Helping my buddy get his '58 Mercury Monterey back on the road. 383 MEL engine. The car came with an Edelbrock carb and electric fuel pump. The stock fuel pump/vacuum pump is still on with nothing attached. If I remove it and put a block off plate on there, do I need to take the pushrod out? Will there be a drop in oil pressure? I just don't see any need to have it on the engine and I would think that its just causing a vacuum leak with nothing attached? Am I wrong?
With nothing attached to it I doubt it is causing a vacuum leak. Can't help with the pushrod question, but hear's a bump.
If there's literally nothing attached there's no vacuum to leak. That's the pump in the pic? I don't see a 2nd diaphragm chamber for vacuum boost. I do see that it's a rebuildable pump. New diaphragm material is ethanol compatible. A quiet Sunday morning at the work bench with a few simple tools and, VIOLA. New pump. If that is the pump I might have one. No promises, but get me good pics and the number found on the edge of the mounting flange and I'll see what's left. Back to the question at hand its not leaking vacuum. It's simply along for the ride and cutaway drawings look like the push rod may lower oil pressure if removed. I couldn't find any deeper detail of oil p***ages.
I’m not that familiar with a MEL but I personally don’t like seeing a vertical rod “bouncing” on a cam lobe. The spring loaded fuel pump keeps it in contact all the time where the weight of it especially with cold oil would probably not. It may not may matter because the actuating “lobe” on the cam is a concentric circle that does not looks a cam valve lobe at all. It may “splash” lubed also so its removal may not matter either. It would really be a neat thing if a spring could be used to to the top of the FP mount to hold the rod on the rod. A little expensive but I’ve used EGGE to rebuild my last 2 fuel pumps and like mechanicals over electric.
The Jalopy Journal
