What are the goods and bads of an electric fuel pump? Im thinking of getting one for the new motor.

Goods= No engine heat transfer to fuel, available in many pressures/volume, Can be mounted anywhere(tho they are pushers).

Bad= Some are noisy, need own electrical supply, more sensitive to contaminants in fuel.

Electric fuel pumps have gotten a bad reputation in some circles for high failure rate. However, the failures are usually traced to incorrect installation. As a previous response said, "electric pumps are pushers" which means that the inlet port of the pump has to be mounted lower than the bottom of the fuel tank. If the pump is mounted too high, where it has to try to suck the fuel from the tank, it will overload and burn up. If it is mounted lower, then gravity feeds the fuel to the pump and it can push it to the carburetor.

When mounting the pump for my pickup I found a spot where the intake for the pump would be level with the outlet of the tank. I then installed a good quality filter between the tank and the pump. I also installed another smaller filter just before the carb. This system works very well and noise is kept to a minimum. Although it looks like there is not much room between the exhaust pipe and the filter, there is actually almost 6 inches of room.



Centerline

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Centerline
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So an Electric fuel pump has to be mounted near the tank and below it? So when i get a fuel cell it will be easier to mount it and get it to work right.

jimdavis hit the nail on the head. There really are no major drawbacks (aside from noise) if you install them correctly. The fuel contamanent "view" is really not an issue "if" you install a good filter between the pump and tank (how it should be done). The noise can even be reduced if intalled correctly. If there is a drawback I would say it would be that if your pump were to fail on you, out in the sticks, chances are they won't have a nice BG pump in stock at the local Napa store. I have run them on the street for years and have never had one fail on me. I have used several brands BG, Holley, Mallory. Just buy a good quality pump and install it correctly.

If you do a search on "electric fuel pump" on this site you will find a lot of info. I know I have described the correct way to install and wire them a few times.

You will see that people that have had issues or don't like them, either never ran one or had it installed wrong.

One other disadvantage is the cost, it is not cheap to do the job correctly.

Advantages are, cleaner engine bay, less heat and HP draw (debateable), able to adjust floats without running the engine. Nice steady cool fuel supply.

Royce


Edit: Yes it is much easier to mount and plumb with a fuel cell. Mount the pump as close as possible and below the bottom of the tank/cell.

Ok thanks guys. Ill do a search see what i find.

My setup on my '33 Ford street rod is almost identical to Centerline's shown in the photo. I have a Mallory pump mounted right at the tank and the inlet is just below the bottom of the tank. I have an inline filter between the tank and the pump and another inline filter where the fuel line comes out of the frame rail and goes to the engine. I have successfully run this setup for eleven years.

There is a safety issue that no one has mentioned.

If you have an accident, you want the fuel pump to shut off in case of a fuel line rupture. There are several safety switches available to accomplish this. One is a no/low oil pressure switch.

Just for clarification, the pump needs to be below the bottom of the tank, but does the outlet from the tank need to be on the bottom? i.e. can I use the stock sender in my chevelle that goes in through the top so long as I mount the pump correctly?

An electric pump should be gravity fed, meaning from the bottom of the tank for optimal performance. Trying to pull from the the top of the tank can work, but will put more wear on the pump. This will also reduce the volume of fuel the pump can flow.



Actually if you wire the fuel pump through an oil pressure switch so that it will only turn on once you have oil pressure this will not be an issue. You can also install a mercury switch if the vehicle gets into a collision that will cut power to the pump. Electric fuel pumps have been on factory cars for decades, and more of them crash every day than all of our Hot Rods put together.

I believe that is what I said.

Yes, I am aware that the factories have been using electric fuel pumps for years. Some, if not all, also have the safety feature that I mention as well as other devises.

Unfortunately, I have seen many "Hot Rodders" that have not taken this simple safety precaution and felt it should be mentioned.

I moved my fuel pickup line from the top of my tank to the bottom. I have a short stub of tubing that sticks up into the tank about a quarter inch so that sediment and crap from the bottom of the tank does not drain down into the outlet line and into the pump. As mentioned before, I do have a small inline filter between the tank and pump to catch any stray junk. Personally I would not recommend having the pickup line go in the top of the tank.

Yes, you "can" pull fuel from your stock location. It is not the best option, but by mounting the pump as low as possible it will create a syphon and once the pump is primed it won't have to work that hard. Once your fuel level gets low is when the "negative" effects of pulling from the top will show up.

If you mount your pump in a safe location there should not be an issue even in an accident.

Royce