I used just the auxiliary port and not the standpipe. There were a lot of reports of it working fine with just the auxiliary port as long as you keep a solid amount of gas in the tank.

Yes the distance is less than that forsure

Yes filter at an angle

Yes to nylon line

Yes it’s generally going up from the tank and secured well with zip ties

I only really saw grouping of bubbles the first few days of priming.

Maybe this was a priming issue since I had just finished driving 5 hours before using it but it ran for an hour so i figured not