Fuel Pump... FWIW...

Any pics of the procedure and the final?

I learn something new every time I visit this website! Thanks for sharing that tech tip, my BRUTHA!! 

Pics tomorrow....  Very simple install....

Brutha from anutha mutha

I am SO glad we don't have ethonal in our gas up here in the Great White North.

Are you sure about that Ron?  We have it here in Ontario.

But, the higher the octane you buy, the less the ethanol.

Ron:  I always put 91 octane Petrocan fuel in my speedster, and it has run great for three years.

From 1999 my VS lived on the Navajo Reservation in Shiprock, NM.  No problems at all.  in Sept 2006 I moved to Ethanol City aka Albuquerque, NM.  Since then I have replaced my Fuel Pump every 6 mos.  The Dec 2013 event somehow resulted in a fried Electronic Ignition.  Foreign Aide Mechanic had never seen that happen.  He contacted the manufacturer who inspected the damaged equipment, asked for a fuel tank sample.  Their report was I was running 17-19% Cornaholol.  They replaced the ignition NC.   When the fuel pump went south June 2014, again, I went with an Electronic pump.  So far so good.  The UK Speedster and Spyders Group reports lots of Fuel pump failure there , when the Alcohol level is greater than 5%.  They are appealing to British Gov't to limit Alcohol content in UK gasoline. 

Ethanol does damage to lawn mowers, etc.  Especially the newer 'California' regulated models that have no carb. adjustments whatsoever.

Bob, do you know what your compression ratio is?  Mine is 9.5:1, so I plan on using 94 octane gas, when I can get it.  I'll have to ask my mechanic, as that may be overkill.

That's what I run and use in my Speedster.  My 71 VW Bug is a 1776, Stage 2 Street Cam on Progressive 2 BBl Weber.  Was designed to run at 700 feet ASL, in Texas.  In ABQ i'm closer to Shiprock at 5,000 Feet ASL.  In Texas I got 35 in town and 40 MPG on the Highway running 80 mph.  With a Freeway Flyer tranny, 70 is about 3, 000 RPM and Heads never get above 350 with Oil temp 180-220 F even in hot weather 90 F.  But in ABQ I'm lucky to get 20 MPG in town and 22-25 on the road.  With the Bug 10:1 Compression if I go higher than 86 Octane it pings and burps and won't run worth crap.  Mechanic has looked at it often and said it ought to be smooth as silk on 90-95 Octane.  His adjustments haven't helped so I stick with Low Octane Gas in the Bug.

Her you go....   Ultra cheap, down and dirty install....  Purely function over all else...   

What have you done with jetting and timing changes?

If you were getting 35-40 mpg, my guess is you were probably tuned pretty lean to begin with. Then moving up in altitude would need to drop jet sizes. But moving to ethanol may need to go up jet sizes and increase timing advance, especially if you were running as much as 20% ethanol. If the air is also significantly dryer, you'd be losing a little knock resistance from less water vapor in the air. Plus that altitude is going to cut engine power by about 20%, so to keep running the same speeds, you have to load the engine that much harder. Increased load plus possible tuning issues could be why the ethanol blend is causing issues.

Could just be bad gas too. Considering you were getting ethanol percentages 10% higher that what would be expected for what I'm assuming was labeled a non-flex fuel E10 blend, I'd question what the hell else was wrong with the gas you were buying. I wouldn't be surprised if their 94 octane was actually something else. How many different gas stations have you tried?

I did have to change the jets and timing at this altitude.  Did so when I got stuck here Xmas 2006.  Local Weber Specialist had the car for 2 mos tinkering with it till we got everything dialed in.  He also warned me about filling up at the first Get N Go pumping gas.  I used nothing but Chevron with good success, then Chevron pulled out of the West Side where I live, after a couple of years of sticking with them.  Next I went to Shell and used them for another couple of years, also no back firing or chugging issues.  I'm on Conoco now as they have a station 1.7 miles from house on the west side and 1.0 miles on the East side, close to work.  The Bug is my daily get around car in town.  My Commute is about 11-12 miles each way. I was tuned way lean for the lower Texas altitude.  Here the altitude is a total different set of specs to keep it running right.  I use a old school VW Mechanic to service the Bug, Foreign Aide.  Austin VDub built the Engine and Tranny for me in 2006.  Excluding the Fuel Pump deaths, the Bug gets serviced 2 x a year, Tune ups, points, plugs, oil change, Clutch and brake adjustments .  I usually get about 2, 000 miles on it every 6 mos or so.  The weber guy warned me local gas is notorious about not being close to specs, even in the major brands.  The off brands are, who knows what.  The interesting thing to me is both the Speedster and the Bug have 8 Gallon tanks.  It's not unusual to put 6 gallons or more of gas in a tank that is running 1/2 full on the gauge.  The Wife's Volvo I've run dry and I need 1.5-2.0 Gallons more than the tank holds to fill it up.  This is reguardless of where I buy gas, big brand names and different stations.  The gas is , reportedly, " May be up to 10% Ethanol"  is  the standard quote on the gas pump.  Albuquerque is a Valley with the Sandia Mountains immediatdly to the East .  A lot of the homes burn wood for heat in the winter.  It's not Bejing or LA but we do have a pollution issue, so the city pushes  Ethanol in the gas. 

Leon:

Does that new fuel pump mean that your lawn gets cut faster now??

It's because of the tank shape and mounting angle and because the fuel sender only measures the vertical height of the fuel. The top 50% of the tank is wide and flat and holds most of the fuel. The bottom 50% humps don't hold as much, so you'll see the gauge move very slowly from full as you use fuel, but it'll drop rapidly to empty for those last gallons.

Later VW's used a sender with 2 floats on different length arms to compensate for the tank shape.

No it does not Gordon....   But the engine does run much smoother than it has for years....

Go figure....  

Gordon.....   You are correct after all.....   It is faster....  I don't have to fiddle fart around with it to finish the job....   Silly me....   

Leon, that is the same fuel pump I have run for over ten years in my Spyder. And believe me, it's good for 180hp plus!! This is the pump I tell everyone to use, available anywhere if it breaks, which mine hasn't. Cheap, quiet, available, and durable, beat that!

My pump has 1/8" pipe thread on both ends, I use a Ford metal screw-in filter as the pre-filter, and changed the "out" hose barb to 3/8" to match my metal through-tunnel line.

What cam and rockers, Ron?

FK8 & 1.4 Pauter rockers.