I know it is very important on a 24v as one of the first things to do, but when does a 12v need one. And is there another mechanical option that goes in the place of the stock one?
Thanks
Cory

 

they do wear out/break but not that often. usually its the overflow valve on the return line to the tank that goes. if it makes you feel better you can feed the stock mec lp with an electric pump. other than that if your not shooting for huge hp #'s stick with the stock lp.

 

I keep one in the box of the truck and really dont worry about it.Ive heard when they tick you should change them because it is wearing the cam lobe a bit .

 

I guess I should have made myself more clear, I was more curious about when you should replace it with something bigger because of HP. And would using an electric pump in front of the mechanical work pretty good for big HP?
Thanks
Cory

 

That should be the 215 pump in there now , many use that as an up grade from older trucks , like mine , but some say a reworked 160 has some benefits .
Reworking yours for more HP , vague memory , over 600 -800 HP , for less than that a lot of add on parts will do .
Also the mechanical lift pump will support around those numbers , I've read that the lift pump off of the big brother , 8.3 will bolt on , & give more fuel .
So stay with mechanical , cheaper & much more reliable .
You should tell what your goals are , to get better answers , HP , TQ , drag , pulls ect.

 

Some guys run both via dual feed lines.There is an extra port on the front of the ip that you can tap into with the correct fittings.So you would just add another line and pickup and run an electric pump.I know someone doing this ,they are around 750 hp on fuel only .With the electric pump off ,the motor makes 60 psi boost,with the electric pump on it makes 80 plus.that should give you an idea on the limits.This is what i plan to do

 

That gives me a better idea. I'm not sure of my HP goal just yet but I would like to make it at least to 500rwhp.

The reason I am so worried about keeping a mechanical lift pump is because I have a pull cable kill, and if I had an electric lift pump and turned the key off before I killed the motor I'm thinking it would run the fuel system dry and then I would have to re-prime it. Which would suck. So I want to stay mechanical, also for reliability reasons.

Keep all the great advise coming

Thanks
Cory

 

Im sure a strong mech pump would support 500 hp ,anyone verify this?

 

ive heard upwards of 700hp on a stock lp before needing to put a fass on.

 

Mine has "ticked" since I bought it at 42K miles- no problems with over 150K miles on her to date! I guess if it is wearing out the cam lobe in spite of the full synthetic oil it'll be a good reason to put in the marine cam.....

 

Ya i dont know if its an old fools tale that it is wearing anything at all.Most of the 12v's I've seen have sounded like this.Mines been like it for about 80,000 as well

 

Do not take personal , but the fools , are the one that let there equipment go knocking , it may go on for a while , but it is dong damage .

 

Many a fool are easily swayed by ill conceived notions.....

I used to frequent Cummins Northeast (still do for parts late at night) and the service guys have adjusted a thing or two and educated me on many things B Series- if the "ticking" were even a mild concern I would have heard something from them, or one of the many service and parts people I know who work on and with them at the 5 star dealers I deal with, or one of the heavy equipment mechanics.......

Really, if it was a major issue we'd know it by now. Think for a minute about how prevalent wrong information is on forums like this just based on hear-say, you'd think correct information would be more so.
I've actually been told on several occasions by different people that the ticking is completely normal for these trucks. Mind you it may be normal for 96 and 97's but not later or not earlier for all I know.
I'm not worried about it- if that makes me a fool then so be it. I'm a fool who experiences significantly fewer of the routine problems and repairs on my Ram that everyone else seems to have.

 

Just saying that its much like a lift making noise , that means there is a gap , for any number of reasons , when theres a cap thats bigger than spec , ticking in this case , parts are getting hammered , and they will not last as long as if you take the effort to fix the problem .
I got 237,000 miles out of my original LP , if it started ticking at , lest say 100,000 , then its a good bet it would not have made it as far as it did , also , it can shorten the life on the cam lobe that the LP rides on , so again with these engines , maybe you go to rebuild at 500,000 , each part has a core charge , in the lobe is beat , you need a cam , its not uncommon for these engines to not need a cam a all rebuilds , as a point they do not have cam bearings , so if something does get ugly in the cam area , now you may need to line bore the cam holes & put bearings in to fill the gap .
I am responding to the , its making noise , turn up the radio & forget perspective .

 

Ummm... So.... Any other takers on how many horses the stock lift pump is good for?