Well, I have to say this is more than just a little disappointing.

I have come out of denial now, and have embraced the reality that my VP is dying. I told myself it wouldn't happen to me. After all I did everything "right".

1) I installed a FP guage to monitor LP pressure, and always have had good FP.
2) I did NOT tap the wire, as I felt this taxed the injection pump unnecessarily.
3) I installed large, nonrestrictive fuel delivery lines (-08AN) to the LP, filter, and VP44.

Despite these precautions, my VP is dying at only 40K miles. Truth is, it was dying at about 37K.

So what can we learn from this? Well, some VPs are gonna die, no matter what. You can't prevent it.

I've been wracking my brain trying to figure out if I could have done anything to cause this failure.

For example, could pieces of my fuel pressure isolator have gone into the pump and damaged the pump when the isolator failed? (I'm running fuel directly to the gauge now). If so, why didn't the pump go out 25K ago when the isolator failed?

Could a small piece of thread sealing compound been ingested by the pump? Could this even cause damage, as it's soft and rubbery?

On and on and on-- I've considered everything I can think of, and I just can't come up with anything that makes sense.

I've just concluded that some VPs don't have it in them for the long haul. Mine was one of them. Not very encouraging to those of us who spent a bunch of money on things that we HOPED would help the VP stay alive.

Justin

 

Justin, my brother, I am sorry for you. But look on the bright side, now you can get a hot rod VP-44.

I , however, have allways felt the way you do now. Some are gonna die, its either a combination of 'stacked' machining tolerances all on the side of tight, combined with low sulfur fuel or some other manufacturing problem. All this crap about fuel pressure, taping the wire etc etc etc.... ITs either gonna happen or not. Mine was run for a MINIMUM of 30,000 miles with ZERO to ONE psi lift pump pressure with a tapped wire and I have not had a problem. Your's was properly cared for and bit you. Its just another piece of factual information that tells you lift pump pressure is overrated and to TAP THE WIRE right away baby....


KP

 

Hohn, Hopefully, you'll have better luck with your next pump, at least you're under warranty.

Do you think it's the electronics that have failed?

 

I'm inclined to believe that it IS an electrical failure vice mechanical. This is because it ONLY happens when the engine has come up to temp, and it's good and warm. It never did it at all in cold weather, even when the engine warmed up.

When the engine is cold, it starts instantly and runs perfectly. After while though, it will act up.

Next step is rigging up a CPU cooler to the VP pump cover to help it keep cool. We've seen those finned cooling collars for oil filters. I wonder if something similar for the pump cover would be helpful?

Why didn't I think of this before??

Anyway, truck goes in Monday, and I'll know if I have a $100 deductible or not.

jlh

 

Well, I'm not so sure I'd use this as justification to tap the wire right away. True, we know that tapping the wire doesn't guarantee failure anymore than NOT tapping it guarantees pump longevity.

However, we know that tapping the wire GUARANTEES pump warranty voiding! So maybe AFTER 100K, you're justification is sound??

Then again, there's the Blue Chip mindset: tap the wire so you know you're pump is a good one out of the box.

jlh

 

I have a finned cooler on my PSD (pump solenoid driver) on my GMC 6.5 Turbo Diesel Suburban. Those pumps are notorious for failure and its usually just the PSD module that fails. I have 140,000 plus on mine now, no problems. Get an alluminum heat sink designed for a large pentium processor, make sure you use the white conductive paste.


KP

 

Where do you get the paste?

 

Justin,

Probably your Fitch fuel catalyst. The intramolecular valence bonds of all of those polarized, perfectly aligned fuel molecules undoubtedly generated a massive magnetic field that pierced the dielectric film on your VP44's flux capacitor.

Rusty

 

That's about the conclusion I came to. I should have known something was up when I pulled into my driveway and my wife said the colors on the TV went all messed up.

I should convert it to a genset.

 

You should be able to get it from comp usa or any large computer outfit that sells processors etc. Radio shack too. Prob Ebay for that matter......



KP

 

Walmart also has them.

 

VP#1 at 42,000 miles
VP#2 at 51,000 miles
VP#3 at 58,000 miles
vp#4 at 69,000 miles

Yes, I see the pattern, should be #5 going south soon! since I have 81,000 miles now. I figure, if I paid for the warrenty and truck, they will eat it until 100K, then and only then will I go aftermarket and solve this little issue. My dealer hates me after this last one.

 

Tap the wire???????????
what wire ?????????????
what for ???????????????

 

Hohn, your lucky, mine started going out at 29,000.

 

Hohn:

This all stinks. My luck with the 2 VP 24 valvers I owned was rather interesting. On my 98.5, roached the VP with less than 10k miles and had no aftermarket goodies on the truck.

I drove my 99 in stock trim (not even gauges) for 108k miles. Stumlbed into the world of DTR and diesel performance, then immediately got gauges. I was getting about 3-5 psi fuel pressure at idle (who knows how long that condition had been lurking around). Then proceeded to get the BOMB bug and added injectors, Holley Blue pusher, drag comp (no wire tap), etc. etc.

Put an additional 35k "BOMBed" miles on the truck and all of it with the original VP.......


Guess my point "may" be that the worst thing about the VP for me had to be the uncertainty in reliability.

You just flat don't know until you know.....and that typically means that the thing died.


Good luck with the truck!

Matt