I have owned my truck for 3 years, it is a daily driver, mainly stock truck with the exception of a Fuel boss mechanical LP, and gauges, exhaust...etc. Since I have owned this truck, I have personally replaced the VP 3 times. The first time was when my lift pump went out, the 2nd one was 4 days after the 1 year warranty had expired (of course no help on the warranty either). After I had replaced 2 VP's, I figured it must of been that I had purchased a VP-44 that was rebuilt, but not had all the current updates and NEW electronics, so I ponied up and purchased a 1900.00 pump from Blue Chip. I talked with Doug initially about the issues I had on the previous pump and how they would not cover it even 4 days after warranty, he told me that his pumps all have a standard 1 year warranty as well, but that they will stand by their products and make it right even if it's slightly after the warranty if it's indeed the injection pump that has failed. Fast forward a year and 2 weeks and I am left stranded at 4:30am in the middle of the road because yep, you guessed it, my truck suddenly died. I was not quick to automatically condemn the VP, but when I got her towed home I scanned for codes, did the "hot wire" test described on Blue Chip's website, and even called and talked with them. After numerous tests, and scanning for codes, it was without a doubt another crappy VP-44 that took a dump on me. Blue chip would not cover the pump since they said it was out of warranty, but they did offer me 200 bucks off another 1900.00 injection pump......What a deal that is....LOL. The truck had 270K miles on it, and when I purchased it the VP had been replaced, I have no idea how many times, but it wasn't the stock one. After this truck has ate 5 VP's, I'm not willing to waste anymore money, or time on these pathetic excuses for an injection pump. I have always made sure to have adequate fuel pressure and volume to feed the pump....etc. This all happened several weeks ago, right now I have a rebuilt engine that is P pumped sitting in my truck. The price of P pumping my truck was only a few hundred more than what Blue chip charges for ONE of their pumps. I say this as a warning to those who just continually keep replacing their VP.....you are throwing money away when you do it, these pumps will not last forever, a p7100 pretty much will. Pay now or pay later. I have not got the truck up and running yet because I am still buttoning up a few things, but hopefully she'll be back on the road again soon and I'll post some pictures and let ya'll know how she drives.

 

I feel ya but I also find it odd you are having so much trouble with a recurring problem. I'd bet it is something else, like a bad fuel supply, WIF sensor out, filtering or something in the wiring or power supply voltage...

Just saying that is a lot of IP's over a short period of time...

 

I can understand why you would assume its something else, because I assumed that for a while too, but after my first VP died from a bad fuel pump, I got a mechanical fuel pump, am running a 10 and a 2 micron fuel filter. Fuel pressure is 18 at idle, 20 while driving and never fluctuates. I have read more information about these VP-44 failures and I'm convinced either my truck is just a lemon or the VP's just will not last me more than 30-40K miles. All of my failures have been the electronics, and I have always ran a fuel additive. For those of you who get 100K miles out of a VP, I'm happy for you, but for me it was getting too expensive and making me scared to even go for a long drive in my truck. If my truck did have a gremlin in it that was causing some type of electrical surge, nobody has been able to diagnose it yet, and I would probably run out of money before they could ever find the problem.

 

Check your IAT and MAP sensors in the intake. Those two sensors have a big hand in the injection timing and VP44 operation. The engine may run seem to run smooth, but the VP could be struggling to keep the engine running smooth internally if it is getting bad/weird signals from those two sensors, and aren't out of parameters enough to throw a code/CEL.

 

Who did you get your P pump conversion from? Any issues installing it? Anything special that needs to be done with the computer? I replaced my original VP with a Blue Chip Special X and added a FASS lift pump at the same time and have had no issues but have reached the same conclusion as you have. If it fails again I will convert to a P pump.

 

I hear ya Rightwinger, you just never know how much a guy knows about his truck around here, sounds like you are pretty deep into it and getting pretty frustrated. I think a p-pump or ve conversion is kinda overboard for a truck that should be reliable in the first place.

How about selling it and getting a newer replacement, like an 05 5.9 CR?

 

I pieced the P pump kit together myself over a period of a few years, and actually got another 24V engine to rebuild as well, so I was anticipating the VP going out, and the plan was to just drop this engine in when it did go out. Obviously I wasn't expecting the Blue Chip VP to go out on me this quick, but it did. I got the engine running last night, and it runs great! The entire engine had been blueprinted and had the rotating assembly balanced. Other than head studs, no performance parts really, just trying to build a good reliable motor. Ironicly was the fact that I bought a 12V and a 24V off craigs list, and when I took the parts from the 12V and sold the rest, I was able to make most my money back. This has been a huge project and I'm not advocating this is for everyone, but I'm hoping it works out well for me.

 

That's sweet. I remember a few threads referring to doing that and then they kind of washed out, most guys were sled pulling them IIRC.

I hope it works out, I had my 390 Ford balanced and blueprinted in my 68 F-100. I got it and a toploader 4-speed out of my buddy's totaled 68 fastback GT. The rebuild seemed to take forever but when we finally got it done it was the smoothest running v8 I have ever owned, and at around 20" of vacuum, it got the best mileage, I could pull about 17 out of it at 55, which was the speed limit back then...not bad for a 2WD half ton with desert tires on it!

Will you use a Fluidamper or similar on it?

 

Thanks for the reply. A P7100 conversion is still in my plans.

 

Last night I was able to take it for a short test drive, still have some tuning to do. These trucks require a good amount of tuning, but usually once they are set you should be good. It was dark last night when I was driving it so I wasn't sure how much smoke it was putting out, hopefully not too much, but at idle all I see is just a slight haze, which I'm fine with.

 

why do a lot of people have so many problems with the VP44? i have close to 300,000 miles on my truck ...my oem lasted 171,000 miles............so what's going on??

 

I know this is an old thread but found it while looking for answers. I feel the same way. I have had my truck at several "Cummins" shops and I can't find anyone that can tell me why it runs perfectly with no issues and everything tests great but still killing VP44s. I am going to look at the P pump conversion.