Fuel tank swap.

Have you tried getting or looking at a tank at a bone yard (no to use if you wnat a new one but to be able to measure and see it? I am not surprized about pump failures. That is why they are in the tank because the fuel cools and lubes then too

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They don't need cooled or lubed any more than a typical blower motor. They are in the tank to make the average do it yourselfer shy away from changing the pump, thus raising revenues for dealerships. They are also in the tank so they could jack the price up by 1000 percent by making it some special part. Its just a cheap electric motor. Lots of people won't run less than a half tank of gas so they can keep the pump cooled. This is a crock. Pumps last a long time or they don't - it has nothing to do with keeping lots of gas in the tank. The one exception, (I would guess) is not to run the pump with an empty tank.

From '73-'87 the tank dimensions are the same and the only size difference was 16gal or 20gal. The only difference was the '87 tank had an internal baffle specifically designed to keep gas at the fuel pump pick-up. It is deadly for the fuel pump to run them dry for very long...10-15sec. '87-'91 Suburbans and full size Blazers have a rear mounted tank of capacities from 25-40 gal and are TBI ready internally. Find one and get all the mountings, lines, and electrics and install it...more capacity, better weight distribution, and like I said, TBI ready!

"George" wrote > They don't need cooled or lubed any more than a typical blower motor. They

Is this fact, or opinion? If fact, please provide links to technical articles, to corroborate.

Dave

You are wrong on that, many year ago my dad was involved in bidding on the motor for that pump on behalf of a manufacture he represented at the time and he told me all about it long before the first EFI truck appeared. It uses a specailly designed brushless motor that uses the gasoline to lube its bearings and to cool the motor as well because it would get pretty hot without it. (that is the real reason it is in the tank. Do not take my word for it, run your tank done to "E" an lot and keep it there and see how long the pumps lasts.

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How long should it last? I have a 26 gallon tank on my 99. It almost always takes me 22 gallons to fill up. My low fuel light comes on almost every time so I'm running low on every tank of gas I've ever bought. I have

Fuel pumps seem to be allot better than they were for early injection...and the price sure shows it!

Running it empty betwwen freqent fill is not bad but keeping it on empty and only putting is 5 gallons at a time is different. How long should they las? My 89 4x4 burb has the original pump and it has 175k on it and it has seen 50 below and over 100 above too. It really is a very precision motor in them.

I have been having real trouble with my in tank fuel pumps and have just bought an inline pump. I hope to fix my problem this way. I put an 87 350 into an 84 K 3/4 ton. I purchased new pumps from NAPA and have learned to remove and reassemble the tanks quickly (1/2 day or less.) I have had my share of problems with fuel flow being impaired. old tank was dirty and another one was the return line was plugged.

You should think about the return line idea, cause if you didn't have a fuel return line from the TBI to the tank, the pump would have been putting out maximum pressure with minimum fuel flow through it. Thus maximum effort with minimum cooling. The new sending unit for TBI will have a return line connection and the older sending unit probably doesn't have it.

The new sending unit will work on the old tank, just make sure you get the sending unit for the correct side. The tanks are the same from side to side, but the sending units are different.

Peace and good luck.