- 24
- 102
- 28
- Location
- Oregon
Three years ago I replaced my fuel filters and O-rings in the hydraulic head and when I went to start it up again I realized that the in-tank pump had quit working and this recent work had caused me to lose the prime. I replaced the fuel pump with another in-tank pump from one of the vendors and thought I was going to be good to go for a long time. Unfortunately, this past October I was out driving my truck and was getting a little low on fuel so the truck was running rough. I pulled over on the side of the road to figure out why the truck wasn’t running smoothly like it normally does. I knew I needed to fill up, but didn’t think I was THAT low on fuel because it still had little less than 10 gallons left. Almost as soon as I pulled over the truck quit running and I assumed that I ran too low on fuel, so I called someone up to bring me some. I put another 10 gallons of diesel in the truck and tried to start. When I tried to bleed the air out of the lines I wasn’t getting anything and was stumped because I thought there was no way the replacement in-tank fuel pump that I put in 3 years before had already bitten the dust. I ended up having to get towed home by another vehicle, which was a whole separate adventure. Luckily, I was only four miles or so away from home, but it was definitely unnerving because of the size of the other vehicle doing the towing.
After getting the truck home and having more time to think and troubleshoot I came to the conclusion that the in-tank pump that was replaced 3 years prior had gone bad. I was very apprehensive about buying another one of these in-tank pumps because of the cost, I wasn’t happy with the service from vendor I had bought it from, and the apparent unreliability causing me to be stranded in the future; I want something that would last longer than three years. I suspect the replacement pump I had gotten three years ago was manufactured in China. I did a lot of research here on Steel Soldiers about a replacement fuel pump and decided to go with an external in-line pump. I originally ordered a new Airtex E8131 because it was getting such praise here on the forum. After I received my order I found a thread where a member a few years ago said the E8131 wasn’t putting enough GPH out and had some issues with it. It appears that the E8131 that received good reviews was an older version that did have more GPH than the newer version. I then went back to research more on in-line external fuel pumps and came across Walbro pumps being up to the task; Walboro pumps were just a little pricey, which I would have preferred something cheaper, but honestly have no problem spending the money for something that was built to last. I tried buying the Walbro FRB-23-2 from several online stores that sold them with the price ranging $190-$270, but everyone said they were out of stock after I placed my order. I am not sure why these are hard to come by, but it became apparent that I was not going to be using one.
I got a lead on using a Facet pump next and ordered one from Pegasus Racing (FAC-40237 Facet Dura-Lift 24v Fuel Pump). I was happy when I went to the Facet website and they had quite a bit more information on it than some of the other options I had been looking at. This Facet pump fit the criteria: it was 24v, put out 9-11 PSI, 33 GPH, and should last 10,000 hours; the cost was $120 too, which seemed reasonable to me. After my pump arrived we worked on a place to mount it and started working on fabricating a bracket for it. When making the bracket we wanted the pump to be easy to install/remove if it ever needs to be replaced on the side of the road, so we had that in mind when designing it.
We decided to mount the fuel pump near the inside of the frame rail, since it was too tall to fit exactly inside the rail. Also when designing the mount we decided to use the existing holes that hold the fuel tank onto the frame to also hold the bracket, since we didn’t want to have to drill any additional holes in the frame. After welding the bracket up for the pump we went to work on making the electrical connection by making a new plug that had Packard connectors that would plug into the pump on one end and the other end of the plug would connect into the factory outlet. The plug is made from aluminum as the housing with a nylon insert that insulates the wires. We made sure to label the wires the same as what is on the truck to keep things straightforward. This Facet pump has 1/8” NPT fittings on it, which meant we had to adapt the ½” fuel line to work with this pump. It would have been ideal if the pump had a bigger inlet/outlet than the 1/8”. We used 3/8” steel lines for the hard fuel lines that were replacing the ½” factory hard fuel lines. We had to buy/make a few fittings to get everything plumbed up correctly. We made a protective metal box to keep the pump safe while driving down the road. The bottom of the box has holes drilled in it to drain water. This protective box is also easy to take on/off so it isn’t a big deal to check on or remove the pump if it is ever needed. We made some special oversized stainless steel nuts to hold on the pump to the mounting bracket and for the protective box.
We thought we had some issues with the Facet pump at first and contacted Pegasus Racing. They had really good customer service and helped us out with the issue we thought we had. I ended up buying a second Facet pump from them to keep as a spare in case this one dies ever when I am on the road. Replacing with the same Facet pump should be easy with how we designed everything. Hopefully my experience here can be helpful for someone in the future who has the same issue. I was originally going to use the Airtex E8131 as an emergency back-up, but really like how the Facet pump is designed much better. The way we made this Facet pump work was so that if, for any reason, we wanted to go back to the original design with an in-tank pump it would be easy. We only removed one hard line and made the electrical connection plug and play.
UPDATE:
02/05/2025
After I posted this thread I started having issues with the Facet fuel pump not being able to reliably start the truck; I am not positive why this is the case, but think that perhaps the fuel pump still didn’t produce enough GPH. I also questioned if the 1/8 inch pipe ports on the pump were too small. The truck began to have a hard time wanting to start sometimes if it sat for very long. Once the truck was started it didn’t have any issues, but just getting it to start the truck reliably became a problem. It seemed as if the fuel pump might be losing its prime when attempting to start after sitting for a few days and air was getting in the line. When I first thought I might have air somehow getting into the fuel lines I checked the fittings I used. Then I checked the pickup tube, which was rotten and not held on very well, so I replaced it. After I replaced the pick-up tube and checked my fittings the truck did better for a little while, but ended up still seeming to lose prime. The Facet pump is supposed to have a check valve to prevent fuel draining back, and I contemplated putting an additional check valve in, but in the end I decided to go back to an in-tank fuel pump. I am not sure if perhaps the Facet pump was having trouble pulling through the in-tank pump that was in there, but chose to just go back to what I know would work, which was a disappointment because of all the time and effort spent on making the Facet pump function. I am still going to leave part of the Facet pump mounted and carry around the fuel lines I made for it and the Facet pump will be used as my emergency back-up pump. It has been cold here lately and I am unsure if that contributed to my problem with the Facet pump not being up to the task. I only run diesel or biodiesel in my truck, just for reference. I hope my experiences here with this pump will be helpful for other people in the future.
After getting the truck home and having more time to think and troubleshoot I came to the conclusion that the in-tank pump that was replaced 3 years prior had gone bad. I was very apprehensive about buying another one of these in-tank pumps because of the cost, I wasn’t happy with the service from vendor I had bought it from, and the apparent unreliability causing me to be stranded in the future; I want something that would last longer than three years. I suspect the replacement pump I had gotten three years ago was manufactured in China. I did a lot of research here on Steel Soldiers about a replacement fuel pump and decided to go with an external in-line pump. I originally ordered a new Airtex E8131 because it was getting such praise here on the forum. After I received my order I found a thread where a member a few years ago said the E8131 wasn’t putting enough GPH out and had some issues with it. It appears that the E8131 that received good reviews was an older version that did have more GPH than the newer version. I then went back to research more on in-line external fuel pumps and came across Walbro pumps being up to the task; Walboro pumps were just a little pricey, which I would have preferred something cheaper, but honestly have no problem spending the money for something that was built to last. I tried buying the Walbro FRB-23-2 from several online stores that sold them with the price ranging $190-$270, but everyone said they were out of stock after I placed my order. I am not sure why these are hard to come by, but it became apparent that I was not going to be using one.
I got a lead on using a Facet pump next and ordered one from Pegasus Racing (FAC-40237 Facet Dura-Lift 24v Fuel Pump). I was happy when I went to the Facet website and they had quite a bit more information on it than some of the other options I had been looking at. This Facet pump fit the criteria: it was 24v, put out 9-11 PSI, 33 GPH, and should last 10,000 hours; the cost was $120 too, which seemed reasonable to me. After my pump arrived we worked on a place to mount it and started working on fabricating a bracket for it. When making the bracket we wanted the pump to be easy to install/remove if it ever needs to be replaced on the side of the road, so we had that in mind when designing it.
We decided to mount the fuel pump near the inside of the frame rail, since it was too tall to fit exactly inside the rail. Also when designing the mount we decided to use the existing holes that hold the fuel tank onto the frame to also hold the bracket, since we didn’t want to have to drill any additional holes in the frame. After welding the bracket up for the pump we went to work on making the electrical connection by making a new plug that had Packard connectors that would plug into the pump on one end and the other end of the plug would connect into the factory outlet. The plug is made from aluminum as the housing with a nylon insert that insulates the wires. We made sure to label the wires the same as what is on the truck to keep things straightforward. This Facet pump has 1/8” NPT fittings on it, which meant we had to adapt the ½” fuel line to work with this pump. It would have been ideal if the pump had a bigger inlet/outlet than the 1/8”. We used 3/8” steel lines for the hard fuel lines that were replacing the ½” factory hard fuel lines. We had to buy/make a few fittings to get everything plumbed up correctly. We made a protective metal box to keep the pump safe while driving down the road. The bottom of the box has holes drilled in it to drain water. This protective box is also easy to take on/off so it isn’t a big deal to check on or remove the pump if it is ever needed. We made some special oversized stainless steel nuts to hold on the pump to the mounting bracket and for the protective box.
We thought we had some issues with the Facet pump at first and contacted Pegasus Racing. They had really good customer service and helped us out with the issue we thought we had. I ended up buying a second Facet pump from them to keep as a spare in case this one dies ever when I am on the road. Replacing with the same Facet pump should be easy with how we designed everything. Hopefully my experience here can be helpful for someone in the future who has the same issue. I was originally going to use the Airtex E8131 as an emergency back-up, but really like how the Facet pump is designed much better. The way we made this Facet pump work was so that if, for any reason, we wanted to go back to the original design with an in-tank pump it would be easy. We only removed one hard line and made the electrical connection plug and play.
UPDATE:
02/05/2025
After I posted this thread I started having issues with the Facet fuel pump not being able to reliably start the truck; I am not positive why this is the case, but think that perhaps the fuel pump still didn’t produce enough GPH. I also questioned if the 1/8 inch pipe ports on the pump were too small. The truck began to have a hard time wanting to start sometimes if it sat for very long. Once the truck was started it didn’t have any issues, but just getting it to start the truck reliably became a problem. It seemed as if the fuel pump might be losing its prime when attempting to start after sitting for a few days and air was getting in the line. When I first thought I might have air somehow getting into the fuel lines I checked the fittings I used. Then I checked the pickup tube, which was rotten and not held on very well, so I replaced it. After I replaced the pick-up tube and checked my fittings the truck did better for a little while, but ended up still seeming to lose prime. The Facet pump is supposed to have a check valve to prevent fuel draining back, and I contemplated putting an additional check valve in, but in the end I decided to go back to an in-tank fuel pump. I am not sure if perhaps the Facet pump was having trouble pulling through the in-tank pump that was in there, but chose to just go back to what I know would work, which was a disappointment because of all the time and effort spent on making the Facet pump function. I am still going to leave part of the Facet pump mounted and carry around the fuel lines I made for it and the Facet pump will be used as my emergency back-up pump. It has been cold here lately and I am unsure if that contributed to my problem with the Facet pump not being up to the task. I only run diesel or biodiesel in my truck, just for reference. I hope my experiences here with this pump will be helpful for other people in the future.
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