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© 2001 Brian F. Schreurs
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In addition to adding a 190-lph in-tank pump and bigger fuel injectors, we played it extra safe by installing a secondary external fuel pump sold by Vortech, called the T-Rex. This little number should ensure that the engine will never be wanting for go-juice. The installation would have been fairly straightforward, if the instructions had made any sense at all, but of course they don't. Vortech provides two different instruction sheets (one with the supercharger, one with the pump) which are not only different, but the differences conflict with each other, and some of the parts that aren't different remain dreadfully confusing in both versions. Basically, this is one area where Vortech needs to invest a few dollars to straighten it out.

But never fear, we're here to give you a third set of instructions, ensuring that your confusion will reach a level of immobilizing hopelessness! Now aren't you glad you logged in today?

Let's start with the step that we can all agree on: remove the spare tire and associated stuff from the trunk.

Take the template provided by Vortech and cut it out. Punch and drill the four 3/16" holes to mount the pump. It should be off towards the back passenger side of the spare tire well.

Raise and support the back of the car.

Here is the T-Rex pump, safely mounted under the car.

Preassemble the T-Rex pump as much as possible. Attach the hoses to it, put the Adel clamps over it, and put the rubber pads in place with the 9mm bolts.

This next step will require two people. The person under the car needs to hold the pump in position while the person up top starts a nut on each bolt. The pump is directional, so be sure it is facing the correct direction -- the electrical terminals should be facing the passenger side.

Now it's time to route the fuel lines. Stare at the diagram Vortech provides until you get seasick. Despite the fact that the diagram has clearly been redrawn at some point, they didn't bother to correct its glaring deficiencies, and there are two zingers:

1) In the diagram of the car, the front of the car is towards the top of the page. In the magnification of the pump routing, the front of the car is towards the bottom of the page. Nice.

2) As a direct result of the above, the magnification drawing is reversed from its correct orientation. Hold the paper upside down, and you'll get a drawing that resembles what you see under the car. Frankly, we can't even figure out how they arrived at this perspective for the drawing. It looks to us like their technical editor has not actually installed a T-Rex.

Bottom line: hold the diagram upside down, and you'll be okay.

This is the area under the car that Vortech seems to be having so much difficulty drawing.

Find the fuel filter. It's on the passenger-side, near the exhaust pipes. Disconnect the inlet hose, which is the one that connects directly to the filter on the passenger-side. Carefully rotate it so that it bends back the way it came, toward the T-Rex pump. Then attach the T-Rex inlet hose (the long one) to the filter's stock inlet hose. Hold this new connection in place by strapping it to the front slot on the fuel filter mount, using a pair of Vortech's 11" zip ties. Feel like James Bond yet?

Attach the T-Rex outlet hose (the short one) to the fuel filter inlet. Keep the hose as far away from exhaust pipes as possible, and position the heat shield to offer the best possible protection. Prevent the hose from moving by tying it to a fuel tank strap.

Next up is to mount the new relay. It goes inside the spare tire well, along the passenger side, near the back. Vortech provides some good guidance for it. You'll have to drill a 1/8" hole to mount it, and use Vortech's sheetmetal screw to attach. The wiring will feed off the fuel pump's wiring, which is located in the trunk floor, sorta close to the right-side taillights. It's not really all that close to the taillights; just sorta in that general direction.

What we're getting from the in-tank fuel pump is the signal to run or stop. The wire from the relay is yellow and plugs into terminal 85. On the stock fuel pump harness, the wire you want is a muddy color, kinda browny-greeny. On some cars it might be more of a purplish color. Tap into that with the scotch lock Vortech provides, or do it by some other method if you prefer.

We wire up the second fuel pump from inside the trunk.

Next is to get power to the T-Rex pump. Run the shorter red wire (short is relative here; short compared to the other loooooooong wire) from the relay terminal 87 to the positive terminal on the T-Rex.

You'll need to run this wire, and the next two, from the inside of the car where the relay is located, to the outside, where the pump is located. To do this, make a new hole near the rear of the spare tire well, on the passenger side. The hole should be made on the vertical portion of the well, in such a place that when drilling, you don't drill a hole into the fuel tank, but you end up as close as possible to the T-Rex terminals. After an appropriate sized hole was made to fit the two thick red wires through, we used a small grommet to help seal the hole, and keep the wires from chafing on the bare metal. Now for some grounding. Use the long black wire to ground the T-Rex to the bolt holding the fuel filter in place. Use the short black wire to ground the relay from terminal 86 to the relay's own sheetmetal screw.

Cute guys, really bloody cute!!

Finally, the relay needs to get juice. Take the really long red wire and run it from relay terminal 30, under the car, up the transmission tunnel (look and you'll see where Ford runs a bunch of other lines), to the engine bay. From there, run the wire up the driver's side of the engine compartment, towards the positive terminal on the battery. Before you reach the battery, first splice in the fuse holder (with accompanying fuse) provided by Vortech, and then finish up by wiring straight into the battery terminal.

That's it! Now the Mustang has twin fuel pumps, enough fuel pumping power to run the Space Shuttle.

With the completion of this T-Rex installation, the supercharger project is finished -- there's nothing left to do but fire it up and see what happens! There's a lot of things to check before driving the car anywhere. Most important, check for fuel leaks, and make sure you re-filled the car with its necessary fluids, such as coolant and oil. Secondarily, but nearly as important, check that the serpentine belt isn't rubbing between the tensioner and the water pump. If it is, you'll need to switch to a smaller belt size. Any halfway decent parts store can help you size down a little. Also check for oil leaks and coolant leaks. Listen for vacuum leaks. Finally, make sure you're filled up with premium grade gas before making your first test run. The increased demands of the supercharger require the use of premium fuel, if you are not using it already.

From this point forward, you'll have to tune your car to accept its new supercharger. We can't provide much help here, because each car's circumstances are different. Fuel issues can be adjusted with the FMU and the fuel pressure regulator. The high cylinder compression may require different spark plugs, possibly colder, possibly a smaller gap. The best way to fine-tune the engine is on a dynamometer. Now go out there and stomp some unsuspecting posers!