I got an 87 camaro but I am not to sure on whether or not I should replace my fuel pump the engine is pretty much stock and has not been rebuilt, should I?what are the benefits, how do I do it? and is it worth the expense and time? I am thinking about doing it myself.

if it ain't broke, don't fix it...you won't notice anything unless your fuel pressure is already poor. now something worth the time, effort, and the bloody knuckles the first time your wrench slips is a fuel filter. For what you'd spend on a new fuel pump for the fun of it, do a tune up with plugs, wires, cap, rotor, and fuel filter. That right there will be the equivalent in price to a fuel pump, take less than a day compared to an inexperienced dropping the axle to drop the tank situation, and you will notice an improvement if those mentioned things haven't been done in the last 50k miles.

^^ Dont do it, its not a quick easy job.. If its not broke leave it alone. just my

i'm considering changing my fuel pump just because I don't know when, or if, it's ever been changed, and I would rather change it on my terms, not at a random time when it breaks down, leaving me stranded. They rarely give you any warning they are going out

It's a good piece of mind, and it's easier to do if you can run the gas tank empty before you start the job

Suitable points, but normally they whine on their way out, but there have been instances of just dropping dead. If you wish to do this process, you'll need a V6mpfi or v8 TPI fuel pump minimum, you can go to a performance 255 pump, your choice, you won't notice any improvements what so ever, again unless you have poor pressure to start. Do a sock when your in the tank, flushing the tank if necessary, and definably do a fuel filter while under the car.

To do fuel pump, you'll need to jack up car by body, not by axle, leaving the body on jack stands. You want this on level ground and as tall as jackstands will hold the car. From there, I recommend glasses for safety, but get a jack under the axle, disconnect the brake line "T" attatched to axle by 10 mm bolt, and then disconnect bottom shocks off of their perch. I'm not positive if you need to disconnect the torque arm attatching the axle to the tranny, I believe you do to get enough of it to drop. You must disconnect and remove the cat back exhaust system, drop the heat sheild along with the panhard bar attatching the axle to the body (long bar side to side), along with the bar above that, removing that completely. At that time, you can take the gas cap off, and take the plastic bezel out to make your life easier underneath. After that disconnect the 3 gas lines (careful of getting gas in eyes), and pull the little plastic (should be white) vent out of it's perch so it doesn't get tugged and destroyed. From there disconnect the two straps and get ready to catch a gas tank. It won't go far, as once it's fully down, you'll have to twist and pull to get the fill tube out of it's little frame notch of a home. Once you drop the tank, spin the ring, pull everything out, being careful not to damage the fuel level sensor inside the tank. Check condition of inside of tank, and replace the pump and sock, put new gasket in and put it all back together. Enjoy.

Hmmm...okay now I see, then I think I am just going to end up leaving the fuel pump alone then...maybe later on....and as for the fuel filter, where is it located and like how would I replace it, thanks again for the great comments guys....

Unless you have the money to blow don't replace it, better off doing a tuneup like the first reply said, but additionally change the air filters, and all the fluids, and the trans filter.
Fuel filter is located on the fuel line under the driver side of the car, just go by the rear driver side wheel crawl under there and look for a decent sized metal canister in line, with 3 other lines running parallel, far as removing just takes a wrench and some swear words, or if its really stuck on there because your car was neglected and pretty much abandoned for over a decade like mine you might have to cut the hardliners and put a rubber hose type one on with some rubber hose tied into the lines...eventually I will replace the fuel lines with braided mesh or SS when money permits...

But yeah, def don't replace it just for the hell of it, money could be much better spent elsewhere. Also you don't HAVE to drop the rear stuff to do it....some people cut a hole in the floor to access it from the top.

If for what ever reason the lines get ruined going into the filter, you can replace either side with a power steering line repair kit and double flare it into your existing hard lines.

I'm not going to fuel the fire on the fuel pump swap (no pun intended), but GM did what they did 29-19 years ago for reasons we will never know, but if they had interest in saving labor hours in their shops for warranty services, they would have put a door there. Then again, also if they were smart, they would have made the fill neck disconnect-able like the LS1 gas tanks so that you don't need to lift the car as high.

Spray the connections for the fuel filter every day with PB Blaster for 2-3 days FIRST, use two wrenches like you are supposed to, and you shouldn't have any fuel line issues when changing the filter.

If GM was logical about everything the F-bodies would have got aluminum heads before the non performance fwd cars, imo they didn't do an access panel to save time and money.

Nah. They didn't do an access panel so that the dealers could have another 8hr job to bill for.

8 hours? i guess that includes a 5 hour break right?

that and the pump usually only needs to be replaced once every 20 years... if you use good parts, so why go through the effort to install a access door and all the spacial plumbing and sealing required?

Plus the fact that if they put aluminum heads on the LB9 and the L98, we'd have vette times in a cheaper car, and thus creating internal competition. Iron heads were tried and true, and gave modest power for the time, and the aluminum heads and more ponies was the benefit of spending the extra 10k on a vette. Plus to keep the cars cheaper, the iron heads were used, aluminum costs more to mass produce.

And to the above, thats probably was thier thought, that a fuel pump would not be a popular thing to need to do, so that, along with the fact that a good 30 mph rear ending at a red light with someone not paying attention, I have to assume, especially if they are in a SUV/Pickup, that axle hump is gonna be wasted and mangled, and if there was a door there, the posibility of the top of the tank rupturing and the door being opened, the speculation is endless. Could argue the rolling over arguement too, but then that wouldn't substantiate why other cars have em under the rear seats, but again, I don't wanna make an arguement of the situation, but I have to assume, whether it was cost saving, or life saving, GM thought about it, what you do with it after that is up to you.

Um, I think you need to reread my post and double check which forum section this is, I wasn't talking about the v8 cars, I was talking about the v6s, and cheaper to produce doesn't really explain why either considering the fwd cars were mass produced on a much larger scale collectively than the rwd cars that carried the v6s.

And the iron heads that came on the v8s might be decent, I wouldn't know, but the iron heads that came on the v6s were crap.

I've looked in the stickies and can't find this answer...

does a 3.4 run just fine on a 2.8 pump? If and when I replace my pump, I'd like to get a pump that will run the 3.4 (if and when I ever switch over)

Yes, I think its the same pump as the v8 cars, may be wrong on the 2nd bit but I'm not on the first.