Ran out of gas the other day but got home OK (that's another story). Fuel tank not leaking and fuel line OK. Put fuel in the tank but when I started her up and looked under the hood, there were powerful squirts coming out of the top of the fuel pump!! On close examination, the fuel was coming out of a small (1/4") hole in the "dome" casting at the top of the pump. This hole points towards the back of the truck. The hole has no threads. Now I know where my $45 worth of fuel went....bugger!

Should there be a plug in that hole or is this a breather hole? A new pump at NAPA is $70 so I'd prefer to fix the old one since it is working.

Can anyone help? Advice please. Thank you in advance.

 

No, the hole is a vent and your pump has a ruptured diaphram. Change it ASAP.

 

ALso change the oil I have seen these fill the crankcase with gasoline, also an explosive situation plus it can thin the oil causing bearing failure if it doesn't blow the pan off first.

 

Thank you gentlemen.... I notice the pump seems to be sealed up and not rebuildable like the really old ones. Seems a shame that the diaphragm isn't replaceable. I'll fix it this weekend and change the oil at the same time.

Cheers!

 

I went through the same thing. I had replaced diaphragms for years. I was in a state of shock when I went in and tried to buy a diaphragm and found out you couldn't buy them anymore. What the heck is this world coming to? I would rather see diaphragms filling up landfills than entire fuel pumps. Plus a lot of the pumps you buy now days are crap. At least you could control the quality of the item in those days.

 

Not trying to hi-jack this or anything, but what about oil on top of the fuel pump? The oil seems to be appearing from the pump itself? The block above and around the pump is dry, so the gasket doesn't seem to be leaking. The oil seems to be coming from a metal ring around the middle of the pump. This ring looks like it holds the upper, and lower halves together. The pump is about 2 months old.

 

The shaft and lever pin are open to the oil so that they can be lubed by the engine oil. They just didn't seal the pump properly when then pressed the pump together. This is another example of the poor quality of workmanship that they have today. That pump probably came from china. They are even beating Mexico out in making cheap parts. You are going to have to replace the pump or put up with the oil leak. This is another reason why I go to the racing stores and buy Edelbrock pumps. The also have Carters but they are more expensive.

 

wb6vvv: I'm driving down to Seattle and then Portland next week. You say that Edelbrock and Carter pumps are available in 'racing stores". Since the price of a regular pump is about $70 up here in Vancouver, do you know of a store in Washington/Oregon I could contact to see if they have a good quality pump that would work on my 460? I wonder if one of those X style pumps that were on hi perf 429 Mustangs would fit? The X style pumps are rebuildable. Thanks for your comments.

PS - I don't mind buying a Chinese junk pump (sorry for the pun) but it should cost about $7 max, not $70.

 

You want a rebuildable pump. Buy the Holley mechanical fuel pumps. You can get everything for them.

 

You can order them right on the Internet. Just go to Summitracing.com and order it. The Holley pump for the 460 is HLY-12-460-11 and is around $90.00. The Edelbrock is EDL-1726 and is around $120.00. You can buy repair kits for both of these pumps. I have seen the Edelbrock for $100.00 in several racing stores. You can do a search on the Internet and might find them cheaper. Also note that these are 110gph high performance pumps. The pumps you buy at the local auto parts are probably 50% of that flow and sometimes less. You get a heck of a lot better pump for $20 or $30.00 more.

 

OK, thanks to all for the good advice! I'll shop around for a rebuildable unit.

 

...and thanks for the advice for my oil leak. I'll dig out my reciept. The parts store I shop at is pretty good at letting me return/exchange stuff. Lord knows I 've spent enough money there.