Fuel Pump Retrospective

The van has always had problems going up hills at freeway speeds. Usually we drive the van at 55 mph on the freeway to conserve gas, but in reality we can't actually go much faster.  This is strange, the engine has enough horses to get us to Mach 1 - but something seems to be keeping the engine lean. 

Before heading out on the trip, while we were working in Huntington Beach Joey installed an electric fuel pump to replace the mechanical fuel pump that was installed on the van.   Replacing the fuel pump was one of the commandments issued by my Uncle Lee when he checked out the van.  Otherwise, the van would not be "Uncle Aprroved".  (Thanks Uncle Lee!)

The mechanical fuel pump in the van was not the original fuel pump. The van had several other electric fuel pumps in its history: The van has a custom fuel tank that has an electric tank pump and filter.  We diagnosed that this pump had long since failed.  The OEM equipment had long since been replaced - it is likely the car was stocked with an electric fuel pump originally since that is the configuration in the maintenance manual. 

While installing the new electric fuel pump we discovered that the fuel pump relay had rusted solid, and was sending signal to the tank pump continuously. The tank pump must have burnt out long ago.  Whoever added the mechanical fuel pump must have either not have wanted to deal with the tank sender unit or could not figure out why their fuel pump was always on or had burnt out.   We  replaced the relay to power our new in-line fuel pump. 

This new fuel pump Joey tested on the PCH at highway speeds and seemed to resolve the fuel starving problem. 

However, while leaving huntington beach, we experienced the fuel starving symptoms getting on the on-ramp.  This was bad.  Could it be that our fuel was low? We got off the freeway and filled up the tank.  Same problem while getting back on the freeway. 

We inched our way to Echo Park using the freeway and finally ditching to surface streets near Commerce.  While driving up Scott Avenue - up to Joey's old apartment - the van stalled and died.  Scott Ave is a steep hill - but usually our cars have no problem reaching the summit. 

We had dinner with Raycroft, collected our thoughts, and took surface streets to Thousand Oaks to stay with our friend Kevin.  It was a long trip. 

In Thousand Oaks, Joey did some more digging on the required gas fuel rate required by our engine, and discovered the electric fuel pump we installed was under rated (d'oh!).  We ended up buying a new beefy fuel pump and installing it.  It makes the floor of the van sort of hum while it is on. 

The first electric fuel pump we installed

The second electric fuel pump we installed

After a few road tests, the van seems to be back!  We were cruising at 55 again and seemed to have enough juice to pick up the pace in a pinch.