Last winter, i swapped over to TPI from a carp and didnt use the mechanical fuel pump anymore. I left it on the engine though, and its just sitting not doing anything. THis winter, im pulling the engine again to freshen it up a bit with a new cam and intake, and i removed the pump and plate just to check things out. I noticed that the pump requred a lot of force from the pushrod, and i was wondering if removing the pump and replacing it with a blockoff plate would free up some hp? Now, im not expecting much, but ive heard of 50 hp gains just from doing a bunch of little things when rebuilding, like porting oil holes, etc.. .

What do you all think?

 

Sure, it has to use some amount of HP to run a mechanical pump...maybe 1/2-1hp...nothing you'll feel, but no use running it if it's not needed.

There is HP to be freed up inside a block, how much depends on the level of work you have done. The 50HP you've heard of would seem pretty high, maybe you were looking/reading about balancing and blueprinting? to free up addition HP?

 

The 50 hp (or so) gains are from some serious internal engine work, balancing, drilling the crank journals, shaving counterweights, highly polishing the bore surface, etc. Not anything i would really need to do as an amateur, but i thought at least the pump would be a start.