Preferred elec fuel pump for F-head ?????

After replacing the oem fuel pump twice and installing a new Solex carb....all in the last 6 months....I am still having starting problems after my '65 sits for a few days. Fuel seems to be draining back into the crankcase from the fuel pump and it takes considerable cranking to get fuel up to the carb to get it started. Once started it seems to run good. I am considering by-passing the oem fuel pump and installing an elec fuel pump with an anti-drain back check ball in it. Have any of you guys had this problem or resorted to an elec pump to solve the problem? If so, is there a brand and model of fuel pump you would recommend to me? I am assuming I will need to use a low pressure elec pump as opposed to a high pressure model.......correct?
Thanks in advance!

 

I have a fuel filter and a fuel pressure regulator between the oem pump and the carb; just need a brand name and model for a preferred elec pump if anyone has a favorite.

 

I have a Purolator electric on my L-head CJ3A, and I DON'T recommend it. Had to run an electric, as the engine was "borrowed" from a wagon for use while I was rebuilding my original one, and the backwards driver's side motor mount interfered with my stock pump. The Purolator was the only one available off-the-shelf from my local parts shop, and I needed a pump right away. It was embarrassingly loud (scared the quail while hunting!), and tended to lock up and quit working after running in the rough for awhile. Had to rap it with a wrench regularly to get it pumping again. It finally quit for good on me when I was in the middle of nowhere on a weekend prospecting trip. A long walk to the only parts house around, and guess what brand of electric pump was the only one available?!! The new one is as loud as the first, and I have to bonk it about once a week to get it going.

 

Holley Blue with the Holley Low pressure regulator between it and the carb.

AND DON'T FORGET THE OIL PRESSURE SAFETY SWITCH your life could depend on it.

 

Never heard of an oil pressure safety switch.......tell me about it!

 

No glass bowl. I had been using the oem type double diaphram model because the oem wipers(got rid of them long ago) required the 2nd vacuum diaphram......had problems with fuel drain-back on it, so now have an oem type single diaphram model and I'm still having the fuel drain back problem.

 

Sounds to me like your problem is not with the pump draining back, but instead with the carburetor. Once the fuel gets past the inlet (needle) valve at the float bowl, there's no way that the fuel pump can siphon the fuel back out.

On all carbureted cars that I know of, the fuel bowl will sit idle and remain full for weeks. Fuel will only evaporate if the float bowl is open the air somehow. The bowl vents that emerge inside the air horn are not large enough to allow all the fuel in the bowl to evaporate, except over several weeks. If you start your Jeep weekly, that should be plenty to keep the float bowl filled.

 

I don't disagree with anything you guys have said; and, I thought it was a carb problem, too....but, here is my set-up: fuel goes from gas tank to the mech pump to a clear plastic fuel filter to a pressure regulator to the carb. W
Why (after a couple of days sitting) is there no fuel in the clear plastic bodied filter if the pump diaphram is not faulty?

 

My V6 does this same thing (draining the clear filter after a week or two). Surprisingly, I still have no trouble cranking the engine b/c of the fuel remaining in the carb. The engine runs off that fuel until the pump re-fills the filter and gets the system primed again.

Again - I know this is not the Solex nor the 4cyl, but I think the same principal is at play here.

 

If your V6 does the same thing, aren't you getting fuel in your crankcase? I am...I can smell it on the dip stick.
I looked at 3 different elec. fuel pumps today. The Red Holly, a Napa unit, and the (not recommended) Purolator. They all seem to be too large to fit my application without a lot of fabrication work. I found a Carter unit in their catalog that appears to be smaller, but I haven't found one to actually hold and look at yet.
I have very little room to mount an electric unit, with my under seat fuel tank and the exhaust manifold/headed coming off on the driver's side.....there isn't much room!
BTW....none of the parts vendors had anything good to say about the Purolator unit.

 

An Oil pressure safety switch is a relay in the power circuit that is activated by an oil pressure switch so that when there is no oil pressure the power is cut off to the pump so that if you get in a wreck the electric pump does not just keep pumping fuel. which can happen if the float (in the carb) is on it's side.

here is an excellent web page from Holley with details

http://www.izook.com/tech/samurai/engine/fuelpump/fuelpump.htm

 

Thanks....after your post yesterday, I was looking at the Holly site and read about this unit.
In one of the first replies to my question....one of the guys recommended against using the universal elec pump by Purolator(Facet) because it is both noisy and short lived; I have a buddy who flies an RV home built plane and he recommends the Facet elec pump P/N 40106.......now I need to find out if this is a higher quality pump than the universal one or if (Heaven forbid!) it is the same unit the guys at this site don't like.

 

I would worry about diluting the engine oil if there's gasoline in the crankcase. That would be bad.

The usual path for gas in the oil is from the fuel pump, leaking through its mounting hole. Excess fuel from the cylinders is also possible - that means that raw gas is going past the rings into the crankcase - also bad.

Sounds to me like an electric fuel pump would solve your problem(s) if you also remove the existing mechanical pump. However, a properly functioning mechanical pump would too, and they are (in general) simple, reliable and completely adequate.

 

I agree, and add ,most of the time in my case anyway when an electric fails it does so immediately with no warning and a mechanical I can usually see it progress into failure. As a result I prefer a mechanical pump for a stock engine.

 

I have replaced the oem stock type mech pump 3 times since I bought this Jeep about 15 yrs ago. The first replacement lasted many years. The second replacement lasted less than 2 months and now this third one is about 6 months old. Funny thing, none of these replacement pumps have the glass bowl......is this something I should be specifically looking for? The pump I have in place now, is a single diaphram model built by Carter.
This morning when I looked under the hood, the fuel in the clear filter housing was totally full, but I bet it will drain out after a couple of days.
Anyone tried using a fuel check valve on the outlet side of the oem type pump?
Thanks for all the discussion here, Guys....