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99 5.0 Explorer fuel system

Defecater

Well-known member
Joined
Jul 11, 2020
Member Number
2283
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I have a 5.0 from a 99 Explorer I will be hopefully using in a project. One thing that has me puzzled is the fuel system. It only has the high pressure supply line to the fuel rail, and a vacuum operated pressure regulator in the rail, but no return line to the tank. I am familiar with the type of returnless system that uses a pressure/temp sensor in the rail to control the amount of pressure the in tank fuel pump develops, but not this setup. Someone care to learn me on how it works?? My plan was to fabricate my own fuel tank that would gravity feed into a late 80's Ford truck inline high pressure pump. Will that idea still work with the returnless system on the engine I have?
 
That things gotta have a return line. When they went to no return line the pumps had a driver module that PWM'ed the pump and that wasn't till a few years down the road
 

Explorer returnless fuel, what year?

I'm picking up a complete 1998 ford explorer engine this weekend. I read in a couple of CB posts that 98 explorers have the returnless fuel design, while on fordfuelinjection.com Ryan states that explorers after 1999 1/2 have the returnless system. What gives?, I think Ryan may be correct...
classicbroncos.com

I can also give contact info of Garry the “efiguy” that built everyone’s explorer 5.0 harnesses on classic Broncos and flashes the computers for swaps if needed. He flashed my ecm awesome guy and resource.
 
I can assure you that it does not have a return line. I pulled the engine out myself. And just last night I pulled all the EFI stuff off of the 99 engine to put it on a better 01 Explorer longblock. Its just like I described, single pressure supply line with a vacuum regulator on the fuel rail
 
The vacuum thingy on the rail isn't a regulator, it's a pulse damper. The fuel regulator is in the tank.


I forgot how my explorer was plumbed, but my ranger of the same year had a 3 hose fuel filter. The rear of the filter had pressure and return to tank, the regulator was simply a restriction on the return in the tank. Then the front of the filter went to the engine. No fuel pump driver.

As for my project, I switched to a sn95 fuel rail witha traditional return line. FYI the "return less" system, I believe, runs at a higher fuel pressure. I don't believe you can go back to a return style without computer changes. I'm not using a Ford computer.
 
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