Fuel Pump dry testing

[marco_1978_spyder]

At work...I have to keep up on a display of indoor fountains (water)

and make sure they dont run dry or the pumps will lock up.

I have a stock elec. fuel pump I want to bench test. do I need to do it in a pool of gas?


can I use water?

Will it be ok if I let it run dry??

[cjbiagi]

I don't think I would use water, if you just want to see if it starts I think you'd be ok dry. If you want to run it for any length of time it might be a problem.

[marco_1978_spyder]

Thanks Clyde.

I ate at your italian resturant yesterday "biaggi's"

lol, it was great....fried calamari was awesome.

Anywho...I want to see it go for a minute or two. I dont want to install a shoddy pump.

I'd go buy new, but it dosent look like there in stock locally.

[vega_man_larry]

Marco,

We test the electric pumps in the Chinook fuel cells at work to make sure they are not gummed up before reinstallation. The guys run them for a few seconds and check for vibration to determine if they are functioning. We usually don't run them more than 30 seconds or so to prevent overheating as running them dry for any extended period will damage them. Just be careful how long you "test" your fuel pump so you don't cause any damage. Also if you use an old pump as the replacement make sure it is clean as the vanes can get gummed up by old stale fuel. Submerging it in a non flamable cleaning solution and running it may be an option to get it flushed out. What you don't want to happen is to have any old varnish deposits becoming loosened after installation and plug up your fuel delivery system. The best choice would be to find a new replacement on ebay to prevent contamination from an old pump. We overhaul all our pumps at work to make sure that they will work. Trying to get a pump to work in Flight Test can be very costly as we need to drop the fuel pods to fix it. Reusing an old pump may be more headache that it is worth. Just a friendly warning.

Larry

[SWT Racing]

If you want to test it without fear of fire from gasoline, submerge it in some mineral spirits or diesel fuel.

[marco_1978_spyder]

Thanks guys. I'm going to take a chance and swap this pump in with a new sock and see what happens.
Not a huge swap, except the gas mess.