Fuel Pressure Regulators....every thing you wanted to know..
Posted: Tue Feb 25, 2003 5:55 am
I've found that for the most part there seems to be a mis-understand about how or what the fpr's do. So here's a little run down on things.
A stock unit's original design is to limit the amount of pressure going to the injectors at idle. Vacuum pulls open a diaphragm that allows more fuel to bypass back to the tank.....thus limiting fuel pressure.
I'm assuming this is done because the injectors are designed to operate and flow at a certain pressure....and at idle you really don't need the higher pressures.
I guess if you have different injectors you can get an adjustable one to tweak things.......but other then that it's not necessary.....the only thing I can see happening if you raise your fuel pressures at idle is premature wear on seals and/or improper a/f mixture at idle.
Next type you see is the rising rate fpr's. I typically look at these as band-aid fixes. They bump up stock fuel pressures. They're usually found on add-on turbo kits where the stock fuel pressure is not enough.
As I mentioned this is sorta a band-aid fix because you're not fixing the problem at the source, the pump. The proper fix would be to get a larger volume pump.
BTW....there is a difference between higher volume and higher pressure. You can have a higher volume pump with lower pressures and keep a big boost monster happy. This is, IMO the proper way to go. You get a larger volume pump, sized to match your injectors, or slightly larger then what the capacity of your injectors for future upgrades.
THEN.....you do need an aftermarket fpr. The reason is that the stock fpr can not flow the amount of fuel needed back to the tank to maintain the stock fuel pressure at idle. So you need an adjustable high flow aftermarket unit. You put it in and tweak it until you get your stock fuel pressure at idle about where it should be.
Weapon-R actually makes a very nice unit.....I stumbled across it the other day while searching for something. Looks like a high quality unit.
I'm pretty sure I got everything correct here. If anyone has anything different....please correct me.....or feel free to add.
A stock unit's original design is to limit the amount of pressure going to the injectors at idle. Vacuum pulls open a diaphragm that allows more fuel to bypass back to the tank.....thus limiting fuel pressure.
I'm assuming this is done because the injectors are designed to operate and flow at a certain pressure....and at idle you really don't need the higher pressures.
I guess if you have different injectors you can get an adjustable one to tweak things.......but other then that it's not necessary.....the only thing I can see happening if you raise your fuel pressures at idle is premature wear on seals and/or improper a/f mixture at idle.
Next type you see is the rising rate fpr's. I typically look at these as band-aid fixes. They bump up stock fuel pressures. They're usually found on add-on turbo kits where the stock fuel pressure is not enough.
As I mentioned this is sorta a band-aid fix because you're not fixing the problem at the source, the pump. The proper fix would be to get a larger volume pump.
BTW....there is a difference between higher volume and higher pressure. You can have a higher volume pump with lower pressures and keep a big boost monster happy. This is, IMO the proper way to go. You get a larger volume pump, sized to match your injectors, or slightly larger then what the capacity of your injectors for future upgrades.
THEN.....you do need an aftermarket fpr. The reason is that the stock fpr can not flow the amount of fuel needed back to the tank to maintain the stock fuel pressure at idle. So you need an adjustable high flow aftermarket unit. You put it in and tweak it until you get your stock fuel pressure at idle about where it should be.
Weapon-R actually makes a very nice unit.....I stumbled across it the other day while searching for something. Looks like a high quality unit.
I'm pretty sure I got everything correct here. If anyone has anything different....please correct me.....or feel free to add.