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Best lift pump

1994ch

Well-Known Member
Messages
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Location
South Carolina
So back in the day, Walbro pumps seemed to be thought the "best" .... but they seem to have lost their reputation. That is what I am currently running but have had them go out on me a couple times so am considering something else.... I am rather hesitant to shell out the $500 or so that it would take to get the FASS pump that Leroy is now selling...... I can buy a lot of the $30 Airtex E8153 pumps for that..... Are the Airtex pumps worse than the Walbro pumps?
 
Yup. Walbro has better pressure & volume and lasts longer than the airtex. But the cost verses a little longer life makes it not worth it to most.

A few of us guys bought multiple pumps (stock style) and did comparison testing
The airtex had the highest flow at first, but most drop from the best to the worst within 100 hours use. AC Delco ep158 was the second highest flow but lasted the longest hands down.

The Fass and the Air Dogg are wicked expensive. But they get the full pressure needed.
DS4 is supposed to be minimum 8psi- we know getting to zero and vacuum does massive wear quickly- but the difference of keeping the pressure at 8 all the time and max of 14, extends the life of the ip - so that can be factored into the total cost.

Remember that inline style lift pump was created for the db2, and Stanandyne wasn’t on the hook for early worn out ip to GM because GM never met the required specifications.
 
@1994ch The Rated hours on the Walbro pumps are way different for the "FRB" DB2 pressure levels and the "FRC" DS4 pressure levels. 18,000 hours vs. 10,000 hours is nearly 2X the life. The lower hour pump cycles all the time where the other one cycles only when needed.

https://www.walbro.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/Recip5-8-13.pdf

It's a moot point because IMO the FRC-10 hasn't been produced since Walbro re-tooled the factory during the pandemic shutdowns. It's been out of stock for years.
 
An all-in-one alternative for the ~14PSI is


I an trying a duralift on an Onan Diesel generator as it has the screen built in. It's instant loss of power and stoppage if the lift pump fails.
 
For lift pumps that will not flow on failure- just install a T fitting before and after the lift pump. Then connect the two T fittings with a one way check valve in the direction to stop all flow from output side to the input side. Then when the lift pump is dead, the injection pump can still suck the fuel past the one way valve.

Remember a fuel pressure gauge tapped at the ip inlet is an ip saver.
 
An all-in-one alternative for the ~14PSI is


I an trying a duralift on an Onan Diesel generator as it has the screen built in. It's instant loss of power and stoppage if the lift pump fails.
Wich one of these pressure ratings on the Facet pumps would be best for a DS4? looking on their site they show a 10 max - 7 min, and a 15 max - 12 min psi.

I have used the cube style on lawn tractors in the past and they seemed to be good. I still have the EP-158 delco pump on mine but it maxes out at 7 and drops to around 3 under load, sometimes lower.
 
Wich one of these pressure ratings on the Facet pumps would be best for a DS4? looking on their site they show a 10 max - 7 min, and a 15 max - 12 min psi.

I have used the cube style on lawn tractors in the past and they seemed to be good. I still have the EP-158 delco pump on mine but it maxes out at 7 and drops to around 3 under load, sometimes lower.
The cube type Facet pumps seems to come with only 1/8th NPT fittings for 5/16ths hose.
The truck I have, it had the Facet cube pump on it when I bought the truck. Hose adapters 1/8th inch pipe to 3/8ths hose. After installing a fuel pressure gauge, the pump would go to 0 PSI on a slight hill.
I purchased from Leroy Diesel his wiring/fuel pump kit. It came with a Carter pump and pokes the pressure to 11 psi just in town driving and hangs about 9 under a loaded uphill pull.
I have heard and read that the Carter pumps is problematic but so far this one has been holding up very well. Been a couple of years now.
 
I was thinking the cube style had smaller fittings. they show up to 34 gpm on some of those cube pumps. Ill have to dig further into the specs on them to see if they have some that use larger fittings
 
The size difference is part of why a pressure gauge AT THE IP INLET is so critical.

You could have a LP with 1/16” port or a 1” port and pressure that is 1psi or 50psi at the LP. None of that matters. What counts is getting that pressure at the IP. And yes if that pressure is there with the larger 3/8” fuel line feeding it, it will cool better and last longer.
That goes for ds4 and db2, not just because the hey were trying to cool a pmd.
Any mechanical device simply lasts longer when running in a cooler temp. Engine heads, transmission, wheel seal and axle bearings.

And inside the ip remember there is pump veins in constant tension friction. Heat is the total enemy. It is amplified when the pressure is negative and you get cavitation inside the pump- that is a nightmare.

So you can try whatever pump you want. Just run the 5/16 minimum but prefer the 3/8 to the inlet, then the pressure gauge reading it there. Remember Stanandyne always pushed the 3/8” and it was GM’s cheapness that went down to 5/16. The ford ip db2 always outlasted the gm db2. There is the unfair thing of gear drive vs chain drive.
But then when you see the Case vs Massey Ferguson and they had identical pumps with only thing different being 5/16 vs 3/8 and guess which one always outlived the other. Oh, and they had same lift pump but Massey decided they would reduce the line to fit along the frame.
 
Better than nothing for sure But it measures pressure before the filter. So if it doesn’t have pressure you know you have a problem you need to fix asap.

But it could say you have 14 psi and you could have the engine not running or not running well and thinking a bad ip or something else when the problem is bad fuel line between the filter and ip, or plugged filter, etc. so I would NOT use an unproven lift pump.

If you begin to have problems and can’t figure it out- you CAN NOT say you have good fuel to the ip.

I won’t throw people under the bus because folks don’t want to look bad in front of friends. But I know 3 people on this forum that replaced good working ip to still have the same problem. And later learned the gauge tapped in metal at the ip would have stopped them from spending the big bucks.

If your gauge is electric, my suggestion is buy the fitting that mod mafia sells (or find the same one somewhere cheaper) and buy a second sending unit for your gauge.
Then you just need a switch. Both sending units go to the two “line” side of the switch and the “load” side of the switch goes to the gauge. So now with switch in position 1 you see the pressure at the ip. Then when you want to know if the fuel filter is plugging up move switch to position 2.

If you don’t want to get into all that, just leave it as is. But when there is a problem you need to move the gauge to that ip to honestly test it.
 
Thanks for the input........ sort of along these lines I have another issue to sort out. About twice a year this will happen (happened yesterday)...

Will be driving along and the truck will die.... look over and the fuel pressure gauge is on 0. I have Leroy's LP with pre-filter set up.... I can unscrew the gas cap and no vacuum there, but when I loosen the pre filter it relieves a major vacuum. Then all I have to do is re-prime the system and head down the road again. It is obviously either a collapsing fuel line between the prefilter and the tank, or something plugging the fuel pickup in the tank. I am thinking my next step is to drop the tank and see if the inner liner is coming up? and maybe replace all the fuel lines. Anybody else experienced anything like this?
 
if the fuel strainer or sock as it's called had come off the pickup tube and is floating around in the bottom of the tank, or even a peice of debris in the tank randomly gets sucked up against the pickup tube, that can starve the system and cause the issue. good idea is to pull the tank like you say, clean out along with completely removing the strainer sock and install a filter before the LP inline if your LP doesn't already have a true pre-filter. just make sure that the pre-filter won't "bypass" once clogged causing damage to the LP if trash gets to it!

plus plan to clean / replace the pre-filter on every oil change for good measure :)
 
I apologize if this is a different direction than what the OP wants to go in, but I've had an AirDog 100 on mine for about 20k now with no issues. Comes as a kit for our 6.5s. Not cheap!

Hoping to add a fuel sump and boost referenced regulator once the daughter's wedding is paid for.
 
So if I remember correctly (it has been probably 10 years since I did it....) but I am pretty sure the sock in the tank is gone..... I am using Leroy's pre-filter setup with a Walbro pump (have replaced the Walbro pump 3-4 times.... can't remember for sure (last fall was the most recent time). I will have to check the condition of the tank I guess and maybe construct some type of strainer to keep large chunks of tank liner from being able to block the outlet (or should I shell out the money for a new tank?) (assuming that the current one is losing its liner)

To answer Will's comments on fuel pressure gauge, my electronic gauge is connected to the main fuel filter outlet so it should read the same as what is going into the IP (as long as I don't ever get a restriction in the fuel line between the filter and the IP) Currently with the Walbro pump I only get 3-4 PSI.
 
@1994ch the rubber line close to the ip is the most common point of failure in the rubber line. Vibration of the engine and the movement of the engine every time it twists from revving up, all the line gets to the same cold point but on that ip over the engine is where it gets the hottest. So all the heat and flex changes are there. Then the 2 biggest variations of internal pressure is at the lift pump and at the injection pump. So the most physical wear and stresses on the rubber line are all there at the pump.
WarWagon posted pics of his hose failure at the ip, it was the classic failure that happens there and why I always push for the gauge at that location. Absolutely having one somewhere in the system is lightyears better than none.
 
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