Fuel pump question....
Hello Fellow Mopar Champions...
Unfortunately this yr has been real bad for me physically speaking. Spinal Stenosis & will be needing surgery in the very near future, will know this Wed when I go back to see the neurosurgeon.
He is a Good AND LONG-TIME friend of mine and we tried everything to see if we could avoid surgery for as long as possible, tried physio (joke at this point) had an epidural steroid shot that they go thru the spine watching on a monitor (as I watched also) Although the " socialised medical system" that everyone thinks is so great in Canada does not cover the shot (500 dollars) even the private insurance I have did not cover it but I tried, anything for a small relief of the pain from the nerve touching the discs... Anyways the reason of my writing tonight is that it's time to take out the cars and I know that's the only thing that actually makes me feel somewhat better. I've just stopped worrying and praying for the best but looking out for the worst as well.
What I need to know is, I have a six pack on my small block and it's become a bothersome starting IT.
Example, if it's sat for a day or 2 trying to get fuel to the car's carb to start is upsetting.
I wanted to know can you place an electric fuel pump as in I picked up a real nice one Magnafuel that I believe I will also need to change the fuel line as well but can I also keep the stock pump also ?
I would use the electric one maybe with a switch that when I'm about to start the car I'll turn it on for a few seconds and then when the carb is full I can turn it over and she will start.
Trying now turning it over sounds like it's saying, " leave me alone lone lone....." Stop and start again having the stock fuel pump trying to bring the gas up to all the carbs (but mostly the middle carb, even though they all idle on the gas that's come up to start) I just feel that this fuel pump problem is solvable with an fuel pump but will I need to remove the stock pump, meaning I will have to listen to the fuel pump all the time the car is running....
Or the "leave me alone lone lone" pump until it finally fills up to start.
Thank you experts of the MOPAR WORLD.
MAPS
You have some options.
One is get a small bottle with a small squirt top on it. Like a plastic mustard bottle or something. Kinda like what you’d see in a restaurant.
Put some fuel in it and when the bowls are dry or low on fuel from sitting you can squirt some fuel directly into the float bowl with that bottle. You can see how much went in there by pulling the sight plug or just watching how much is gone from the bottle. Then crack it off.
Of course, you have to pull the air cleaner to do that so there is that.
You can use an electric pump over the mechanical pump. It’s been so long since I’ve been inside of a mechanical pump that I can’t remember if you can force fuel through the pump and up to the carb of the pump isn’t in pump mode. In other words the pump lever would have to be on the nose of the eccentric.
Now that I thing about it...the electric pump won’t push fuel past the mechanical pump at any time.
If you are going to the trouble of the electric pump, you might as well get rid of the mechanical pump all together. It’s just in the way.
And if you do that, make damn sure you wire in a low oil pressure cut off switch in the system so the pump won’t come on until there is 8 or 12 pounds of oil pressure. That way, if you get in a crash or something and the engine gets killed the pump will shut off. Of you don’t have that wired into the system and you do have an issue the pump won’t shut off and it will keep pumping fuel. That’s a good way to get a nice little bon fire going with your car supplying most of the fuel.
Of course, if you go that route with the electric pump and the low oil pressure cut off switch, you will need to install a bypass switch so when the car has been sitting and you need to fill the bowls you can bypass the low oil pressure cut off switch.
I use a small push button switch in line with the low oil pressure switch. I use a push button rather than a toggle switch because you can forget and leave the toggle switch on and bypass the safety feature of the cutoff switch.
You have a switched 12 volt source to one side of the switch and run the other side out to the low oil pressure switch.
Then when you need to fill the bowls you put the key in the RUN position, hit your push button switch and fill the bowls. Once you let go of the push button switch you can start the car and the fuel pump will come on as soon as you get oil pressure.
I’m not a fan of fires so that simple little safety switch is cheap insurance.