Inliners International Forums General Discussion Engines Electric Fuel Pump?

My 20 yr old Series 70 Mallory fuel pump quit. Any suggestions on a replacement. The Mallory now cost about $230 to replace. An equivalent Holley Red is $99. Any noise or reliability problems with the Holley? Any other quiet and reliable pumps available?

I have a mild 302 GMC with 3 Weber 32/36 carbs to feed.

The Holley pumps are loud, but not excessively. I'm using an inexpensive Carter pump that is now on its third car. I don't remember the model number. I bought it at an O'Riely's years ago and it has served me well. I think it costs around $75.00 now and it isn't real noisy.

I got a napa electric pump and have been running it for 5 years no problem thus far. Haven't done any trips more than 20 miles one way though. But have been driving my truck 7 days a week! Be sure to mount the pump as close to the tank as possible....preferably with the tank higher than the pump...this will help the pump push more than pull.

I just looked at the Holley website, and they offer a number of electric fuel pumps for the street. My experience with Holleys is that I put a Holley red pump in a '68 Mustang several years ago, and it was quiet and efficient. My main recommendation is to mount the pump as near the fuel tank as you can. This give you more efficient fuel flow and less "in cabin" noise.

That said, I had the engine rebuilt on an '83 Nissan pickup about 15 years ago and told the shop doing the work to put new fuel pump in the truck because the original pump had over 100,000 miles on it. I also told them if they couldn't get a factory pump not to change the pump, because it was still working fine. The idiots ignored what I told them and put a Holley blue (race) pump and regulator in the truck and mounted it in the engine compartment. It was very noisy, the regulator seeped gasoline, and the pump drew enough amps that it kept melting the fuel pump fuse. After the second time that happened, I took the Holley pump out and replaced it with a Purolator pump that was the equivalent of the factory pump (which wasn't available any more). The Purolator pump has been in the truck for at least 6 or 8 years now, and has been working just fine.

As I said earlier, Holley now offers pumps very similar to the Purolator pump, which probably draw less current than the red pump, and definitely less than the blue pump. I think the red pump probably draws less than the blue pump as well. As a side note, when I went back to the shop that did the engine work on my truck to complain about their sloppy work, they had gone out of business. That gave me something to smile about, but I still wish I could have given them a piece of my mind about their crappy work. But that was a small annoyance, and was definitely compensated by knowing that they were out of business and wouldn't be screwing any more customers.

At any rate, whatever pump you get, check the amperage draw and make sure that it doesn't exceed your fuel pump fuse. And if the pump is rated higher than your fuse, whatever you do, don't put a higher amp fuse in the circuit. What may happen then is that instead of melting the fuse, it may melt the wire insulation and short out the circuit, which is VERY bad.

I've had no problem with the Holley red pump or the Purolator pump, and have put a lot of miles on both of them.