Were the dual fuel/vacuum pumps ever made for the Small Block Chevrolet engines? Maybe or use in large trucks, boats, yard lifts, farming etc? I am aware that some GM vehicles of the 40s and some Ford/Mercurys/Edsels of the 50s had fuel pump/vacuum pump combos. One side provides fuel - one side provides vacuum. I think we had a 292 Ford or some Y-block with this set up as a kid. In my youth I worked at a company that handled Chrysler Industrial parts and engines. I saw some "oddball" items and "oddball" parts to a teen, who at the time was building street cars, but the parts and combinations had their place in the Industrial and marine world. Propane manifolds, off shore manifolds, dual alternator brackets, distributors with mechanical tach(?) drives. We just pulled the parts according to the order forms to be mailed to far away places. One neat thing I saw were huge Air Raid or Civil Defense sirens powered by 392 (or smaller) hemis, another was a row of 413 Mopar engines. These were old stock in the back of the building where I worked. My thoughts are it is possible a fuel pump/vacuum pump combo for an industrial SBC could have been produced (has anyone seen one?) and used to run vacuum wipers or just to store vacuum in a canister on a vintage car or truck.
My 58 Impala with a 348 and tri-power had a vacuum assist fuel pump. I don't know about the small blocks.
I’m thinking when the SBC came out, wipers were electric in vehicles. I’m trying to think of what vacuum would be used for in an industrial application?
We sold to Eastern and Delta Airlines. Parts, complete engines and transmissions for baggage tugs, stair trucks, plane movers etc. We sold/shipped a lot to the Miami area for boats, boat movers/loaders etc. I really didn't ask much about the applications of the items we were working with just enjoyed the moment working with old gear heads who seemed very knowledgeable about the inventory. Maybe the vacuum pump would be used in one of the above mentioned areas or the agricultural/farming/forestry areas they had a use for vacuum wipers on a baler, combine or V8 powered saw mill, or huge water pumps?
I guess it’s possible, closed cab equipment has be around for a long time. I guess you could search for small block Chevy industrial engine applications and follow the leads. I’d be interested to know as well.
I looked high and low for one when I put a small block in my AD panel truck and didn't find one...but, that was before the interwebs.
We had 3 '52-'53 REO/Studebaker M35 deuce n a half 6x6's with the REO engines and vacuum wipers, with the wiper motor mounted to the swing-out windshields. The motors had handles on them so you could manually work the wipers when you had your foot in it and vacuum was low
If you need extra vacuum to run something on your car , look at diesels. you can get an alternator mounted vacuum pump or buy a standalone unit . dies not directly answer your question but there are other options .
The stock tri-power setup was vacuum operated. There was a linkage operated vacuum valve on the center carburetor. It sent vacuum to a large vacuum actuator which opened the end carburetors. You needed a good supply of vacuum since manifold vacuum drops tremendously as the end carbs open.
I’ll be darn. When my dad bought my ‘57 new, it had near nothing and a 235. All I ever recall him telling me was he ordered a heater for it and it took a few weeks to come in. Maybe it had an upgrade on the lot? This is a pickup.
That ebay one is pretty reasonably priced at $45: And when the link goes dead, you can still get the reference numbers from the above image.
The Jalopy Journal
