I'm sure the answer to this question is entirely personal preference, but I have a buddy w/ an 87 5.0/TPI that is just at his wits end with replacing the in-tank fuel pump. They seem to only last for a year or two nowadays (made in... well, you know...), and we probably all know the drop-tank vs. hack-and-slash way to replace them. I'm in the market for a 3rd gen myself and watching him replace this pump 3x in the last nine years really has me leaning towards a carbuerator / mechanical pump strictly for that reason (yes I know carbs have their own issues) ... aside from my own nostalgia around the 84 Z28/4bbl I had in high school. Anyway, am I being ridiculous - or is there anyone else out there with similar thoughts?


Thanks folks!

 

If you buy a high quality aftermarket pump, you should be fine. A walbro, racetronics, etc, pump should last plenty long. 3 pumps in 3 years doesn't see right unless he is buying genero joe pumps from amazon.

 

Your buddy either has bad pump grounds or is buying the cheapest pumps imaginable. Get a good Walbro and you'll be good to go. I would caution against a Racetronix pump they're pure garbage

 

Pumps should last decades....not 3 years.

 

I do think Racetronix was the first brand that he tried, and the second was an ACDelco. I'll try to get the names of the last.

 

I was unaware of issues with racetronics, but i've used walbro and Aeromotive for years without problems.

 

No. There are many issues to consider when buying a 35+ year old car; the fuel pump isn't one of them.

When the original pump eventually dies, I'd simply replace it with a high-quality (read, no fleabay/amascam cheapo) pump. The job isn't particularly technically challenging; it's just nuts and bolts. But it is physically difficult if you don't have a lift and are doing it on your back on the floor.

BTW, while it's your car and you're free to do whatever you choose with it, I'd never recommend hacking a hole in the body to replace the pump. While this site has, over the years, seen one or two instances where it was accomplished with obviously good fabrication skills, those few instances have been far-outweighed by incredibly-bungled, unsafe-looking hack jobs. Don't be that guy.

 

There is nothing about a fuel pump that would influence a car purchase. I would rather pull an engine than deal w pulling the tank hands down. Next time my tanks is out I'll do an awesome trap door. Not some sardine can looking POS.

PS, I wouldn't buy a car that had a duct tape/sardine can trap door cause that's an indication of the rest of the work done to the car.

I used to have an inline fuel pump feeding my efi. The pump was hot and loud. I switched to an in tank pump. It's much quieter and I assume cooler as well. The in tank pumps are a much better route despite having to pull out that miserable tank.

 

The neck is what makes it miserable. If mine ever comes out again, I'll use a 4th gen "soft" neck and it should cut half the time.

 

You're in an absolutely ridiculous mindset to think a trap door for the fuel pumps is a dumb idea. It isn't gonna **** with structural integrity, only you'll know it's there. The only reason I put a trap door in my car is because of Racetronix. Those pumps were absolute garbage and I got tired of dropping the rear end and tank and scratching my Midwest Chassis rear end to change those pumps. I cut in a trap door and it took me 10 minutes to swap pumps out.

I say pumps because I had 1 Racetronix pump fail so they both got replaced by Walbro 350 pumps

 

18 months 4k miles on my Racetronix pump, no issues.

 

I used to be against the trap door mod, but when done properly, such as a properly welded flanged kit, it's fine. I've been running the DSE one for years now and have zero buyers remorse.

 

You clearly don't drive your car. 18 months and 4k miles?? Lol okay bro. Doesn't change the fact they're garbage

 

Exactly! I've never been happier with my trap door. Just the thought of dropping the rear end and tank to take a pump out makes me wanna pass out

 

Yeah....that's good for you but not a real strong endorsement. At over 16, I've got almost as many years on my pump as you have months, on yours. Pumps should last decades and over 100k miles.

No a pump wouldn't affect my buying bias at all. I'd be way...way.....WAY more interested in paint, interior, then stick shift, maintenance, condition, then, then, then....before a pump.

 

What kind of fuel pump hanger/sending unit do you have? I assume not the stock factory style because you can never get that out through a proper "Trap Door" mod.

Now a 4th gen tank with it's hanger/sending unit or something like that I'd have no problem with.

I wouldn't give a plug nickel for a car hacked up with a "Trap Door" mod you could get a factory style hanger/sending unit with its fuel and vent lines out of.

 

Man, you can only wish the pump would fail on a test drive. That's what you call a sudden buyer's market on that car.

 

I was smart enough to cut those stupid hard lines back with my new tank to never have to worry about any of that. The factory chit is just that.... Chit. I cut my lines way back and used compression fittings to an lines. You're delusional sitting there high and mighty thinking the "factory" way is always the answer

 

Oh no I think they way GM did the 3rd gen tank, hanger/sending unit and fuel lines sucks.

The 4th gen setup is night and day superior.

I'm talking about the people that think they going to change the fuel pump the "easy way" because lifting the car up and doing it right by taking it out the bottom is too hard. They get in there happily cutting away where they think they should then realize the metal lines run over the tank and down the side of it and now they cut the back end of the car open like a sardine can from front to back and all the way over to the driver side fender well.

I wouldn't give a plug nickel for a car that had that done to it. I inspect every 3rd gen my friend and I look at to make sure that hasn't been done to it.

 

I'm not "hi and mitey", but I wouldn't be "down" with compression fittings on fuel EFI fuel lines.

 

Why not?? They're good to 250 psi made for fuel and go straight to AN lines

 

If you're going from hardline to -AN hose you can skip the compression fitting all together by putting a 37° flare on the end of the tube.

 

I forgot everything is a contest on tgo. The pump in my third gen is 36 years old, so my official advice is to use the original pump and never change it because clearly that is best.

 

Walbro stock replacement and the upsized 255 L/hr pumps have a good reputation. Its been that way for decades. Some of the larger Walbro pumps are on the "you should avoid" list.

The in-house Racetronix brand 255 L/hr pumps seem to have more problems based on many years of user feedback on the forums. My own Racetronix 255 lasted 3 years. Results will vary as it always does with variation of manufacturing & quality, and different amounts of user malfunction involved.

 

I'm not gonna argue about which fuel pump is "best" or beat my chest about which one I have.

I would NOT let the FP affect my buying decision, unless it was non-working. I would NOT buy a car for ANYWHERE NEAR what I would pay for it otherwise, if it has the cargo hold HACK JOB in it. Given that, who knows what other HACK JOBS might be lurking in its bowels, even beyond the inherent repugnance of the cargo hold HACK JOB itself.

 

B/c I don't think that it's a durable or safe method for making connections that are critical.

^That is a better way, IMO. There are numerous alternatives that I think are better/safer/more robust.... That's why.


Yeah, I hear that. There was a dude that posted on CF that he used ProLong, and his 'Vette engine lasted 200k. So everyone should use Prolong and his engine lasted that long, b/c of Prolong. At the time, I had a p/u w/~300k on it, ran like new. I hadn't used Prolong...so what did prolong-guy "prove"? Nothing. A pump w/4k mi on it seems kind of like that, to me. So not trying to be "competitive"....like I said, glad it's working for you, and it's some evidence...it just not that strong, yet. Not quite "baked" for endorsing a whatever. Sorry if it came across poorly.

 

We're on the same page; I agree it's not particularly impressive, just happens to be the datapoint I have and I don't think it's a 'pure garbage' pump. I will add it to the list of parts I installed that the internet doesn't like. So far I've got the wrong tires, wrong fuel pump, very wrong intake on the wrong heads with the worst ecm and a terrible sounding muffler.

In an attempt to not Fast355 this thread though; going through fuel pumps is likely poor electrical connectivity, or excessive head pressure and I would not consider it to be a third gen problem as much as an old efi car problem. Sometimes a pump going out is actually the connectors being intermittent and futsing with it fixes it for another few thousand miles before it does the thing again. I'd consider fresh thicker gauge wire and new relays / connections for the entire circuit and verify the lines are clear and free of any filter-regulators and especially compression fittings.

Racetronix of all companies has a hot wire harness kit I was considering installing on my car when I get around to changing my pump to put more wrongness in.

 

I was using the Racetronix 340 e85 pumps and they were absolute trash. I went thru too many in a very short period, if they weren't already dead in the box they'd make it a few hundred miles. I had one last about 6500 miles. Used all of their wiring etc etc and still failed. Now I'm running Walbro 350 g3 pumps and while they are a tiny bit louder I don't have to worry about them suddenly failing in traffic

 

Yet here I am with a 5 year old Racetronix pump that works great.

 

Lol okay bud. I guess there's no such thing as switching suppliers. They're pure junk now. Just cause your pump lasted 5 years at barely stock power levels doesn't really mean anything

 

What makes you think I am barely stock power levels? Cammed 8.1L on E85 that was daily driven.

 

Cause we both know it

 

Your are full of yourself but keep thinking that. You have other issues if you keep losing pumps. Probably wiring related that, tank baffling of inadequately sized fuel lines. The factory return line especially is too small once you get above a 255 lph pump.

 

Lol bro I'm North of 950 rwhp. I can assure you my lines which are all PTFE -8/-6 feed/return are up to the task. My pump wiring after throwing all the Racetronix crap out is only 2 feet long. My biggest problem was Racetronix and their junk holding me back. I'm not full of myself at all just stating facts

 

None of the stock system makes sense in a car like that. 500-600 whp in one of these cars I would want a fuel cell with a rear feed.

Up to ~500 hp at the crank on pump gas my fuel pump choice was always a EP381 or Delphi equivalent. GM supplied that pump with the 502 hp Ramjet 502. That pump is dead reliable and leaves more than enough room to grow with a stock 5.0L, which is what the OP was working with.

 

Exactly. But a fuel cell doesn't exactly make sense for a lot of guys either. I drive my car on the streets still. I've got dual pumps in tank with the secondary triggered at 45% TPS signal. I'd honestly like to run a plastic 4th gen tank and drop dual 450 pumps in there

 

​​​​​​​Curious which fittings you used? I'm gonna bank this one for the future...

 

​​​​​​​Same. I really don't have the means to drop the tank at home on my back.. I'd much rather throw a few bucks at a competent welder to have them attach the flange kit. Spend a few bucks on a nibbler to cut the access without tin-canning it or setting the car on fire.

 

FWIW, ive had a racetronic 255L in my car since 2015, w/ not a glitch. Not a huge amount of miles, but still close to 15k in those ten years.

 

This is what I am against.

89 GTA refresh - Third Generation F-Body Message Boards

 

These ones

 

lol.. yup. Whole lot of those. Frankenstein's monster.

 

That's absolutely wild! I cut all my hard lines back and staggered before the 90 bend and made a nice clean hole and firewall.

 

 

I'm not a fan of in tank fuel pumps or access holes.

With my '82 I came at the problem from a completely different angle. I needed an electric fuel pump for a FI conversion.
I found that one Walboro 255 would not give me enough fuel at max power and two would overload the return line and give me high pressures during low power usage. I wound up using two W. 255's, one primary always on and the second on a window switch. Both are inline pumps, mounted just in front of the tank, behind the drivers side rear seat. I've been running this since 2010 with good results.

I like that both pumps and the filter are easily accessible from under the car and they create a low spot that holds fuel so they don't loose their prime.

 

my 2nd owner 3rd gen has the fuel pump access hole cut into the floor.
it was not hacked or slashed, and works amazing and i recomend doing it to all 3rd gens.
When done right, it feels like it should have been there from the factory.
its a fuel pump, in a car, and not even a high dollar car, hidden under sound dedening and carpet.
It's like your wifes toy drawer, no one knows, unless you want them to know.
Cut the hole, worry about other things in life.
--3 pumps, he has other issues, power, ground, cheap behind circle K fuel pump dealers..