I was working on a guy's truck, re-sealing the fuel pin.

Noticed he already had a piston lift pump installed.
I hooked up my fuel pressure gauge and it read 17 PSI
He must have gotten a 2nd gen lift pump.
Aren't the VE engines supposed to be around 7 PSI?

Is this safe for the pump?

 

I believe my LPHV lift pump I installed on my RC project ran 12 or 14 PSI when I tested it on the shop floor before I installed it.
It was a year and a half a go though. I could chuck my temporary fuel pressure gauge on it again to check tomorrow.
Much higher than the numbers I remember running and people start talking about pushing the seal out of the front of the pump.

2nd gen lift pumps run 20+ PSI.

A lot of guys here swap out the internal spring on the 2nd gen pump and make it a LPHV pump [low pressure high volume].

 

7 is normal, 10-14 is safe mostly, anything over 16 and you risk pushing the front seal out of the injection pump and putting fuel into the crank case (unless it has been modified for high pressure). A high volume pump isn't really necessary on a VE pump unless you went to a bigger head and large + injectors. If you can maintain a minimum of 4 psi at wide open throttle, you have enough fuel for a VE.

 

17psi will be fine on a decent VE that has been running often.

 

I took the spring out of the pump and cut off one coil from the
wide end of the spring.
Now it runs at 13-14 PSI

 

now that's thinking. Reduce the pre-load.

 

Nothing to be gained by pushing the limit on input pressure. Blowing the front seal, however, is tow truck time unless you want to risk serious engine damage.

 

Mine from THD is running 14-15 PSI at idle.

 

17 psi (let alone 14-15) is pushing the limit ? 😂
I won't even bother to address the "nothing to be gained" remark, uninformed as it is.

I reckon 8psi and 126 rwhp is overkill for an 80 year old 👍🏻

 

On a clean, fresh fuel filter I've always hovered around 16-18 psi on my piston LP I bought from Cummins back in 2008. There was no talk about springs ratings and this and that. I took the part numbers that Wannadiesel posted originally in the stickies and went to my local Cummins and bought the parts and installed them. Freeway cruising, hovers around 14-15 psi. If I punch the pedal, around 12-13 psi on a new filter.
When it hits 10-11 psi continuously at pedal punch, I start looking at how many miles are on the filter and look up the date I last changed it. It's usually time to swap in a new one.

No problems with the VE seal ever blowing out.

 

Even with my piston lift pump my fuel pressure drops to nearly zero when I hammer the loud pedal.