I decided to change the fuel pickup on my fountain to a -12. My first thought was a aeromotive bulkhead fitting with a steel pickup. What have other people done? Seems like drilling the holes bigger in the tank is going to be a pain to keep the metal out. What setups have other people done?

I use a orb to -12 fitting tap the inside of the fitting on the o-ring side. Then I use a 5/8" stainless tube cut to right length that I thread on the outside. Loctite the two together then drill and tap the existing fuel tank bung on the tank. Using lots of grease on the drill bit and tap. Then spin assembly into tank. After initial instal I use a cheap cleanable coarse inline filter to catch any of the heavy shavings. Have a ton of boats running around this way. I buy a length of stainless tubing $30 and can usually get 4-5 pick-ups out of it. And than an fittings aren't much money.

Good idea, so if I wanted the pickup tube to be larger I could run a -14 and tap it to 3/4. I have a 5/8th tube now and that is what is hard on all these electric fuel pump is a restriction on the suction side.

All the tubes I've done run out of bung after -12. With a -14 I don't think you would have anything to work with. I've ran -12 with Aeromotive pumps up to 1000hp blown injected and never had an issue. I always mount the pump under the motor in the bildge. Just glass a mounting pad in if need be to mount the pump.

Eddie young and I were talking about this once. He has a pickup/return setup that is the same cutout as a sending unit. He told me if you pack a hole saw with grease it keeps most of the debris from falling in.

Thanks for the ideads guys. Icu does eddie cut another sending unit hole or does he add the fitting to the top of the existing sender? That was also a thought to tig weld in a fitting and then use the existing feed as the return after I take off the pickup tube.

He sells a complete new unit. Same size and gasket as sending unit. Has larger pick up and a return line in it. That's the hole saw trick so when drilling the new hole the grease keeps debris from going in tank.