Hello,

I’ve recently inherited the responsibility for getting my late grandfathers (now mine) Robin hood Exmo back on the road after around 15 years in the garage!

I’ve turned my attention to the fuel pump/ lines now as I am unsure if the E10 fuel will be compatible with either of these, the donor car was a 1986 C reg mk1 sierra 2.0i 

 

looking at the fuel pump it seems to be different to modern set up so am unsure what the best approach would be. could anyone shine some light on what the bellow type part is that is attached to the fuel pump?( i’ve attached a picture!) am i right in thinking that this would be redundant when replacing the whole pump or is it something that needs to remain?

Any other suggestions on the fuel lines and pump set up would be appreciated!

Thanks!

 

 

Edited May 11, 20242 yr by Camb493

A quick check tells me that it is the flow damper from the doner EFI system.

I have not seen one in years.

Thanks for that information! I have been looking around and couldn’t find much information about it so you’ve done much better than me! 

off the top of your head do you know if this will need to be retained if the fuel pump is replaced? I have found a bosch out of tank pump that seems to be a suitable replacement but it just seems to be the pump unit and not the flow dampener! 

any thoughts on this would be greatly appreciated! 

Is it running a fuel injected Pinto engine?

Yes it is, I believe its a 2.0 litre. 

I think that you should be OK without it. Later pumps dont pulse as much.

2 minutes ago, IanS said:

I think that you should be OK without it. Later pumps dont pulse as much.

Thank you for the help! I’ve attached screenshots of the pump I’ve found, so you think it’ll be compatible? many thanks for all the help so far!

 

 

Looks as though it is the same pump as you already have but without its anti vibration rubber jacket.

1 minute ago, IanS said:

Looks as though it is the same pump as you already have but without its anti vibration rubber jacket.

Okay thanks, to be honest the only reason i am considering changing the pump is because of the E10 fuel, do you think the current pump (from 1986) would be compatible with today’s fuels? if so i might just change out the dated fuel lines and call it a day! 

also on the topic of e10 does anyone know if the fuel injectors would need to be changed?? 

many thanks!

Copper pipe is not compatible with ethanol, you get away with E5 or E10 but when higher E numbers appear replaceing with ethanol safe pipe will be needed so check for suitability when buying. The injectors should be good. The corrosion is caused by the water content in the fuel, ethanol absorbs water from the air and the combination atacks some rubbers and copper alloys.

The best way to limit water in fuel is to run the car so the water is consumed by the engine burning the petrol before to much water is absorbed.

Thought that I better check some other factors.

Ethanol has a petrol equivilency of 1.5. What does this mean? To totaly replace petrol you need to pass 1.5 times as much ethanol in order to keep stoichiometric combustion i.e. burning all the oxygen passing through the engine and is so doing providing almost 1.5 times the power.

This is the reason that older cars cannot run on E10 or higher fuels without remaping the injector settings or rejetting the carb.

More modern cars use the lambda sensor to track the ethanol content and make adjustments on the fly.

Thanks so much for this information! extremely helpful to know this kind of thing. 

so just to clarify, i’m okay leaving the fuel pipe and injectors as is for now? i’ll change the pump as it’s getting on for nearly 38 years old and i’ll remove the flow damper at same time. will i need to remap the fuel injector settings to run e10?

Once again thanks for all the advice! 

11 hours ago, IanS said:

Thought that I better check some other factors.

Ethanol has a petrol equivilency of 1.5. What does this mean? To totaly replace petrol you need to pass 1.5 times as much ethanol in order to keep stoichiometric combustion i.e. burning all the oxygen passing through the engine and is so doing providing almost 1.5 times the power.

This is the reason that older cars cannot run on E10 or higher fuels without remaping the injector settings or rejetting the carb.

More modern cars use the lambda sensor to track the ethanol content and make adjustments on the fly.

 

11 hours ago, IanS said:

Thought that I better check some other factors.

Ethanol has a petrol equivilency of 1.5. What does this mean? To totaly replace petrol you need to pass 1.5 times as much ethanol in order to keep stoichiometric combustion i.e. burning all the oxygen passing through the engine and is so doing providing almost 1.5 times the power.

This is the reason that older cars cannot run on E10 or higher fuels without remaping the injector settings or rejetting the carb.

More modern cars use the lambda sensor to track the ethanol content and make adjustments on the fly.

Thanks so much for this information! extremely helpful to know this kind of thing. 

so just to clarify, i’m okay leaving the fuel pipe and injectors as is for now? i’ll change the pump as it’s getting on for nearly 38 years old and i’ll remove the flow damper at same time. will i need to remap the fuel injector settings to run e10?

Once again thanks for all the advice

If the pump works why replace it?

I am sticking to E5.

2 hours ago, IanS said:

If the pump works why replace it?

I am sticking to E5.

Very good point! i was thinking along the lines of preventative maintenance but in reality your right, i’ll leave as is for now and replace it in the future! thanks again for all the advice on this