Fuel pressure regulator location?

I am putting together a Ford 302, and reading info here on the Edelbrock carb I have for it, makes it sound like a should include a regulator in my plans.

I intend to use one in line, but wondered if it made a difference where I located it? Closer to pump, or close to the carb? no diff?

Are those little chrome dial Mr Gasket/Spectre ones ok to use?

 

I have one on a SBC,Holley regulator with no return line ,mounted it near the wheel wheel away from engine heat.On a no hood car you may mount it differently.I found that 5 -5.5 psi prevents a rich idle and any flooding on a hot engine shut down.Mine isn't a Ford obiviously but a fuel gauge showed around 8-9 psi on several fuel pumps I tried.So maybe check your fuel pressure before adding on more parts.

 

Should be as close to the carb as possible. Those Spectre ones are kinda haggard but do work in a pinch. Better ones can be had inexpensively and a fitting with a pressure gauge should be incorporated as well

 

Mallory says to mount theirs as close to the carb as possible. I usually try and stay pretty close to the carb or carbs. Most of the time you see 'em mounted either to the forewall or the inner fender.

 

Dickster27 here on the HAMB helped me with the placement of my regulator

 

That fuel rail is the shit!!!!!

 

Very nice!

maybe I should have stated earlier, is a regulator needed with a mechanical pump?

 

I've not seen a mechanical that needs a regulator, but that don't mean there aren't any out there. I had one of those little dial ones before and it did OK, I'm sure it was pretty low quality but I didn't have any flooding problems (the one that came with my Holley pump blew itself into it's respective individual pieces on me). The dial one I don't remember mounting to anything solid, but the Holley one I made a bracket that held it to the two carb studs so it was right there.

 

Only if your mechanical pump puts out more pressure than the carb manufacturers calls for.

 

have yet to fire motor, so unsure what the pressure will be. Thought it may be cheap insurance to include it now.

 

Edelbrocks are real sensitive to pressure. 5 PSI is a good number to use. I have had bad luck with Holley regs leaking and not maintaining the pressure setting.

 

Have to respectfully disagree with that, there is a difference. I've never used a reg with a mechanical pump as I never needed to, but I always had to with electric pumps, which are supposed to be as close to the tank as possible. If you put the regulator close to the carb, the pressure loss due to line length is a non-issue as pressure between the regulator and pump will still be above the regulated pressure fed to the carb from the regulator. If the regulator is put closer to the pump, the pressure between the regulator and carb will be further reduced due to to the pressure loss from line length (A note though is that I ran regulators in cars spraying nitrous, so I was anal-retentive about line pressure and volume).

It can be directly related to the way AC power is fed to your house, where the voltage is stepped down directly at the pole to provide your house a solid 240V, instead of feeding 240V from the substation which would result in noticable line loss.

I ran an Edelbrock for a while too, they're pleased as punch at 5 PSI. Once you get the knack at tunin' them, I always liked them, by the time I was done with them I had a bigass collection of rods and jets. Only problem I had was the pump shot, I ran it on a 4V Cleveland and it never seemed to be quite enough.

 

I don't use a regulator on my 351 Modified. I am using a 650 Edelbrock and the stock mechanical fuel pump. I will say that my motor is pretty much stock except for the intake, carb, and the cam which is just an RV cam. The only thing I did to my stock fuel lines was move the fuel filter closer to the carb so it would be easier to change but that has nothing to do with weither you should have to use a regulator or not.