4 deg by morning. The temp display was still showing but compressor not running.