Electric fuel Pump install?

[kapnklug]

I've used the Walbro FRB-22 (marine version of the FRB-5). It worked well for a while, but started sucking air between the housing and the lower fuel bowl, causing me alot of grief, since I checked everything else before suspecting my brand new $120 fuel pump. I got it from the walbro website. I later fixed it by cutting a custom gasket from gasket paper to go between the two halves.
I'm currently running a Holley "blue" pump, which is way overkill at 14PSI but seems to do the job.
Also if you're gonna run a canister-style prefilter before the electric pump, be sure to mount it VERTICALLY in the fuel line. If it's mounted horizontally it will trap air and cause intermittent air in the fuel.

 

[top_prop]

I have been trying to decide if I want to install one on my M1008 also. Like on of the previous posts. If I do install one, would I have to bypass the engine driven lift pump? I was thinking of installing the electric pump on a switch< more for priming then running constantly. Will fuel pass through the electric pump while it is not on if were to try to use it as a secondary (priming pump)?

I just installed an electric and used it to prime the system then shut it off and ran with the mech pump just fine... haven't hit the highway yet, but it seems to work... I intend to find a good 'run' circuit to splice the fuel pump onto then remove and bypass the mech pump.

{edited}Found a good female fuel line to 3/8 barbed connector for the Mech Pump Bypass... see below

 

[lavarok]

Use one of the ignition controlled 12v spots on the left side of the fuse box. You should have 2 or 3 free ones. They are single spade, non fused, so make sure you add an inline fuse.

 

[top_prop]

Use one of the ignition controlled 12v spots on the left side of the fuse box. You should have 2 or 3 free ones. They are single spade, non fused, so make sure you add an inline fuse.

I was hoping to find a wire in the engine compartment to save going through the fire wall... i think I'd have to pull the fuse box off, run the wire through the firewall, and tap it in the back of the fuse box to do what you are suggesting... or could I just add it to the connector? Please let us know here!

I'm sure that is solid advice... but a bit beyond my experience level. I never have pulled a fuse box apart so I didn't even consider it! Seeing I really wanted to finish this one and move on, yesterday afternoon I traced out the various wires using the -34 scematcis.... E-4 through e_9 if I recall correctly... and decided to splice it into the Pink/BLack wire that sends power to the water in fuel sensor amoung a few other sensors... figured if I screwed that circuit up the consequences would be minimal...

But I suspect Lavarok's suggestion above is far superior.

I tapped in where the bundle comes through the firewall near the back of the fuse panel, but looknig back it would have been an easier and shorter run if I would have just hit the pink/black water in fuel wire near the fuel filter housing. (I ran the wire right up below the NEG/GND buss bar and tied it in there right on the buss with a large ring terminal, then ran up over the glow plug resister and down to the fuse box bundle)

ETA: Looking back I wished I'd tied on to this pink black line (faded it looks more orng/black) near the standadine square fuel filter... connecting there would have been easier and required less wire... on my civie 6.2 suburban the standadine was replaced with a spin on a long time ago and the wires were there unused... easy patch in...


Still looking to make this a good standard well though out mod for hobbiest newbies like myself!

Oh and to summarize the physical install of the Airtex 8153 kit (comes with two metal hose barb nipples, hose clamps, two 18 Ga butt splicers, & two ~3" sections of 3/8 fuel hose... though the instructions specify using 14Ga wire & the leads off the pump are 18GA )and a Fram G3 type 3/8" inline filter:

We (my friend 'Shade_Tree' did most of the work) cut the rubber fuel line near the muffler where it goes from inside the frame rail to the top outside, and used a siphon to start it draining down an extra piece of fuel line as I just got the truck an didn't know what was in the tank.... we got about 7 gallons out and found all the fuel to be bright and clear, so we stuffed an air gun up to the hose, blew air up to stop the siphon and started the install of the electric fuel pump and pre filter.

Shade_Tree decided to move the fuel return line and break line up to the top hole, and squished the large OEM retainer to hold them separately. This took a bit of coaxing on the hard pipe, but nothing that came close to making a kink. Doing that let us use the lower hole for the pump and it held it perfectly just off the bottom of the frame rail with a very slight upward tilt. Shade_Tree cut back the large middle solid tube that went over the frame rail (the supply tube) back towards the tank by removing the bolts that held it on the rail and then used a small pipe cutter. To clean up the burs we then used a counter sink on a drill to ream the inside a slight bit and a file to clean the outer burs... this put the cut higher than the intake of the pump and allowed the pre filter to have the upward slope to mininize air pockets... seeing there was no barb on the pipe we slid the 3/8 hose up it about 3" and used two screw type hose claps to be doubly sure of a good seal.

To make an install of the pre-filter truly vertical in such a tight space, we couldn't see how to do it with out buying pre made 3/8 inch 90's. But this seems like a very good compromise: When the electric pump is running it pulls all the air out and there are zero air pockects. the mech pump pulls fuel through the filter and pump at idle just fine but does have a very small airpocket in the filter (see pic).

My mercedes 240D has a small inline prefilter was well along with a hand priming pump mounted to the block... i've never had 0 airbubles in it except when it starts to clog and then it will begin to fill all the way with fuel as the part of the screen that was submerged starts to clog.

Next is finding a good fitting to bypass the mech pump (so I can reinstall it if I want... or a EMP kills my electric pump ) Looking for help there too. See red arrow on B&W graphic below... though the graphic shows a male end... the CUCV pump has a female fitting on it... so the bypass will need a female end of the same thread and size.

Also need to make a heat shield to protect the filter and pump from the exhaust that they are so close to.

Materials list thus far:

--Airtex - Diesel Electric Fuel Pump Kit, Part Number: E8153 $60
--Fram G3 or equiv 3/8 inline fuel filter $4
--Electrical Tape: (on hand)
--10' small black conduit: $10
--20' black/yellow AWG 14 automotive wire: $10
--Zip ties (on hand)
--Blue electric wire taps $5
--Multi-pack Butt Splicers $10
--Weather tight fuse holder $5
--Large ring terminal: (on hand)
--10A micro fuse (on hand)
--4' 3/8" fuel line $4 (only needed a foot so far) $8
--hose clamps (on hand)

 

[lavarok]

I was hoping to find a wire in the engine compartment to save going through the fire wall... i think I'd have to pull the fuse box off, run the wire through the firewall, and tap it in the back of the fuse box to do what you are suggesting... or could I just add it to the connector? Please let us know here!

That sounds like too much work. You should have a hole or two to run the wire into the cab near the fuse box or somewhere under the dash. If not, drill one. Use a rubber grommet and your good to go. Attach to fuse box from the inside.

Edit: If your wiring works, just leave it. Maybe others will see an issue with tapping that wire, but I cant think of one now. If amp draw ever became a worry, you could add a relay. The pink wire jump would close the relay and you could wire the switched side of the relay to the 12v term block and the pump.

 

[top_prop]

That sounds like too much work. You should have a hole or two to run the wire into the cab near the fuse box or somewhere under the dash. If not, drill one. Use a rubber grommet and your good to go. Attach to fuse box from the inside.

Edit: If your wiring works, just leave it. Maybe others will see an issue with tapping that wire, but I cant think of one now. If amp draw ever became a worry, you could add a relay. The pink wire jump would close the relay and you could wire the switched side of the relay to the 12v term block and the pump.

I'll probably run it through the fire wall and into the back of the fuse box like you suggested, if I start to blow fuses. I didn't think of that... I'm a shade tree amature afterall!

The relay is an interesting idea that I didn't consider: could pull power right off the 12V hot bus and use the pink/blk wire to switch the relay. Hmm... I don't want to add another relay myself. I'd just rather not have another point of failure when your first suggestion seems simple and cheap.

Thanks for the suggestion!

 

[top_prop]

Shade_Tree came over today and did alot of the work again ... today we got the mech pump out, fashioned a blank off plate, and rtv'd them in place. Remember to remove the pin that engages the arm of the mech pump... mine stayed in place and fell out later or we would have forgot it was there!

Once the pump was off we confirmed the fitting I bought at o'reliys just need a female to female coupler on it to fit on the end of the existing metal fittings (so we could swap the mech pump in if we ever wanted to).

My dad had warned me to check and make sure the stock bolts wouldn't bottom out once we had the pump off if we used a thin blank off plate. And it was apparent that the original bolts would bottom out before they'd put any tension on any sort of thin blanking plate. We realized the the trick was making up for the difference in thickness of the pump housing, or buying new bolts... We considered just using thin stock and cutting spacers, using a bunch of washers, or even just a couple big bolts and a washer I had laying around. Seeing I had 5/16 plate laying around, and Shade_Tree has a plasma cutter, we cut a blanking plate the same dimestions as the pump housing that we RTV'd to the original plate that went between the pump and the block. We only needed one set of washers to make it stock thickness.

We also slit a small piece of 3/8 fuel line lengthwise and used some electrical tape to keep it on the starter wire due to it rubbing on the coupler (not pictured).

The big thing to me is that I can always go back to a mech pump if I ever wanted to... (about the only reason I could think of doing that would envolve EMP or TEOTWAWKI)


Parts break down:

-Red RTV
-3/8 Brass Trans cooler line fitting to 3/8 barbed fitting (item # 563953 "Needa?" O'Reilys)
-3/8 brass inverted flare fittings (Autozone 785-316 "Dorman")
-Teflon Tape
-Blue Thread locker
- ~8" 3/8 rubber fuel line
-2 Hose Clamps
-2 Washers

 

[top_prop]

Fashioned a heat sheild and installed it...

Sprayed it with Rustoleum rubberized under coating... that was days ago and its still sticky... I now officially do not like that stuff.

So I hit it with some rustoeum hammered silver I had laying around, which dried hard on top of the undercoating. I figured it will reflect the heat better.

I fabbed it out of some thin sheet that used to be an organizer for a work top... dimensions below are approximate... i utilized one of the screws holding the floor board heat shield above the muffler and used a couple self drilling stitch screws along the bottom... then I backed them out and cut the drilling points off with some bolt cutters, as they were very close to the rubber fuel lines, dressed the threads with a file and put them back in to hold the heat shield. I also flexed the heat shield to increase the clearance from the muffler and the exhaust pipe (ie its not flat but wavy/bent).

EDIT: Installed a second pump on my civi suburban with a 6.2... similiar to what I did on the CUCV... but I tapped the electric for the pump at the filter housing (fuel heater circuit) instead of wrestling with the wire bundle at the fire wall.... less wire, higher up (for going off road and not having it get wet)... and the stanadine filter housing on the Civi suburban was already abandoned and a spin on filter without heating or water in fuel was there... so the wire was unused anyways.

 

[joediveguy]

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[paraclete comes]

Thanks for this info, went out and bought one today. Comes with everything you need to install. Great part to keep in the beast for emergency use.

Thanks for all the info and research so many have posted here. I'm getting my M1009 soon and want to do this mod. I've checked around for the Walbro.... to expensive.. and found the 88 Chevy Van pump (E8153) seems to be the best compromise in cost and performance...

Airtex - Diesel Electric Fuel Pump
Part Number: E8153
Line: AIX
UPC: 80044090571
Universal
Type: Solenoid
Volts: 12
Pressure: 10-14 PSI
Flow (GPH): 35
Inlet/Outlet Size: 3/8 Inch Hose

I plan on putting a clear non oem filter in between it and the tank as a prefilter.... I'll take and post pics here.

 

[kassim503]

My 1008 clogged its tiny multi stage oem fuel filter, which I stupidly diagnosed as a bad fuel pump. Been down that road and decided to upgrade to a better electric pump & filter setup. Put in two Wix spin on bases and a 14 micron fuel/water seperator prior to the pump, and a 2 micron secondary where the old filter went. Disconnected the WIF & fuel pressure connectors. Installed a block off plate craftily made of 1/4" flat stock. The hardest job of it all was really removing that old fuel pump.

Photo #4- Autozone's "Armourmark" Thailand-ese fuel line. Who wants to take bets on when ill be revisiting this one?

 

[timarr]

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[yamabro]

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[K9Vic]

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[firefox]

In reference to putting in a plate instead of leaving the mechanical pump in place.
I agree that running the mechanical pump dry, would be a bad idea in view of
failure and possible oil loss etc. Why not just remove the pin that activates the pump?
Put the pin in a piece of hose and then secure it in place near the pump. Make a
bypass for the pump. Then in an emergency if the electric pump fails, you can switch back to the mechanical without needing to have the mechanical pump at hand.
Just a thought, no guarantees.

 

[av8rnik]

I have been searching through all the electric fuel pump threads and have not seen any mention of folks using an in-line fuse for the pump. So what size use have y'all used for the pump, i can seem to find electric load info the airtex E8153.

Also, i have seen mixed info/opinions about a pre-filter. Is it really needed? There isnt a pre-filter for the mechanical pump so why would you need one for the electric?

 

[top_prop]

My pump said to put it on a 10amp circuit. I recommend tapping the fuel heater line on the stanadine filter electric loom.... Orange black iirc. On my civie suburban with a 6.2 I ran mine from there. It was an easy run with loom and zip ties. I also had replaced the stanadine filter housing with a spin on... The heater wire was abandoned.

 

[top_prop]

Oh and I listed the fuse in my post number 44... And described the fuel filter heater circuit in post number 48.

 

[MarcusOReallyus]

i can seem to find electric load info the airtex E8153.

I have heard nothing but bad about the Airtex pumps.

 

[av8rnik]

Top_prop - thanks, somehow i missed that. I knew i saw somewhere a 10A fuse mentioned but then when i went back to look for it again i couldnt find it.

MarcusOReallyus - from all the posts i have read through i have seen opinions going both ways. What in particular has been problematic?