Fuel Pump Work - 06/11/2014

Obtaining the correct fuel pump for a Pontiac v8 with a 4bbl is not exactly easy anymore. A small part that costs less than $25 required special ordering and took almost 4 days to arrive. But I'm glad it did!



New fuel pump courtesy of Rock Auto. It's a Carter, the box says Made In USA (I can rest easy knowing the box was made right here), the housing looks almost identical to the old AC Delco pump I had. The important part of this one is the fuel lines are aimed at the driver's side!



Lines are removed, they come out the frame here next to the exhaust manifold on the driver's side.



New pump is installed and ready to plumb. Easy times here.



In-line filter put on the feed to prevent gunk from the tank from prematurely failing the pump - which could have been a source of the failure in addition to exposure to air. Don't mention the battery cable, that's on the list of things to fix in the future.



Lines are run, no need for extra length of the previous setup. Using the higher quality clamps rather than the worm screw clamps that eat the rubber.



After firing everything up and finding half a dozen leaks in the engine compartment plus the tank and plugging them all, I went to fill up the tank. I had put around 2.5 gallons in the tank plus some extra still sloshing in the tank that wouldn't come out. Add that minus the spills from the leaks (some quite serious) and I had a gauge sitting ever so slightly above the E mark. It took 16.5 gallons to fill up completely. They weren't kidding about 19 gallon tank, that's what you get! The car doesn't smoke anywhere near as bad as it used to, but there is still some smoking going on. With ethanol free 87 octane and new plugs\wires it idles extremely smooth and without issue. Runs right through the gears too! Might need to put 100-200 miles on it and then check the smoking situation again, probably change the oil again too just for peace of mind ($49 for oil & filter vs. $2500 for an engine seems like a no-brainer).



After putting the steering column in, I needed to put the cancel cam with a horn provision in and install the turn signal. Lock plate depressor tool is installed to push the plate down to get the c-clip out.



The steering wheel really only goes on one way! Same with the column.



And the new steering column is done with a working horn!



The cowl has no screen over it. You can get all kinds of nastiness in here that will rot your car out and for heater cars blow into your fresh air ducts.



Hardware to mount the new screen.



And the cowl is on and mounted! Not the prettiest thing out there, but very functional.



And it's hidden by the hood so you can't even tell it's there. But since I know it's there, I feel better.



Speaking of feeling better, I feel much better now that the grommet for the tach and accessory wiring is installed to plug the gaping hole. It's pretty nice!

Progress! Now it merely needs an alignment to fix the steering wheel offset and some run-time to determine if the smoking issue is gone. Side bonus is the oil pressure gauge is reading correctly again, so I guess I can believe it when it reads low!

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Last updated June 11th, 2014