fitech install om 77 c10

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74 Shortbed

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You guys are really over complicating the fuel system side, an 87 tank an sender with a 96 fuel pump seems alot easier to do, to me anyway.....

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Not so easy when the pump takes a **** out in the middle of nowhere. :D Surge tank is as simple as can be, and build it right and you can swap pumps in 10 minutes anywhere and be on your way.. :D
 

74 Shortbed

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Excellent! I think I just saved a whole bunch of money on my EFI!

"50 minutes can save you 50% on your fuel issuance"

:cheers:
That's always a good thing.. :waytogo:
 

bluex

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Not so easy when the pump takes a **** out in the middle of nowhere. :D Surge tank is as simple as can be, and build it right and you can swap pumps in 10 minutes anywhere and be on your way.. :D
Nearly every modern vehicle these days has an in tank pump. Yes they fail but it's not like they fail every 2 years or something as long as you buy a quality one
 

74 Shortbed

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Nearly every modern vehicle these days has an in tank pump. Yes they fail but it's not like they fail every 2 years or something as long as you buy a quality one
But you never know when that failure will happen, could be right out of the box or 10yrs down the road, but you know it will happen at the worst time.. :D
 

R8rPhan

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You guys are really over complicating the fuel system side, an 87 tank an sender with a 96 fuel pump seems alot easier to do, to me anyway.....

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But that doesn't help me much 25 miles in on a remote dirt road when the pump or EFI quits and I need to slap on the old carb and that cheap electric fuel pump to get me home.. Dropping the tank is kinda beyond a roadside fix...

:cheers:
 

Green79Scottsdale

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I am with bluex on this issue. Obviously you guys stay as far away from modern vehicles as you can. You are going to carry a carb and fuel pump and all the tools to do this fix, in your truck at all times? Do you carry extra springs/retainers/valves just in case something goes wrong with your valvetrain? Hell, might as well carry a whole new engine with you too... cause you never know when it will fail.
 

74 Shortbed

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Not me, cause I won't put that stuff on mine, lol.:D
 

crazy4offroad

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Although I agree carrying a carb and all the stuff to switch it over doesn't appeal to me, an in-tank pump doesn't either. Is there an external pump option? When I searched RockAuto for a 1996 Chevy K1500 fuel pump I noticed this one listed with the others, will it supply enough PSI/GPH? If not, are there other options? Besides the fuel commander and the Edelbrock wallet-emptier.
http://www.rockauto.com/en/moreinfo.php?pk=977645&cc=1051120&jsn=601&jsn=601

How I found it:
http://www.rockauto.com/en/catalog/...kup,5.7l+v8,1051120,fuel+&+air,fuel+pump,6256
(7th under standard replacement pump)

I would rather keep an extra fuel pump in the glovebox than a carb, distributor, complete toolbox, etc etc
 

74 Shortbed

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I just keep a spare HEI module and screw driver in the glove box, lol..:D
 

bluex

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We are just going to have to agree to disagree on this subject I suppose. If you guys are that worried about a failure that you'd carry the entire carb setup around with you, maybe you should just stay with carb. Ya know the old saying "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" right?

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R8rPhan

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We are just going to have to agree to disagree on this subject I suppose. If you guys are that worried about a failure that you'd carry the entire carb setup around with you, maybe you should just stay with carb. Ya know the old saying "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" right?

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The electronic stuff is more efficient, starts easier, economical, etc... But it's electronic stuff.. There is no hillbilly hack when it fails.. So, yes, I plan to carry the hillbilly hack with me... within reason.. We're talking a small box of stuff here...

Having such an attitude has saved my ass more than once in the past...
:cheers:
 

74 Shortbed

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Don't look at me I ain't using that stuff, LOL..:D
 

R8rPhan

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I just thought of another reason why a surge tank is a great idea..

With in-tank EFI pumps, you have to keep them submerged in gasoline or they will overheat and fail, requiring replacement.. They are NOT cheap...

This happened to me twice on my 2001 Chevy express G1500 (currently sitting up on blocks for over 2 years now because I simply could not afford the $3000 to replace the catalytic converters).. as a result, I always kept at least 1/3rd of the tank full (anything under 1/4 tank is tempting fate, especially in the summer months).. This essentially reduces the true capacity of EFI equipped fuel tanks by 25%...

But with a surge tank, you can use the full volume of the tank.. The pump in the surge tank will always be submersed, and even more so than the in-tank kind..

Even if you ran out of gas in the main tank, you'd only be exposing the surge tank pump to an unprotected condition for a few miles and as such the risk of destroying it would be much less than the same condition with an in-tank pump... 10-15 miles, vs 60-90 miles or more... a few minutes in potentially damaging circumstances vs an hour or two...

Just something else to consider... This is also true of a frame rail mounted pump vs an in-tank model...

FI pumps are not cheap.... It hurts when they fail... Not to mention that replacing them is much more of a pain in the ass with an in-tank style pump...
 
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bluex

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An EP381 (what you can use on a 87 sending unit an tank for a 60 psi system) is $59 on rock auto.

My wife never keeps the tank above a 1/3. In fact she consistently runs them to E an makes light come on. I've had one in tank pump fail on us in like 17 yrs. Does that shorten their life span? Probably so but they also don't fail every 6 months either....

Imo the surge tanks are bulky, ugly an unnecessary but we all have our opinions....
 

bluex

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An on that note I'll probably hold off on a fi swap myself. I put over 600 miles on my square this past weekend, with no issues, problems or reasons to replace the carb. I even got about 16 mpg out of it!
 

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