Paxton's 150 Fuel-Pump Kit - Fuelish Pleasures

The Paxton Street/Strip 150 electric fuel pump has a free-flow rating of 140 gallons per hour and is factory set at 16 psi. The pump works with either gasoline or alcohol. The pump's aluminum base has provisions for AN-6 inlet/outlet fittings, thus making for easy installation and serviceability. The kit includes a pump mounting bracket along with a dual-outlet-port, adjustable fuel-pressure regulator.

As savvy car crafters know, for an internal combustion engine to work correctly you need to blend the proper amount of air and fuel to promote proper combustion. Drawing in the correct amount of air usually isn't a problem, but delivering the proper amount of fuel can sometimes be difficult--especially during high-rpm operation. Further complicating fuel-delivery matters are high-output race engines that gobble fuel rapidly or street/strip engines that use a supercharger or nitrous oxide.

Over the past few years, you've been reading about Project Cheap Street Chevelle. We transformed an old '70 Chevelle into a potent street machine by way of a hi-po 355ci small-block, a 3,000-rpm torque converter, a street/strip auto trans, and a set of 3.73:1 rear gears. The fuel-delivery system consisted of a stock gas tank, a better-than-stock mechanical fuel pump, a rebuilt Quadrajet carburetor, and an NOS Super Power Shot nitrous system. During normal cruising, the fuel pump adequately supplied the proper volume of fuel flow. However, at high rpm the pump was inadequate, allowing the

Q-jet's fuel bowls to run low--eventually starving the engine and causing it to surge and misfire. Moreover, when the nitrous oxide was used, the problem was even worse. Excessive surging (caused by the engine leaning out) can quickly destroy an engine.

To remedy the Chevelle's fuel-delivery woes, we wanted to install a new electric fuel pump along with an adjustable fuel-pressure regulator. However, with so many sizes and gallon-per-minute (GPM) pumps available, we weren't quite sure what would be enough for our application without it being overkill or super-expensive. Thus, we turned to Paxton Products, which has a new line of electric fuel pumps and adjustable fuel-pressure regulators specifically designed for street/strip use. After analyzing our Chevelle's needs, Paxton recommended its new Street/Strip 150 Fuel Pump package (PN 8002212), which would easily support our current level of horsepower--and would also be adequate enough to support more power if we decided to further hop up the engine at a later date. The pump and regulator combo are compact, which makes them easy to install on most musclecars; also, they are an affordably priced package, making them easy on your wallet. Follow along as we show how to install an aftermarket electric fuel pump and regulator.

Begin the Paxton fuel-pump install by removing the old fuel lines that run from the mechanical fuel pump to the carburetor. Here, the old fuel line is being removed from the inlet port on our Quadrajet carb.	Remove the bolts that fasten the mechanical fuel pump to the side of the cylinder block. After the pump is removed, the fuel-pump pushrod should be removed (gravity will most likely make it fall out).	Next, remove the small, flat mechanical fuel-pump mounting plate from the cylinder block.
Install a mechanical fuel-pump block-off plate (available from sources such as Mr. Gasket) onto the cylinder block where the old pump once resided. Be sure to use a gasket and sealant with the block-off plate to ensure a leak-free seal.	Locate a sturdy, clutter-free area to mount the Paxton fuel-pressure regulator. On our Chevelle, the upper portion of the passenger-side inner fender liner served as the perfect mounting location. Use a scribe tool to mark the location of the regulator's two mounting holes that need to be drilled.	Fasten the Paxton fuel-pressure regulator to the inner fender using two bolts that are secured by nuts.
Because the Paxton fuel pump and regulator come with AN fittings, we opted to use AN-style, tapered 90-degree-radius adapter fittings in place of shoddy-looking fuel lines clamped to barbed-end fittings. However, if you like the low-buck barbed-end fitting method, Paxton offers special AN-style barbed-end fittings.	If your street machine uses a carb-only setup (with no nitrous-oxide system or such), then run a single fuel line from one of the fuel-pressure regulator's ports to the carb inlet. Because our Chevelle uses a nitrous system, we used the regulator's second port to run a fuel line directly to the nitrous system's fuel solenoid. Running separate fuel lines to the carb and nitrous looks better, flows better, and helps deliver more consistent performance.	The bottom port of the Paxton fuel-pressure regulator is the regulator's inlet port for fuel coming from the stock fuel line running from the fuel tank. Here, a new line connects the regulator to the steel fuel-line tubing, which is located down by the frame.