Fuel Pressure Gauge Upgrade

You have to dig deep to find parts like this, but we hadn't expected it to be so tough to locate stuff for such a ubiquitous engine. Every place we called came up dry, though we learned that Ford Motorsport used to make these adapters. So our collective head rang like the bell tolls One, and we called GRC Performance.


An old buddy from our top-speed and road-race days, Umberto Gizzi at GRC Performance (grcperformance.com/949.457.1875), has done everything you can to a Mustang, building early- and late-model in his Mission Viejo shop. We got him on the phone and he promptly floored us with four words: "I'm making 'em myself."


The Blind Man (don't call him Bert) had apparently been in need of the adapter for customers, so he reached out to some engineer buddies and had the thing built from scratch. Tidy little brass 90-degree fittings, Saginaw-to-1/8th, male-to-female, designed to fit into the cramped space in front of the starboard head where the pressure nipple lives. Umberto had a dozen in stock, dropped one in the mail and one day later we were in business.

Scheme-matics
This is not complex. You'll want the engine cool and for fuel pressure to bleed off. Use a rag you don't like to catch any leftover fuel dripping from the rail. Employ flare wrenches whenever possible. Plan the route for the braided stainless line, which will be full of fuel, to avoid hot parts like headers or the block. We bent a small piece of mild steel strap into an "L" and fastened it to the inner fenderwall where the OEM induction box used to live. We used two small bolts (one hole already in the fenderwall, the other purpose-drilled), and bombed the bracket Krylon Black before installation. You can hook up the gauge light to the hood lamp at any time. Original plans to use a gas-proof thread compound didn't hold up to the peculiarities of the fittings on the gauge, so we switched to gas-safe Teflon tape. We sheathed the stainless-steel braided fuel line in plastic wire loom to keep it from damaging things it rubs against, and zip-tied it into place.


Once everything looked attached and sensible, you want to cycle the ignition, turning to Run and back off so the fuel pump can pressurize the system. Check for leaks. A blast around the block and we reexamined things in the driveway, noticing an excellent new leak in the radiator, somewhere near the petcock but not exactly. Fortunately, it's a hi-po Fluidyne aluminum unit that shouldn't be tough to patch once the fissure is sourced. Stay tuned for that. While under the car for a look at the radiator, we caught a glorious new puddle of expensive adjustable oil bleeding a sympathy stain onto the pavement from the port-aft shock. Even better.