Manual fuel pump in a 18V

Does anyone know why there is a place to put a manual fuel pump on the 18V motor. Its under the exhaust manifold and capped off with a blanking plate. I've always wondered why it is even there.

Some other cars using the same 1800 block used mechanical pumps...

Given that our cars use carburetors and float bowls, what's the real
benefit of an electric fuel pump? The mechanical one steals what, 0.2hp from you?
Seems like it'd save you some wiring problems.

I can't remember how much room there is at the manual pump location, but maybe the manual pump wouldn't fit there when the engine was installed in an MGB. Or....it could have been that the marketing folks thought "electric fuel pump" was more exotic/high performance sounding in 1962!

Not sure JOe - it did fit when the same block was used with a transaxel in the ol Austin 1800

And besides, if a mechanical pump was installed, you would miss that reassuring tick, tick,tick,tick,tick,tick,tick,tick.................

To use a mechanical fuel pump there would have to be a cam on the camshaft to drive the fuelpump. Have not paid alot of attention to B series cams but I don't remember seeing an extra cam lobe for that purpose. I sure would not want a fuelpump being driven off the same cam lobe that operares a valve

Couldn't you use the cam out of an austin marina? I may be wrong but I was thinking they used the mechanical pump.

I thought this might be a stupid question, but I guess its not. Alot of good replys.

All the MGB cams I have seen had a fuel pump lobe.

Clifton

Don't the Midgets use them?

Of the 3 cams I have sitting here, all do have a lobe to drive a mechanical fuel pump.

GERONIMO Wrote:

Kyreb1862 Wrote:

OK, I'll get one and try it out. Oh yeah, what do i get. It has to exist.

You need a fuel pump for a 1.8 Marina, you should be able to find one of them here somewhere, I don't know what else would fit unfortunately, I do remember them all looking pretty much the same so just about any British pump may work.

All the 1.8 Marinas I could find came with the S.U pump. In fact, on all Austins I only found them with the electric pump.

" Don't the Midgets use them?" Yes, but whether the pump used on the A series block will fit a B series block is up for grabs.

Burlen Fuel Systems do supply two different mechanical fuel pumps, one of which would pobably fit the B sereis block. So even though it is not electric, one would still have a SU fuel pump intalled.

There are a couple of disadvantages to a mechanical fuel pump. For one, since the pump is located in the engine compartment, fuel under vacuum is being exposed to higher temperatures, there is a higher chance of vapr lock. The ssecond disadvantage is that in a situation like running the fuel tank dry, It takes a lot of cranking the engine over, or priming the carbs to get the float bowls fill up so the engine will run.
Cheers,

As you know, these engines were used in a variety of cars. Also, the engine blocks were used in other applications, not just automobiles. Such as industrial pumps, welding machines, hoists, etc. Thus the mechanical fuel pump boss. A few American engines were cast this way. I believe one was the Continental Red Seal, used in Checker cars. It was used a lot in the industrial complex, powering just about anything you can think of needing power. Some had a fuel pump boss cast on each side of the block for different applications. PJ

BTW I used to run my old Austin 1800 in Rallies and for awhile ran both an electric fuel pump and the mechanical one. The electric at the rear pulled the fuel from the tank and puished it forward, while the mechanical actually supplied the THREE , yes three SU carbs. Cannot recall where I found the triple manifold but I did somewhere..

I can tell that apart from running like a scalded cat, it did not matter what attitude I had the car in the engine never skipped, missed or played around from lack of fuel.

I have a couple of blocks in my garage that have the casting for the fuel pump, but it is not machined out. I know the blocks I have are about a 67 and a 71 as I recall.

I think they are only machined out on the 18V.