New guy with a couple P-pump questions

J

jgrewe

New member
Joined
May 24, 2012
Messages
5
Hello all, as of about noon today my VP has stopped talking to the truck every once in a while. Hooked it up to a friend's scanner and got the P0370 code. Truck runs with a miss sometimes but it will just die when ever it feels like it. Figuring the VP is giving up the ghost I'm giving serious thought to a P pump conversion.

Here is what I'm used to driving and what I do with the truck. It's an '01 2500, 240K miles, automatic,that gets used as a DD and I tow my race cars with it. It has a cold air intake, Edge Comp that I usually run at 5x5 around town. The truck has had a steady diet of biodiesel that I make for the last 120K miles(can run 5x5 because bio doesn't smoke like dino diesel)

I've been reading all day, learning the process but I'm still no closer than flipping a coin to decide to make the jump. My biggest thing is reliability, every time I headed out on a long trip with a car in tow I'd wonder, "Is this the trip the VP is going to take a crap on me?" I got the truck with 110K on it and I don't know if the pump had been replaced already.

I like the power the Comp box gives me and wouldn't mind a bit more. My fuel only costs me about .70 a gallon so mpg isn't my top priority. It will never be a sled puller so I know a low hp P pump will be fine(160 or 180 I guess, still trying to remember everything I've read).

My shop is pretty well equiped, I build SCCA race cars and I have a mill, lathe and a bunch of other goodies at my disposal. Looking at the conversion kits out there I don't see much in them that I can't make besides the pump cover and gear. The linkage at about $400 is a grey area, anybody make their own yet? or just find it used?

So, if you've made it this far in my post, thank you. I'm wondering where I can find what numbers I need to look for on a used pump, anybody that may have a few bits to help me gather the parts I need quickly and cheap or if I should just go with another VP. Being a racer I always try to make stuff better then when it broke and if I'm going to spend a couple grand on the truck I want to better than before. I don't mind used stuff to get the truck running again and then working through the system to make it bullet proof over the next few months.
 
Scheid diesel has p-pump conversion kits, take a look at them.


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Welcome to compd. When I did my p pump swap about a month ago I got a whole core motor and took what I needed off that. That worked well for me.
 
CL2000 said:
keep a vp on it.
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If I had to be honest, I like daily driving my vp truck much better than my p-pump24v. You could pump an airdog or better lift pump on the vp and it should last for a good while, or research hard and do the conversion.
 
kleann said:
If I had to be honest, I like daily driving my vp truck much better than my p-pump24v. You could pump an airdog or better lift pump on the vp and it should last for a good while, or research hard and do the conversion.
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My exact feeling and that's why I'm going back to a vp.
 
Thanks for a good variety of opinions guys. Was up till 3am last night reading and I'm still on the fence,lol.

Anybody know of any specialist salvage places(any advertisers here) that have 12V's laying around, everybody I find down here in Florida seems very proud of the parts they have and I can't find enough of an inventory to throw together the parts I'm looking for.

A friend of mine got a VP from Blue Chip about 2 years ago and is very happy with it. Is it worth paying for a hotrod VP from anybody if I have the Edge Comp box? Am I going to pick up the extra power I pay for stacking the electronics and the modded pump?

The racer in me is screaming "gimme the P pump!" The half of me that will have to DO the conversion is shaking his head at Boy Racer saying just throw another VP in it and call it done.
 
I had my pump maxed and balanced at DPE, rack plug, 4k, and stock dvs. I really like how it drove on the street with a super b special.

What turbo do you you have? If it's stock do you plan on upgrading it? If not a vp is way plenty enough fuel for it.
 
people on pulloff.com get rid of already modded pumps quite regularly.
 
I'll check pulloff.com and see what they have. Thanks.

The turbo is stock right now. For the time being it will probably stay that way unless it dies too. I don't know what I would be after replacing it, my goal would probably be to control intake temps while towing. I've thought of pulling the head and throwing it on my flow bench to see if I could get any more efficiency out of it at about 2K rpm where I spend the most time on the highway.

I'm learning a ton about the engine besides the VP that I've always heard is the weak link. For over a 100K miles I've really only had to do a lift pump conversion and change the oil and fuel(put some in, drive it, put some more in)
 
kleann said:
If I had to be honest, I like daily driving my vp truck much better than my p-pump24v. You could pump an airdog or better lift pump on the vp and it should last for a good while, or research hard and do the conversion.
Click to expand...

CL2000 said:
My exact feeling and that's why I'm going back to a vp.
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Is it really that bad for you guys?

I don't mind driving mine at all, yeah its a lil smokier but worth it to me for how it drives.

Just curious what's so bad about driving a ppumped 24v.
 
I like driving VP trucks but you cant argue with the reliability of a p-pump. If you are really that concerned about "this being the time it quits" then go p-pump. My dad had to put one VP on his truck in 310,000 miles then put a p-pump on it after the second VP died. Just my .02
 
bsmith said:
Is it really that bad for you guys?

I don't mind driving mine at all, yeah its a lil smokier but worth it to me for how it drives.

Just curious what's so bad about driving a ppumped 24v.
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Mine is smokey and after driving a vp truck that I did an auto conversion in, they are so much nicer to tow with. 500 hp truck with towing 8k lbs and it hardly smokes and it gets 16-17 towing that. I was resold on the vp.
 
CL2000 said:
Mine is smokey and after driving a vp truck that I did an auto conversion in, they are so much nicer to tow with. 500 hp truck with towing 8k lbs and it hardly smokes and it gets 16-17 towing that. I was resold on the vp.
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Ok, I've never towed with mine. So I can't appreicate that aspect, but it def makes sense.
 
I used to own a 99' that I replaced the VP44 pump on about 3 months after buying it. It ran great, predictable smoke or no-smoke, good power, etc.

My two dislikes:
1. It cranked longer to restart in hot weather that I liked. IE, shut if off in the drive-thru then restart after placing order = 3-4 seconds of cranking. With the motor cold, or shut off for more than 30 minutes, fired right up. Cold weather starts were excellent as well.

2. When the weather warmed up, it seemed like there was a 20-30% swing in horsepower from a cooler 75* morning to a 100* afternoon. 10% of it was due to thinner less-dense air, but 10-20% was due to the dang ECM adjusting things.

I now own a 98' 12 valve. Things I like:
1. 100% reliability, not afraid to drive it anywhere, at anytime. Confident that if it ever had a starting or running issue, I could diagnose and fix it immediately on the side of the road. With electronic VP44, not so much.

2. Constant fuel delivery, no big power swings with the weather other than less dense air 5-10% power penalty.

Things I dislike:
1. Louder idle with increased timing for power and fuel economy.
2. Smokier when the weather gets warm because the fueling is constant. This is fixable with a little adjustment to the AFC, but I just deal with it during the summer months rather than tweak the tuning all the time.

Fuel economy is similar between both vehicles however the VP44 did seem to get a little better economy towing but a little worse running empty. I'm empty more often than loaded so a nil argument.
 
Really Will, 100% reliability? So your '98 12-valve is immune to failure of any kind? I'd like to buy one of those if you know where to get one of those god trucks.
 
At this point I'm leaning toward just putting another VP on it and gathering parts to do a P pump later when I'm not rushed to get the truck back on the road. A lot of guys mention city driving and highway towing are better with the VP and that is about all I do with the truck.

I thought about a funny *flash forward* moment. VP dies during a trip up to Mid Ohio or Watkins Glen and after its decided I need a new pump I pull everything needed to do the conversion out of the race trailer.
 
jgrewe said:
At this point I'm leaning toward just putting another VP on it and gathering parts to do a P pump later when I'm not rushed to get the truck back on the road. A lot of guys mention city driving and highway towing are better with the VP and that is about all I do with the truck.

I thought about a funny *flash forward* moment. VP dies during a trip up to Mid Ohio or Watkins Glen and after its decided I need a new pump I pull everything needed to do the conversion out of the race trailer.
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If you have money like that, then go for it. I couldnt waste another 1k+ bucks. But I can see your view.
 
There have been times I seriously considered going back to a VP. Especially during the rebuild.
 
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