My car has 90k miles on what i believe to be the original fuel pump. Ive seen a lot of people dealing with dying pumps lately.

Right now i have the rear end out because i painted the undercarriage, should i go the extra mile and just drop the tank while i have the chance?

would a high output racetronix pump be beneficial for a cammed engine? (i plan on swapping this summer).

 

Hard to put a time limit on such a thing, but at that mileage, a failed fuel pump is a good possibility. You probably won't need a higher flow pump for just a cammed car, but having the higher flow pump won't hurt anything either.

 

yes i agree completly. for the price i would recommend changing it while you have the rear out. and i believe a new pump will cost at least close to the same as a high flow so why not

 

139,XXX and still going......

 

161,000 and still going...

 

Factory one went 160,000 miles in mine, then the replacement went 90,000 and was strong when I pulled it for a Racetronix 255lph upgrade (to power a new, built-up 396).

Usually a fuel pump dies slowly. Typically the engine will run ok with a slightly low pressure (in closed loop, pulse width can compromise a bit for a while) but stumble hard on tip-in when you go WOT. A WB will give you an early heads-up... usually in PE mode you'll see the A/F ratio can still run rich at low rpms but creep up to 15+ at higher rpms.

 

Since you have to drop the rear to drop the tank to get to the pump,
I'd say it would be a wise decision. Plus, I'd say the RaceTronix unit
is the way to go. (me: 150k+ w/original fuel pump).

 

Also, if you can pick up a LS1 tank and filler tube for cheap it may be a good time to upgrade... then you won't have to pull the rear end the next time you want to replace the pump.

 

That's cool, I didn't know the LS1's were different. How exactly does that work?

 

The filler tube on an LS1 tank isn't permanently mounted to the tank... it's just hose-clamped onto a fitting. That means the tank doesn't have to "twist and curl" to to get out.... and hense the rear end can stay right where it is.

Much easier than carving up your trunk to make a trap-door for pump installs you'll do once every 5 years or so.

 

Oh ok, I understand now. Yeah I agree with you; I've never understood how people can cut that access hole.

I've done the fuel pump job twice on an old '88 Camaro I had. When I first bought the car, it had been sitting for 12 years with a full tank of gas, so of course all of that had gelled. I dropped the original tank and put in a used tank.......and as luck would have it, I ran the car for about two weeks and it clogged up the fuel lines again. After that, I swore never to do that job again--I bought a brand new tank and shortly after that sold the car!

 

plus the ls1 tank is plastic

 

If it's a 99 and up it's plastic. 98 LS1 tanks are steel.

 

Yeah, those 99+ plastic tanks are sweet. 1 gallon more, and ~15# lighter than the steel. They "fit" in the space and even reuse the same mounting straps the LT1 tanks use, and I belive they even HAVE a port for a return line (though I dont' recall for sure)....BUT... you need to figure out how you will mount the pump... LS1 only have 2 lines leaving the tank, and the pump they use is internally regulated unlike the LT1 that regulates in the fuel rail and returns the excess fuel (a better system IMO).

I you can figure out how to power the pump harness, mount a return line, remove the LS1 internal regulator, then it's a great solution (or if you''re happy with ditching the LT1 return line/regulator to clean up the engine bay a bit and lighten the chasis you can just swap to the LS1 pump (remember that the regulator will put out ~60psi instead of 43.5psi, so you'll need to reprogram your injector constant to compensate).

The LS1 fuel system "upgrade" will save you some weight and give you an injector size boost, but I'm not sure if it's worth the effort... but that easy tank removal would be sweet.

What would be better really is removing the tank and just having an LS1 filler tube port welded on.