Question about leaving an inline electric fuel pump in place...

[dbreid]

All,
I have a 454 Carb with a Mechanical Fuel pump. There is nothing special about the motor (RV cam) and it is pretty much stock. The mechanical fuel pump works great, I have no hydrolock issues, etc. All good.

I always try to bring spares of everything critical when doing distant or difficult trails, so I always carry a spare, inline, 4ish psi electric fuel pump. I bought it from Summit, and I bought some hardware, some fuel line, etc and vaccuum sealed it up in a Foodsaver bag and stuck in my trail spare box.

Well, a month or so ago, while on the Dusy Ershim, my fuel pump died. After testing all the lines to make sure nothing was blocked (I pressurized the tank with the lines disconnected to make sure I had flow from both saddles, blah blah) I put the fuel pump inline right in front of the tank selector manifold. I wired it to my rock lights (power was right there, and I already had a switch on that circuit, and it was properly fused for the draw) and ran the truck that way.

Ran fine, finished the trail, drove home 4 hours, no problemo.

So, when I got home, I rodered a new Mechanical (actually two, because now I want a spare on hand), and replaced it. I have not disected the old one, but it seems like the diapragm failed.

Anyway, I am now tempted to just leave the electric pump in place, just in case, and not have it running all the time. just leave it off.

Will that create extra blockage in the line... or rather, enough to matter? It isn't a huge deal to take it out, of course, I was just thinking it might be smart to have a backup ready to go all the time?

Thoughts?

Thanks in advance

Dan

 

[4X4HIGH]

I would not leave it inline unless you tee off of the original line to "bypass" the electric pump. Also, electric pumps are made to push fuel so they need to be mounted as close to the tank as possible and near the bottom level of the tank otherwise you're making the pump work extra hard at a job it was never intended on doing in the first place (sucking fuel).

 

[dbreid]

I would not leave it inline unless you tee off of the original line to "bypass" the electric pump.

Because it will make the mechanical work unnecessarily hard?

Also, electric pumps are made to push fuel so they need to be mounted as close to the tank as possible and near the bottom level of the tank otherwise you're making the pump work extra hard at a job it was never intended on doing in the first place (sucking fuel).

Agree 100%. I put it right in front of the fuel tank selector manifold, which is very close to the tanks, and right below them. I literally couldn't have put it any closer to the tanks if I wanted to.

I put the fuel pump inline right in front of the tank selector manifold