Eric, I don't know what you do for a living but if you told me you were an certified accountant with lots of experience and we were discussing taxes I would expect that would have a great deal to do with the conversation and I'd also think you knew what you were doing.
You assume to know more about my issue than I do, without really knowing anything about my issue at all. I'm asking for others experience with electric fuel pumps, not for an on line diagnosis from a guy in a different state with a completely different environment, I didn't think it was necessary and apparently the two other responders didn't feel it was necessary to quiz me either.
I suppose I could have given a lengthy explanation about triple digit ambient temperatures here in the desert, which you likely never experience and fuel boiling and evap problems like 90% of the nation has never dealt with, break downs, tow-ins, relocating and insulating steel fuel lines when inner frame rail temps near exhaust reach almost 200 degrees, etc., etc., etc. These are all common problems here in my environment.....which is not Oregon.
But, I thought it was much more expedient to just ask for the specific info I wanted.
Well, I guess I'll just dip out of this whole thread, since you obviously know everything and don't need any help.
But just to address your personal attacks about no one EVER being able to know about your issues.
I grew up in Lancaster and spent my entire teens building and racing cars at LACR and Willow Springs. I then left SoCal when I joined the Army as an M1 mechanic. Spent 38 months in Iraq primarily as a mechanic working on everything from HMMWVs, RAZRs, Tanks, MRAPS, you name it. Then, when I got out I went to work for Oshkosh defense as a contractor working with the marines in Afghanistan to train and assist them with vehicle maintenance. After contracting, I decided that my body probably wasn't going to hold out very well if I kept doing mechanic stuff, so I moved to Arizona and went to Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University on the G.I.Bill and got my Bachelors in Mechanical Engineering with a specialization in Airbreathing and Rocket Propulsion. I moved to Oregon 5 years ago because I spent my entire life in dry, hot, dusty, B.S. environments and I had the opportunity to use my degree to work in a milder wet and green environment.
All of that said, since apparently you need a resume to think anyone has anything useful to say.
We need more details to give you any meaningful answer.
What problem are you trying to solve with an electric pump?
What kind of carburetor(if any) are you running?
What is your fuel system now?
All of this matters to the answer. If you have a quadrajet, you can probably get away with just running a holley or walbro low pressure pump and no return line. It probably won't solve a problem with vapor lock though and the pump will probably start cavitating if it's mounted on a frame rail and will go out fairly quick because you will still be creating a low pressure point between the tank and the pump and the entire fuel tank and everything else are going to 1,000 degrees(obviously an exaggeration, but that's what it feels like) from the environment in summer.
If you are trying to solve vapor lock, then you probably just need a return line. Any mechanical or electric pump with a return line would solve that. If you have a return line and in the middle of summer it is STILL getting so hot that you are getting vapor lock, you could use an 87' sending unit with a TBI pump on it and just let it act as a lift pump to the mechanical pump with an adjustable regulator. Then if the electric pump fails, you would still have a functional mechanical pump that will let it limp home.
All of these would benefit from a high quality adjustable fuel pressure regulator and return line, especially if you don't have the original Q-jet on it. The holley and edelbrock carbs are notorious for the needle and seat not being able to handle the factory mechanical pump pressures.
Good luck
