How to Install Valve Dumps in Hydraulics

Most car hydraulics systems use two valve dumps per pump, and you can install these dumps to ensure getting maximum efficiency from your hydraulics system. To install valve dumps properly, you have to make absolutely certain that the parts you use are specially designed to meet high-pressure applications like hydraulics. Here's how.

Difficulty: Moderately Challenging

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Pump fittings (most systems use T-fittings)
• Dump hoses

1. Use valve dumps to regulate the pressure of the oil being forced through the hydraulics system's fluid lines. The valve dumps connect the cylinders (which physically raise and lower your car when your hydraulics system is activated) to the rest of the system.

2. Expect to install a minimum of one value dump per pump, though you'll realize maximum efficiency with two per pump. However, complex systems, such as the 10-switch, four-dump, four-pump system, match only one dump per pump.

3. Locate your hydraulics system's check valves. This is the point at which high-pressure oil flow entering the cylinders is diverted, sending half the fluid one way and half the other way (in a two-dump system). You're going to install valve dumps between the check valves and the cylinders so that incoming oil is diverted to the cylinder, and outgoing oil is diverted from the cylinder back into the low-pressure channels of the system.

4. Use a T-fitting to ready the mouth of the check valve for the attachment of a dump hose. Screw the T-fitting (or whatever type of pump fitting is compatible with your hydraulics system) to the check valve, and attach the dump hose.

5. Run the dump hose to the cylinder cap, attaching it with another T-fitting or whatever pump fitting you're using. Remember that the hose should connect not only the check valves and cylinders, but also the cylinders and the secondary low-pressure chamber that routes used oil from the cylinders back into the system.

6. Repeat this process until every cylinder in your system is connected to both the check valve and the low-pressure secondary fluid chamber.

Tips & Warnings

• Use parts that are rated to withstand pressures of at least 3,000 psi. While your system may not actually generate that much pressure, you're better off safe than sorry, especially when "sorry" would mean blowing the valve dumps right off the system and unleashing a torrent of oil and fluid.
• Take your car to a hydraulics specialist or auto mechanic if you encounter any uncertainty as you try to install valve dumps. It can be tricky, and the task requires specialized knowledge of auto mechanics.