Haunted Rover V8 finally gets fuel pump driven by electrickery

[Junkman]

Yep, you read right.
After 5 years of standing around chain smoking for 45 minutes every time I switched it off, and the car often stalling in heavy traffic even on cold days, even I had enough.

Hence some component buyage was done:


This is the pump I'm going to use:


So first, some soldering needs to be done.

Don't forget the shrink tube:




Out comes the solder:












Neat, huh?
And tomorrow I will show you how set the car on fire.

[tooSavvy]

 

..... This car will SelfDestruct in 30 seconds ......

 

 

TS

[Bren]

That looks far too professional and is missing the components usually associated with this site ie scotchloks and silver paper.

 

What vehicle?

[Jim Bell]

The black bit stops the magic smoke escaping. Or its supposed to.

[Junkman]

No worries, I have this:

 

[Conrad D. Conelrad]

Yep, you read right.

After 5 years of standing around chain smoking for 45 minutes every time I switched it off, and the car often stalling in heavy traffic even on cold days, even I had enough.

If anyone thinks this is an exaggeration, if you Google "Rover P6 broken down" or "broken down Rover P6" the top result is about Junkman's car.

 

[PhilA]

I'd often seen those "electronic fuel pump" items advertised.. and wondered just how you managed to squeeze petrol through a microchip.

 

I looked it up and was disappointed to find it's a solenoid operated points-less device.

 

That's ruined the magic for me now.

 

 

--Phil

[Inspector Morose]

They are renowned "bastards" for vapour lock on the V8s. All of mine succumbed to electrically pumped fuel in the end after many tricks to keep the fuel and pump cool.

 

Oh, 4 P6s so far, one 2000TC, One 2200TC, One V8 five speed and one, never finished, diesel.

 

Next year.....

[PhilA]

Why not try the same sort of scheme that my Renault has to avoid vapour lock?

 

Constantly circulating fuel, bled off to the (in my case injector) carb at the right pressure- this one is adjustable to bleed off anywhere from about 7 to 20 psi

 

Keeping the fuel moving back to the tank keeps the fuel cool all the way through the system.

 

It's a thought

 

--Phil

[Junkman]

That's exactly what it should be doing after the conversion, if it doesn't explode and turn Stockport into a crater.

Which wouldn't be a bad thing on many levels, when I think about it.

[tooSavvy]

..... well then, to allow Stockport to evacuate..... make that 》 》 50 Seconds

 

 

TS

[Junkman]

Right.
Stockport sadly still stands, although its good people are hitherto unaware how close a shave that was.
Anyway, I let the pictures do the talking.
 

 

 

 

 

 
 
Result:

 
 
Even after only running it for a short time, I can already say that the car is transformed.
It starts instantly, the tickover is a lot more stable, and the throttle response is a lot crisper.
 
Tomorrow, I will show you the inertia switch installation (it just got too dark to take any decent pics of it)
and there should be some test drivage forthcoming.

[mat_the_cat]

I don't want to knock your hard work, but there seems to be a length of fuel line under suction, above the exhaust manifold. That *may* give issues on a hot day, especially if you are moving slowly. If all the pipework in the engine bay is under pressure, that should help reduce the potential for vaporisation.

[Taff]

I am a huge fan of leccy fuel pumps and routinely fit them to my elderly yanks as the engine driven ones are always gerfinktered.

 

However.....

 

I always fit them at the tank end and fit an NRV and regulator in the engine bay. I'm not saying I'm right and your wrong, but I've never seen one fitted at the motor end before, mate

[mat_the_cat]

I've never seen one fitted at the motor end before, mate

 

I've done that on the Stellar V8 which works fine, BUT the line on the suction side is routed at the bottom of the engine bay (cooler), and there is a restricted return to the tank.

[Junkman]

I don't want to knock your hard work, but there seems to be a length of fuel line under suction, above the exhaust manifold.

 

It may give the impression in the photo, but in reality, it's far from it.

 

I had the car running until it reached operating temperature, and every inch of the fuel pipe was ice cold.

You all should see where the original pipe is routed, which is behind the engine over the bellhousing, then goes between the LH exhaust exorst manifold fannymould and the engine block forward to the pump, which is mounted below the manifold and usually has the same temperature as the engine. It looks like they carefully selected the hottest route possible for it.

 

Now the suction portion of the pipe is at least 6 inches away from the engine at practically any given point and I can't feel as much as warm air in its vicinity. Add to this, that the electric pump pumps more petrol at tickover, than the mechanical one did under full load, so the petrol is constantly circulating back into the tank for coolage.

 

Nah, I'm convinced this will give stellar (oh, the pun) performance, even in a tailback in Sicily in August. Sadly there is not enough petrol left on the planet to get the car there and back.

[Taff]

I've done that on the Stellar V8 which works fine, BUT the line on the suction side is routed at the bottom of the engine bay (cooler), and there is a restricted return to the tank.

 

I'm cool with that Sir, just wondered. My background is squaddie mechanic on armour, so these sort-of fall under my heading of lift pump, rather thsn fuel pump (if that makes sense?) so close to tank is good in my world.

[Inspector Morose]

Engine bay fitting makes sense to me. If a feed pipe fails all it will do is suck air and dribble a bit. If it's on the tank end, it'll just keep pumping fuel out if the hole. Not that great if hole or split is caused by an accident (yes, I know you're fitting an inertia switch).

[mat_the_cat]

Good point, and a retrospective reason why I did it like that too!

[Junkman]

I am a huge fan of leccy fuel pumps and routinely fit them to my elderly yanks as the engine driven ones are always gerfinktered.

 

However.....

 

I always fit them at the tank end and fit an NRV and regulator in the engine bay. I'm not saying I'm right and your wrong, but I've never seen one fitted at the motor end before, mate

 

Did the cars you did this to have a reserve tap at the bulkhead? From experience (by others), if you feed the petrol from behind, the tap will budge under the pressure and you will have petrol spray in the hottest area of the engine bay, subsequently causing a crater, where currently Stockport stands. Hence, if you want to retain the tap's functionality, you must fit the pump in the engine bay.

 

Also, these don't need a regulator, because return pipe. We saw today, that an NRV is unneccessary, because the pump is priming itself within seconds,

despite it's currently on reserve with not much more than fumes left in the tank.

 

I IZ CHAMPION OF LAST DROP, ME

 

Besides, this is the RoD, it's possessed by an evil spirit.

I'm looking forward to the get back it is currently plotting.

[Taff]

Did the cars you did this to have a reserve tap at the bulkhead? From experience (by others), if you feed the petrol from behind, the tap will budge under the pressure and you will have petrol spray in the hottest area of the engine bay, subsequently causing a crater, where currently Stockport stands. Hence, if you want to retain the tap's functionality, you must fit the pump in the engine bay.

 

Also, these don't need a regulator, because return pipe. We saw today, that an NRV is unneccessary, because the pump is priming itself within seconds,

despite it's currently on reserve with not much more than fumes left in the tank.

 

I IZ CHAMPION OF LAST DROP, ME

 

 

no reserve tap on any of the yanks I've fitted a pump to, none of them had a return pipe either on reflection. in each of them, I fitted a regulator, nrv and low oil pressure cut-off switch at the motor end of the pipe.  

 

like I said JM, not a criticism, just an observation.

[Junkman]

Nope, yanks have no reserve tap, so you can mount the pump at the back, and no return pipe, hence you need a regulator on those.

Trust me, you don't want to connect anything to the low oil pressure switch of a Rover V8, because the oil pressure is frighteningly low even when new and the oil warning light often flickers on tickover. It says in the owners manual not to worry if it does (seriously).

That's the very reason why I opted for an intertia switch.

[Junkman]

The car is running a lot better throughout the entire OMGRPM range, despite I set it up on the factory default setting, i.e. the leanest possible mixture.

If not faster, at least it runs a lot smoother than it did. It didn't do anything untoward while we sat in traffic for a few minutes.

Throttle response is a lot sharper. It also started right up again after I shut it off when hot.

All things considered, I rate this as a success. Let's see what the next few weeks hold in petto.