My LS3 swap has been derailed a few times. Every time I come back to work on it something else has cropped up. Now it is the electric in tank fuel pump. I bought the setup a couple of years ago from Tanks inc. installed it and all was well. Fired it up this morning and this is the sound I get. No way in he)) it should sound like this. It has maybe an hour run time on it. Yes there is plenty of fuel in the tank. I did run it low for a minute or two but it certainly was not dry either. Looks like I'll be pulling the tank again. I'm getting tired of doing everything 2 and 3 times. I just want to get this done before next driving season.

video not working for some reason.

 

Sorry to read the fuel pump dumped. I know your a professional with your corvette Gordon and only the best mods go in your vett. But for fuel pump access an external/inline pump seems to be the match for the C3 corvette. Plenty of high flow external pumps now available. Just dont mount it to any thin metal or body panels - solid mount to frame. And the place to mount it on the corvette for drag racing is behind/aft of the fuel tank so acceleration keeps pump wet/full. This would require bending or replacing the sending unit supply tube rearward/aft. For road racing i would consider a sump at the bottom of tank.

Hope this helps.

 

I did all that, and still after a few years, my FAST pumpe dumped :- (
Well a new is in stock, and will be installed in the car ASAP.

 

Wow, hate to hear of the problems. I know you do things the right way.
I thought about this very thing (pump reliability) before I did my in-tank pump. That is why I did the in-tank, and used a factory 6.0 pump - Delphi.
I have experience with aftermarket pumps failing before I thought they should. Mine may go out tomorrow, and some have aftermarkets that last for years, but I still prefer the OEM brand.

 

It is a Walbro pump which have been used in probably billions of miles in a lot of different cars. I called today and the tech guy was in a meeting. I did let the fuel level get to low and it cavitated for a few minutes and the motor ran like crap. Only 20 psi at the fuel rail. When he got back to me he said that may be the cause of the noise. Also restriction but it started making all this noise once I put another 5 gallons of fuel in it after the low fuel incident. Getting 60 psi but a lot of noise. Wish I could get the video to work you can really hear it.

 

Yes they can fail just as easy as any in-the-tank fuel pump but the replacement is mostly a plug and play. Dropping the fuel tank on any car is not fun or quick. U will see a lot cars jet access hole cut in them for replacing the fuel pump (like my '94 camaro).

But the point i wanted to make is quick replacement with external pumps.

 

My old setup with the injected 383 used an external pump and big filter. It would have been an easy change. Dropping the fuel tank on mine won't be to bad. I have zippers on everything by now

 

A new product that looks promising from Holley. It would solve a lot of injection swap problems with fuel starvation. I still like the pump surrounded by fuel for cooling, but this could solve a lot of tank/sump issues. I don't think it is available just yet.
https://www.holley.com/news/articles...uel_reservoir/

https://www.holley.com/products/fuel_systems/hydramat/

 

I feel your pain Gordon.. We've been on a similar roll in our shop...

Installed a new dated windshield a couple of months ago in a 69, we didn't install the wiper door. Customer installed the wiper door and WTH.. The windshield was warped. No kidding. The middle of the wiper door molding was hitting the glass, the area on both the passenger and driver side (in front of the driver) was warped downward almost 1/2".. it looked horrible. There is a picture of it on our facebook page if you are there.

Same car, we notice the dash pad has an issue in so we warranty it out... New dash pad with same issue (mold is now being fixed), and now we will have to wait a couple more weeks for the new replacement. No worries I'm sure it will be perfect when it arrives this time.

So we whip over to the 65, customer wants a newer updated stereo installed... My guys get this done and oh wait.. the amp is cutting out on the left bank all of a sudden. We flip the wires and it does it on the right bank... Defective Amp.. No kidding.

So we go back to the 69.. Tranny is out being re-sealed. Remove the four front bolts to seal up the front hub... Can't get them loose with a ratchet, try larger ratchet... no go.. Try impact.. whew.. they come loose already. Three of the four holes are toast. A bolt that is supposed to be 25 ft lbs was 150 ft. lbs.

This is all in one day... So now.. the day is over my friend and you know if I was close enough I'd pour us a couple of long pours... and we'd laugh about this in a few hours.



Good luck Gordon, keep moving on.

Ernie

 

Sounds like me with my car, I think I could disassemble it blindfolded by now!

Seems to me this would be a good time to install a proper fuel sump!





I love spending other people's money!!

 

Yes I'm a couple of glasses of wine into tonight. Tomorrow is another day and there is always something new to mess with. It will get done you just have to keep plugging away.

Yea me too. While I have it out I'm sure I will do something else to it. Nice setup. I even considered replacing the tank with one of tanks inc already setup tanks for their pumps. Even though the tank is brand new and has maybe 2 hours of run time.

 

I'm running an external walbro 255 on my vette, and internal on my other car. No issues with either after years. One thing to look out for was fake Chinese walbros that came out a few years ago. They were even labeled "Walbro". Google it, there were a few sites that showed how to ID them.

 

That sucks. Walbro is very widely used and I've never read a bad thing until now.
I have an external pump but I went with Weldon. They are more $$$ but they are one of the best.

 

Well I guess I will be dropping the tank shortly. I have another car coming this weekend for some work, actually David's 71, Sparty. That should take a week or so then I'll pull my tank down and replace the pump. The only thing I can think was it ran for a couple of minutes with low fuel. Never ran dry but the fuel pressure dropped from 60 to 20 psi so it was sucking a little air. Maybe ran like this for 2 minutes.