Help please. Holley Red electric fuel pump won't stay primed.

that spot will be great as the gravity will feed the pump instead of trying to pull it over , your going to have to use a o ringed fitting ( speedway and earls sells them ) so it seals tight and don't drip try to use a radiused 90 like a An hose pipe style to prevent any cavitation ( forged 90's will cause massive cavitation from trying to change the flow path inside and the sharp corner ) , they do make a t fitting too so if you want to drain the tank just put it after the valve anado recommended and get a cap for it this way at end of season you can drain your tank .

 

Drained the fuel out of the tank today in preparation for adding an elbow fitting, but it looks as though I'm going to have to pull the tank and go have a proper fitting welded in to replace this one. The existing one has a plug and a tiny ~1/8" drain hole.



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Probably wishing at this point you should have taken up golf. Just be safe at this point since the fumes in the tank are when a tank is the most unsafe.

 

Those Holley pumps are garbage. Red, black, sky blue, no diff. I went through three of them before I went back to a stock mechanical.

 

It's open top & bottom right now so hopefully it will all evaporate dry. How long do you think it will take until it won't be unsafe?


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There's nothing wrong with the Holley pumps the one I run has been in my roadster going on 10 years . Drove cross country and back twice with this little old Red Holley pump guess I must have a good. Its important to mount the pump correctly {motor on top} as well as have the proper size fuel lines and a good filter but that is no different than any fuel pump used.

 

Not sure if I'd even be able to go with a mechanical pump with the way it's currently set up. It's a '57 block with the motor mounts attached at the front of the block and the pass. side is sandwiched directly next to the fuel pump block off plate. (See pics below) I've rebuilt the top end of the motor, but haven't had the timing chain cover off to see if it even has the fuel pump eccentric installed.





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depends on how long the gas has set in it and if its coated with terne or not , should always have a tank cleaned and steamed for several hours to get it ( gasoline ) out of the metal pores before welding ( welding shops often do this or use a inert atmosphere )

 

have one thats been on a race car now for almost 30 years and rebuilt once ( replaced the vanes and brushes) , never a problem if they are installed the way the instructions say to . most problems I see are from people not reading and following , the instructions and try to make it suck gas instead of pump it .

 

I'm assuming you're going to punch out that piece of metal and use the hole as the supply to the pump. I would look at taking the gas tank to a radiator shop and have them steam/boil the tank out before doing anything. Even after you get it back I'd use a brass or whatever kind of non-sparking tool to knock that piece of metal out of the way. Then maybe put a gallon of Acetone in the tank and carefully slosh it around and hopefully it'll absorb any remaining water. Drain that out and leave the tank sit in the sun for a couple of days before re-installing it. The Acetone will absorb any water and will evaporate with the sun beating on the tank. Just be careful with it also since it can ignite and burn.

 

Project update, it's working now!! Thank you guys for all of your suggestions. In the end, I took the tank to a radiator shop to boil it out and then open up the drain to use it as a gravity feed outlet. I returned the Holley Red electric pump to Jegs (had bought it from them only about a year ago) and they replaced it for free. Then I went to the Earl's AN fitting store in Lawndale to get a 90 degree fitting. After I got all of my parts back I began reinstalling and wiring everything back up over the last few weekends. This evening it was all ready so I flipped the switch and thankfully heard the fuel pump make the low growling noise while pumping. I took off the air cleaner, yanked the throttle on the carb.'s a couple of times to confirm the carbs had gas in them and they did. Then I turned the key and it fired up on the first crank, then I let it run and run. By the ten minute mark I knew the problem was solved, no more fuel pump problem. Again, thank you guys for all of your suggestions.


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I think you have an air leak on the suck side of this deal

 

Glad it all worked out for you and thanks so much for your follow-up report.

 

I was about to chime in that about 25 years ago, when I first got my 27 on the road, I had a similar problem with my Holley pump. I called a tech guy at Holley and he said to remove the bottom plate and look at the little valves in there and to clean them. He was right, there was the tiniest piece of something (looked like a fiberglass sliver ) under one of the valves keeping it open just a tad. Cleaned it out and it ran fine.

Don

 

These pumps are gravity feed. Putting the fitting in the bottom of the tank, is probably what fixed your problem.