Electric vs mechanical fuel pump

[Dennis H]

Edelbrock Street 125 gone. Ma Mopar Carter mechanical installed. Starts better cold, hot, and in between. Rid of the regulator too. Two roadside breakdowns cured me. I need the reliability if a mechanical pump. You can't count on car guys to help you on the road. I got lucky. Darius and a good samaritan bailed me out. Twice. On one trip. Saltan Sea, and Alta Vista. Middle of nowhere both California style. Only 25 miles so far, but it runs better than ever. Car Show owners who drive locally can survive with an electric pump. Not me.

 

[747mopar]

Can't beat the simplicity and reliability of a good mech pump.

 

[Richard Cranium]

Can't beat the simplicity and reliability of a good mech pump.

Absolutely!

 

[steve from staten island]

When i had a English car they had electric pumps. The older ones had contact points which after awhile were notorious for quitting pumping. The newer ones were solid state but many guys put a second backup pump in the fuel line controlled by a toggle switch

 

[Moparsmitty]

Can't beat the simplicity and reliability of a good mech pump.

X2

 

[lewtot184]

all i use is the carter mechanicals. i take'em apart and tinker with them. very reliable.

 

[Richard Cranium]

All new cars have electric in-the-tank pumps & they are reliable and work very well, but electric pumps adapted to our old cars are noisy & unreliable.

 

[Bruzilla]

The problem with the new in-tank pumps is they need gasoline around them to cool them, and people drive around with just a few gallons of gas in the tank and burn them up. I've lost track of how many pumps I've had to replace in the cars of my kids' friends who are always driving around on an empty tank.

 

[lewtot184]

to my knowledge nobody makes a continuance duty aftermarket electric fuel pump. if you must have one, then by two and keep one in the trunk.

 

[747mopar]

The problem with the new in-tank pumps is they need gasoline around them to cool them, and people drive around with just a few gallons of gas in the tank and burn them up. I've lost track of how many pumps I've had to replace in the cars of my kids' friends who are always driving around on an empty tank.

Makes you wonder why they don't just make the gauge read empty once you hit an unsafe level?

 

[streetmachine]

Haven't looked but, are you still running a mechanical pump?

 

[Kern Dog]

Dennis converted to fuel injection which required a new tank and an in-tank pump. He has gone through a couple of pumps with that setup too.

 

[Billccm]

Old post.
Dennis is running EFI and electric pump. Hopefully all is good now.

 

[streetmachine]

Thank you both for the reply. That gives me a bit of more information to work with. I'll have to catch up on some of his posts regarding the EFI topics as well. I'm still on the fence as I have NOS fuel pump pushrod and a NORS AC Delco pump from 1970 or 1971.

 

[Mackman]

And then there's the dreaded pushrod dilemma.

 

[streetmachine]

And then there's the dreaded pushrod dilemma.

Yes, I've seen that a bit but, I'll stick with the one I have now as a spare for now and it's also why I thought about about an electric pump. I've got more reading to do.

 

[bearman]

Any electric fuel pump must cooled and that's a big problem with the gas we have today. Back in the day gas was cool todays gas is an experiment. Myself have always ran both pumps together.

 

[streetmachine]

Any electric fuel pump must cooled and that's a big problem with the gas we have today. Back in the day gas was cool todays gas is an experiment. Myself have always ran both pumps together.

With the talk of 15% Ethanol I will running ethanol free fuel from here on in the older applications.

 

[threewood]

All new cars have electric in-the-tank pumps & they are reliable and work very well, but electric pumps adapted to our old cars are noisy & unreliable.

Unless the newer style Walbro type in tank pump is used and wired correctly. Most newer in tank pumps are reliable, which is the way I went with EFI. Walbro 455lph pump, EFI tank. Very quiet and with an upgraded electric system putting out constant 14v are pretty bullet proof.

Mechanical pumps are pretty bullet proof when used with carburetors. They just work....until they don't. like anything else.

 

[69a100]

Funny that this topic was brought back to life! Cr8crshr sold his car last month and for the past few months, he's been trying to get it runnin. New build, new mechanical pump with not even 50 miles on the car in over 8 years. I was thinking it was bad gas that was giving him problems as it wouldn't fire up. The buyer came and did a quick by-pass of the mechanical pump and it fired right up. I don't get it?