Itinerant Air-Cooled

Anyone on here done this swap? Mine died a month ago. Ford in-line for a 2.3L Ranger 83-88 IIRC has the same pressure/fuel flow as the Bosch. If you have, how long has it been? how did it perform? what modifications did you nee to make?

Good question. It would be nice to have an economical, reliable alternative, as the Bosch keep increasing in price.

Found a few mentions of it on thesamba, however, nothing long term, mods needed, etc. You can get a brand new AC delco in line for this application for abt $70. Figure it s/be good for at least 100k miles. Have also read that Bosch makes one for this application too that is similarly priced.

TrollFromDownBelow wrote:Found a few mentions of it on thesamba, however, nothing long term, mods needed, etc. You can get a brand new AC delco in line for this application for abt $70. Figure it s/be good for at least 100k miles. Have also read that Bosch makes one for this application too that is similarly priced.

Russ Wolfe from the Type 3 world ran a Ranger pump in his Fastback for at least six years and never reported any problems. Daily-driver too.

If it's a quality-built pump with the proper pressure and volume, it should work just fine. Many injection systems for many many years use the same pressure, because they were all based in some way off the Bosch system .. whether they were licensed or "pirated" is another matter.

TrollFromDownBelow wrote:Anyone on here done this swap? Mine died a month ago. Ford in-line for a 2.3L Ranger 83-88 IIRC has the same pressure/fuel flow as the Bosch. If you have, how long has it been? how did it perform? what modifications did you nee to make?

Look at Luftwagon's thread. His Ford pump crapped out after six months.
Colin

Amskeptic wrote: Look at Luftwagon's thread. His Ford pump crapped out after six months.
Colin

Was it Ford OE, or a cheapie Autozone generic brand....even with my American made cars, I go with OEM on critical parts.

TrollFromDownBelow wrote:

Amskeptic wrote: Look at Luftwagon's thread. His Ford pump crapped out after six months.
Colin

Was it Ford OE, or a cheapie Autozone generic brand....even with my American made cars, I go with OEM on critical parts.

The thread is right up there . . .

viewtopic.php?f=50&t=11381#p199460

That's the post I read .... $30 aftermarket fuel pumps don't last.... the AC Delco one from O'Reilly's cost about $60. If I go this route, will let you all know...

TrollFromDownBelow wrote:That's the post I read .... $30 aftermarket fuel pumps don't last.... the AC Delco one from O'Reilly's cost about $60. If I go this route, will let you all know...

I'll be waiting right here. I'd like to accumulate a few original Bosch pumps to clean and use before their windings suffer heat-related breakdowns.
Colin

Bought the pump about a month ago, finally got around to installing it this past weekend....It's ALIVE! Again.

Definitely seems to have more pep, and the idle sounds like it's picked up about 100 rpm...will need to adjust back. Unit I bought was from Oreilly's . I went with Bestest in line Ford Ranger fuel pump.

http://www.oreillyauto.com/site/c/detai ... &ppt=C0025

If I were to do it again, I would go with the Precision brand, as you have the capability to choose the spade connector; Bestest comes pre-installed and I had to swap out one of the OEM female spade connectors...hated doing this, as the OEM ones had these nice little rubber 'hats' to protect the connectors.

Other than that, it was almost plug-in-play. the diameter of the pump was identical, so it fit into the stock slot perfectly. The only other change was I had to swap out the VW fuel filter with a ford fuel filter and aprox 18-20 inches of fuel line to replace the big diameter vw fuel line....just make sure the filter you choose has 5/8 inch connectors on both end.

Pump was $80... will be interesting to see how long it will last.

TrollFromDownBelow wrote:Bought the pump about a month ago, finally got around to installing it this past weekend....

You made me wait here a month?


The fuel filter you used, did you say it had 5/8" nipples for slip on hoses? How does the 7.3mm fuel injection hose fit?
ColinInAlbany . . . . . . . . . . . . Georgia

Yeah, other car projects (gotta keep this fleet of 10+ yo cars with 120k+ miles running) as well as keeping a basement refinish job moving...priorities.

Oops. I meant 5/16th's FI line. FI line I got from Oreilly's seemed to be much better quality than the the line from Autozone. Had a lot more reinforcing threads inside and in general felt 'stiffer' and sturdier. The 'fat' (can't remember the diameter) VW FI line between the pump and the filter was overdue to be replaced anyways.

TrollFromDownBelow wrote: The 'fat' (can't remember the diameter) VW FI line between the pump and the filter was overdue to be replaced anyways.

The politically correct term for 'fat' fuel hose is 10mm fuel hose.
Colin(I have lost only a pound since Michigan)

Thought I'd provide a quick update. It's only been about 100 miles since the install (bus hibernates during salt and snow season), but man, does she run great! Even my wife who always rides shotgun commented that the bus felt more peppy, from drivers perspective definitiely feel it, although i don't have any quant. data to prove. Idles much smoother, and don't need as much pedal to accelerate...heck on the way to work I graduated from the slow lane to the middle lane on the highway.

I find it incredible how well it runs now, especially considering that I have a plug frozen in a helicoil with 15k + miles (I put on 15k; God knows how many miles before I got it), the other head has a broken exhaust stud boss and exhaust leak. Because of the above, heads will have to be replaced, but really don't want to monkey with something that runs so good. Bought this engine years ago for a net of $250...i'd say i got my money's worth.

TrollFromDownBelow wrote: I find it incredible how well it runs now, especially considering that I have a plug frozen in a helicoil with 15k + miles (I put on 15k; God knows how many miles before I got it), the other head has a broken exhaust stud boss and exhaust leak.
don't want to monkey with something that runs so good. Bought this engine years ago for a net of $250...i'd say i got my money's worth.

Keep driving. Sometimes a VW has a heart and you just have to let it live. Like Vdubtech's Rustybus, you could have a wholly unexpected several years of good fun.
Colin