Chinook RV

This car had a returnless fuel system just like the chinook V10 prior to my modification. Keep in mind fuel conservation never entered the equation on this vehicle. Also keep in mind that these computer controlled vehicles monitor fuel pressure, load, ect.... so its never as simple as just splicing a fuel hose and sticking an external pump on unless you dont mind driving around in limp mode staring at malfunction indicator lights on the dash. All of this was taken into account when building this fuel system. Two of these high capacity pumps running at the same time would have caused the fuel pressure sensor to fly off the chart without having a way to regulate that pressure while at the same time not allowing excessive head pressure in the fuel lines.

Doug,
What external fuel pump would work for a V10 Chinook?
Bill

The simple solution would be any pump that can deliver 90 PSI or more combined with a fuel pressure regulator and a return line running back to the tank. If i recall properly the chinook needs to see approximately 70 PSI at the rail. Once you set the rail pressure any excess fuel will be returned to the fuel tank. The chinook is a returnless system meaning fuel once in the fuel line remains there until it is used by the engine versus a return style system which maintains a constant preset pressure and returns any excess fuel to the tank. The chinook also has a fuel pump driver mounted back on the frame which runs the factory fuel pump. I would have to research what signals that controller wants to see in order to fool it to prevent throwing a malfunction signal to the ECU. Since i havent done it yet myself i dont have those answers at this point.

The other option would be to find out how much pressure the factory pump is rated at and then buy an external pump rated at the same pressure and cross your fingers that it responds accordingly to the fuel pump driver with no modifcations. If you lookat the summit racing web site fuel injection pumps you will see that the pressure ratings are all different all the way up to 150 pounds.

Or (and I don't mean this to sound jerky), just plan to replace the stock one once every 100,000 miles (preferably before it fails), which also allows inspecting the generator fuel line.

I wouldn't choose this if I were driving to Tierra del Fuego, no way. But it might not be a bad option otherwise. Most RV's don't ever end up with enough miles to have to do it more than once.

But I can also see the good in the idea of creating a more accessible system.

I don't know how often they fail with, say, under 100k on them. If it were often I'd probably be more likely to go for a homebrew solution.

Blu..... the only reason i consider it a valid option is the cost factor of buyng the OEM ford pump. The pump alone from ford is $587.00, then you have the labor costs to drop the tank, remove the pump, replace the pump and reinstall the tank at approximately $120 an hour. I do not replace critical components on any of my vehicles with 3rd party parts ever, most people go this route to save money and ultimately regret that decision when the part fails again prematurely, a lifetime warranty on a cheap part is meaningless to me because i dont want to be doing the job again anytime soon. Then you consider what RV's are for, traveling... if your pump fails while your on vacation with an external pump you can crawl underneath and replace the pump in a matter of minutes versus having the truck towed to a shop and paying a small fortune in parts and repair costs. God forbid you snap off one of the fuel pump studs that are welded into the top of the tank in the process, that tank is $2700 new.

All good reasons.

BTW, I can't even *imagine* not buying the very best possible pump if replacing the in-tank pump with like. But I usually don't scrimp on parts anyway. I like to be done with a job when I'm done with it. And cr-ppy parts just aren't fun to work with.

I'll have to ask my bud how much his job cost, just for kicks. They dropped the tank (slightly different one on an E-450 cutaway, at 55 gallons), replaced the original fuel pump with a genuine Ford replacement, removed and replaced some rotted out generator fuel lines. He did it as a planned thing, not when it broke (well, the generator line had cracked, but that was plugged and not an emergency).