Fuel Pump for Zetec powered Seven

[Clark]

The throttle response on my Seven has been fairly poor lately and getting worse over time. Today, I checked the fuel pressure and found it is only 15 psi. The spec for the Ford Contour Zetec is 30-40psi. The fuel filter has less than 1,000 miles and all other sensors, injectors, etc. seem to be working fine. This leads me back to my fuel pump having given me its best, but sadly, getting worn out.

My car is a 1999 Zetec-America and the engine is still in stock form as delivered. The car has over 92,000 miles on the odo.

The in-tank fuel pump has the following numbers on the pump body: 6443327, and C1159-1. There is one other number stamped into the plastic fitting on one end: 2126.

Does anyone have a line on these pumps or recommendation where to get one? Or possible upgrades?

I appreciate the help!

[rzempel]

Not much help, but my car has a generic NAPA outside the tank pump mounted on teh bulkhead forward of the fuel tank. Having assisted with repair/replacement of a Caterham inside the tank pump, I prefer the outside one. If I recall correctly, I managed to source the Caterham pump from a Buick Grand National or something equally exotic/rare.

Randall

[Doug Liedblad]

Clark

You should be able to get them direct from Caterham. They do have a higher pressure version that still fits in the tank.

[Clark]

Hi,

The pump that's presently in my car is the high flow type that I purchased from Woody Harris several years ago - while chasing another drivability problem. He said it worked well with the race motors he installed in his own cars and also Pierre DeMartines'. I don't recall if the one he provided for me was new or used. At any rate, it's not working up to spec now.

Bruce at Beachman Racing has offered to source a new stock pump from his own inventory or ?? I asked him to go ahead and send one to me.

I sent an inquiry to Caterham about a new pump and received the following reply: "We are no longer able to get the fuel pump complete. We believe the fuel pump only is available from Merlin Motorsport from the following link: https://www.merlinmotorsport.co.uk/s/fuel-system/fuel-injection-pumps/caterham/seven." Since many of our Zetec and Duratec powered Sevens were produced during "K-Series" production at Caterham, I assumed our fuel pumps were a Rover part. Who knows?

Finally, I asked a mechanic friend who does a lot of custom hot-rod work about using an external pump. He didn't recommend going that route because in his words, "they tended to suck in air bubbles when the tank starts getting low and electronic fuel injected engines are good at letting you know when this happens." Has anyone had good or bad experiences with external pumps? An external pump would sure would be easier to access when it fails.

Best wishes,

[slomove]

I have an external Bosch pump since 2004 (was part of a fuel injection retrofit kit from Woody). Never had a problem. With my Fuel Safe cell and the check-valve pickup box in the bottom the internal pump would not work anyway.
This is for a recirculating fuel system with an adjustable bypass pressure regulator (not a pressure controlled pump).

I have used the car on extended trips up to 105+ degrees outside and did not get the pump cavitation even with an in-line filter on the intake side (plus a high pressure filter to the injectors). But I remember that Stan in Victorville used to have a hell of a problem because the stupid sintered brass intake filter in his tank had too much resistance and his pump failed with internal bubbling when hot. When he cut off that filter the problem was gone.

As for the pressure 30-40 psi is on the low side, usually I guess it is better 40-60 psi to get a good spray atomization. But more important to make sure that the pressure regulator (assuming you have one) maintains the same pressure as used when dialing in the fuel map no matter how high that pressure is. Keep in mind the fuel flow goes with the square root of the pressure and e.g. a 10% low pressure will lead to approx. 5% too lean mixture.

[Doug Liedblad]

Morgan (MOPHO) has an external fuel pump on his car. Probably too much capacity for what he needs but he bought the car that way. He also has a fuel cell that doesn't use the standard fuel pumps.

Most of the problems he's had were from the foam breaking up in the fuel cell.

If you do use an external fuel pump be sure to run heavier wires to it as some draw a lot of current. Both the ground and power wire need to be 10 to 12 gauge. You can wire it thru the fuel pump relay.

[Doug Liedblad]

Did Merlin give you any help?

[JohnCh]

I run a low pressure external pump to a swirl pot and then an external high pressure pump to the engine. This was the setup recommended by Raceline in the UK when I converted my car from carbs to injection. it's been working well since 2004.

-John