AltavistaLawn

About a year ago, I relocated the pusher pump with a vulcan big line kit; since then I've had to replace the NAPA pump 5 times, the last time, it was too late the injector pump was gone....And it only cost 2800.00 to fix it!

Since we rely on the truck soo much for the biz, I had to break down and pay to have it towed to the *******, where the reman. pump was 2200, and 300 in labor.

This year, at 160k miles; I've spent $2,000 in the tranny, and now nearly $3,000 in the engine;

What a piece of junk.

Anyone else out there, don't waste your money on these models, the upgrades don't work; the older 12 valves are more reliable!

johnh

why didn't you tell me back in '01
i would have bought a duramax

CIN'S DODGE

I see your having a rough time. Sorry to hear that. Now now they are only a piece of junk when something goes wrong with them,then you fix the problem and then it's all better.

smokindog

A FASS and fuel pressure gauge will solve your problems for the life of the truck!

The lift pumps are known problems, you said it yourself, piece of junk, but for some reason folks want to go through all the OEM replacement pumps (Carter, Holley, Walbro) because they are afraid of the cost of the FASS. What do you expect when you replace junk with more junk? Once you bang your head against the wall and realize it hurts why would you continue doing it?

By the time you add up all the replacement pumps, big line kit, and time spent installing said pumps and kits you could have bought two FASS pumps.... one on the truck and one as a backup that you'd never need.

J BODY

....there is just sooooo much wrong with that statement.

chadder1313

I will back smokindog up. My only question is why didnt you put a FASS on it?

Dr. Evil

Agreed. While a FP guage and good fuel delivery sytsem are a must - they are not the be all and end off of all your fuel problems. There are a lot of factors that come into play and most of them we have no control over. Things like fuel quality, ambient operating temperaturess, load, driving conditions, etc. etc. all make a big difference in the life of a IP.

Even with a FASS and FP guage, its not really reasonable to expect a VP-44 to last the life of the truck.

A P-7100 mechanical pump is a bit of a diffreent story.

smokindog

Oh come on Jay... I know the better verbiage would have been, I created a poll a while back that only received 97 responses, but take a look at it and you will clearly see a trend.... I failed to provide an option for VP's dying with Carter, Holley, or Walbro pumps that had pressures below 8psi, which would likely have supported my point even more.

J BODY

Just speaking from the experience of trying to explain to a befuddled RV'er that just could not understand how in the world his VP died when he has the "best" lift pump available, monitored the delivery system via a manual gauge, changed filters religiously. I went so far as to promise him that if the re-man VP wouldn't start his truck, I'd remove it, install his old one and charge NO labor. Pooh happens. I also diag'ed a failed CP3 pump on truck that was running a FASS this spring. Luckily we had one in stock and they were able to go have fun.... It was a cummins powered Ram running in the factory stock class for SCORE offroad. By the "bluechip theory" most of the trucks I've installed the in tank replacement pumps on should have failed VP's by now. I've got four local to me that we did the mod on why they were still under warranty a couple years back and they are all work trucks for a local modular/mobile home business. They tow work trailers all over western AZ and I haven't seen one back yet with a failed injection pump although sooner or later they probably will as I feel that no matter what you do, the heat out here is going to affect the electronics. .....and just food for thought, a month ago when the temp out here spiked from the low 90's to 120 I did six VP's in one week.

smokindog

Yeah, it is very hard to argue with your experience. You've definitely seen more trucks than I have.

Maybe my truck is one of the lucky ones.... I lost one VP, but only because I had low pressure. I also dodged the 53 Block and got a Mexican Monster somehow! After I swapped my Blue Chip pump on a couple summers ago I put the DRB on the truck and looked at the incoming fuel temperature on a 90º day and it was only 135º. I wonder at what temperature the board fails?

m.rehme

I have a 1999 with a gauge to watch the fuel pressure - 309,000 on the original VP, only changed the LP 1 time.
I usually put 4 OZ. of Marvel Mystery oil in every fill up along with some Power Service.
Changed the fuel filter no more than a 1/2 dozen times.

bnold

Hmmmm Super chip box... Pay to Play!!!!

Carp

I tend to agree with heat being the major factor in VP44 failure. I lost mine on a long hard pull before any mods. The failure was all electronic ie intermittant dead pedal, smoke an light pedal downhill, and the death code 0216. I was wishing I could just change the circuit board to see if that fixed it completely. I swapped the lp for one of the intank pumps, but have heard not a lot of good about them.

westexhunt

I had 167k showing and the rear speed sensor has given problems for two years off and on, so I had odo unplugged for aprox. 35k. I have had either a comp or a juice on it for over 100k. Fuel system is stock (napa lift pump) but it always held over 4psi, and cruised at 10+ psi. I left the house with a cold engine today and it died at 65mph with the cruise on less than 3 miles from home. No code no restart no nada. I had a very slightly used reman pump in the shop but no key for it so I will order one tommorrow and hopefully be rolling again on Tue. I have replaced at least 100 vp's for customers over the years, all kinds of different stories, on how they died.

crobtex

I don't think anything will make a VP last forever. Mine made it to the 200K mark before it died on me a couple of weeks ago. Of course I'd be 1200 miles from home, with no tools or anyplace to do it anyway. Both my Smarty and Actron spit out the 1688. No dead pedal.........just died. At least it would start and idle and I was able to use 1st gear to get it off of the highway.

I took it (had it towed) to DSI Diesel Services in Grand Junction, CO. They are a certified Cummins and Perkins repair shop. Really a great bunch of people, and had me out of there in one day. $1618.68, including a cracked bracket, is not cheap, but compared to what others have paid, I was one happy camper. The shop foreman was a pretty savvy diesel guy and made the comment that even though all VP's will probably fail, my FASS probably contributed to the VP lasting as long as it did. I just threw this in as a FWIW comment.