Holley mechanical fuel pump suddenly went bad?!

[eagleone1983]

I drove to our local cruise in tonight car ran great just as normal. Go to pull into a spot and the car dies, cranked it and fires up then dies again so I crank again and got nothing. Pop the hood and no fuel is running through the filter and I have no pressure when cranking. Took the line off the inlet side of filter and stick in a empty soda can, crank and fuel is barely coming out.

All lines, tank, pump are new, my restoration only has around 200 miles on it. Never had any issues at all before this, failure was sudden. The fuel pump is a Holley chrome 110 gph unit. any one had any issues with these? Apparently there is no rebuild kit for these and im hesitant to spend another $120 on one.

 

[Meep-Meep]

I have the same pump and it's been trouble free. The problem might be the fuel pump push rod, but when those fail it's usually the same symptom as a plugged filter. If you went from all the fuel you could ever use to nothing then perhaps the pump is the culprit.

 

[Hemirunner]

I run a cheap holley pump.........and I keep a cheap holley pump in the spare parts box in the trunk. They're known for sudden pump death syndrome.

 

[lewtot184]

i had one once. had some issues with it. it would hold 6psi but wouldn't pump fuel,....i never figured it out. put a carter on the engine and dropped 6 tenths in the quarter with no other changes.

 

[eagleone1983]

I'm just gonna go with another Holley and hope that mine had a one time issue. At least this time if the problem comes back it might fall within the 90 day warranty. I've been doing a bunch of research and it seems all the pumps...Edelbrock, Holley, and Carter have stories of premature failure. I'm hoping your right about the symptom of a failed pushrod, Meep, and that isn't the culprit because I'm overseas right now and won't have a lot of time to get her back on the road in time for the last car show/poker run I'm doing this season. Luckily, I have a spare motor in the backyard so I can just pull that pushrod if need be. Either way, I'll be measuring the pushrod to ensure it's the 3.25 inches it's supposed to be or at least that's what I read.

 

[Kern Dog]

Funny that you should post this!

I JUST finished breaking in the Lunati cam in the Charger. I had to shut it down twice when the engine started to stumble due to a fuel pressure drop. I was at the 15 minute mark when the pressure dropped from 6 to 3 lbs. After a shutdown, I let the engine cool for awhile, then I went at it again. 10 minutes in, the pressure dropped again.

 

[Kern Dog]

Last night in my sleep I thought of this. Heat soak.
MAYBE my car and the fuel system got too hot during the cam break-in due to heat soak. There is no fan shroud on the car and my helper fan wasn't very big. It was 94 degrees during break in. The fuel was bubbling in the filter as the pressure dropped. The engine ran fine during intial startup but as it warmed up, fuel pressure dropped.

Maybe your car was heat soaked too?

 

[eagleone1983]

Greg I thought of that too but still had a no start condition after complete cool down. I pulled the fuel pump and rod and found this... It looks like I'm another victim of the cam eating the pushrod. I'm not sure if the pushrod that was installed was an aftermarket one or an original but I pulled one off the old 400 in my backyard and they look different. The one from the 400 has an engraved line that goes all the way around in the middle of the pushrod. The one that was eaten by the cam doesn't.

So my next question is can I just install this other pushrod I have and be done with it? Is there anything else I should do like change oil or just change the filter? It figures something like this would happen now since I just changed the oil about a two months ago with Amsoil Z-ROD which isn't exactly cheap. I also took apart my Holley fuel pump to inspect everything and all the seals look good to me, when I put it back together is there anything special I need to do?

 

[Kern Dog]

That pump pushrod didn't wear out overnight. But........
If they are hardened like I suspect they are, it may be a case where it was fine for thousands of miles with almost ZERO wear, THEN once it broke through the .010 hardened outer layer, the softer inside wore away quickly.
I have seen this before. Your different styles could have still been the result of different vendors to Chrysler. They could both be factory issue Chrysler parts even though appearance differs.

 

[eagleone1983]

I hope the one I've got with the line in the middle is OEM as I've heard the Mopar Performance ones are junk. I'm hoping, after confirmation on here, that I can just throw this other push rod in and change the oil and filter and be done with it. I think you maybe right Greg since the car was running great all the way to the car show then all the sudden as I was going to park it just quit. Either way, the pump looked good and it seems to be doing it's job when I depress the lever it'll try to suck my finger through the "in" port.

 

[eagleone1983]

Can anyone verify that the pushrod I have with the machined groove in the middle is not a Mopar Performance push rod. Hopefully not so I can throw it in my engine, change the oil and get her running again.

 

[eagleone1983]

I got the push rod in and tried to start it but it didn't start. I do have fuel up to the filter now but I don't know what the pressure is. I'm gonna have my wife crank it for me so I can check pressure tomorrow

 

[bm02tj]

I hope you did not take the lobe off the cam that drives the pump rod

 

[eagleone1983]

yeah I hope not either, if so I guess I'm going to electrical pump and if thats the case anybody have any recommendations for a pump and how to install one.

 

[eagleone1983]

Got her figured out, the push rod was the culprit. I put about 100 miles on her yesterday with no problems. No I need to figure out why my secondaries aren't opening