Aftermarket fuel pump for Mercruiser 5.0L. Lessons Learned!

[ktbarrentine]

After a beautiful day on the lake yesterday, came home and tried to fire up the boat on the muffs... Ran out of gas! (but.... I had just filled the tank at 3.69/gal. Yikes! That's a story for another thread). Troubleshooting isolated a bad fuel pump. Trouble is, I just replaced this pump 7.5 engine hours ago. It is an aftermarket (Sierra) pump. Guess I will look for OEM...(yes...tried to save a buck or two...but look at me now! I count my blessings that I wasn't at the far end of the lake when it decided to quit!) I had read on here that "some" aftermarket parts are ok, but stay away from others. Another experiences like this? What is the "best" carter style pump I should go after?

 

[achris]

Re: Aftermarket fuel pump for Mercruiser 5.0L. Lessons Learned!

... What is the "best" carter style pump I should go after?

You called it when you said OEM....

I'd be taking that pump back and asking for a refund, NOT a replacement pump...

Chris........

 

[Tahorover]

Re: Aftermarket fuel pump for Mercruiser 5.0L. Lessons Learned!

The very same thing happened to my buddy last week! Sierra pump that had only pumped about 80 gallons of fuel.

West Marine did warranty it, but he does not trust Sierra Parts anymore! He is going with a Holley pump:
http://www.holley.com/types/Marine Mechanical Fuel Pumps.asp

 

[ziggy]

Re: Aftermarket fuel pump for Mercruiser 5.0L. Lessons Learned!

i just gotta ask...

was it made in china?

 

[ktbarrentine]

Re: Aftermarket fuel pump for Mercruiser 5.0L. Lessons Learned!

i just gotta ask...

was it made in china?

It isn't apparent anywhere on the pump or the single page of instructions that came with it. The "one-star" review of this product on Iboats by another consumer written last year says his sierra fuel pump was stamped "made in china". All mine has on it is "C10". After I got the pump and opened the box, I could see the quality/construction was not anywhere near what I was replacing. Crossed my fingers and put it on anyway. At least I am getting good at removing / installing these. Had this bad one off in about five minutes this morning.

 

[jopes]

Re: Aftermarket fuel pump for Mercruiser 5.0L. Lessons Learned!

The very same thing happened to my buddy last week! Sierra pump that had only pumped about 80 gallons of fuel.

West Marine did warranty it, but he does not trust Sierra Parts anymore! He is going with a Holley pump:
http://www.holley.com/types/Marine Mechanical Fuel Pumps.asp

I know who that was!

 

[Tahorover]

Re: Aftermarket fuel pump for Mercruiser 5.0L. Lessons Learned!

i just gotta ask...

was it made in china?

IIRC Mexico

 

[achris]

Re: Aftermarket fuel pump for Mercruiser 5.0L. Lessons Learned!

i just gotta ask...

was it made in china?

You gotta ask? It lasted less than 10 hours, and you gotta ask!!!.... :facepalm:

As a kid we always called it 'Jap crap'. What rhymes with 'China' and has the same meaning?

Chris......

 

[ziggy]

Re: Aftermarket fuel pump for Mercruiser 5.0L. Lessons Learned!

You gotta ask? It lasted less than 10 hours, and you gotta ask!!!.... :facepalm:

yer right, i shoulda known (better than to ask). :facepalm: worthless cheaply made parts causing folks troubles...

 

[achris]

Re: Aftermarket fuel pump for Mercruiser 5.0L. Lessons Learned!

yer right, i shoulda known (better than to ask). :facepalm: worthless cheaply made parts causing folks troubles...

You know what really worries me? People are buying these cheapo crappo parts, having them fail, buying them again... All the time the companies making good parts aren't selling any, because they cost more (surprise surprise :facepalm and they go out of business. It's not going to be long before all we can buy IS cheapo crappo parts, that my friend, is seriously scary!!! By the time the public realises what's really happening it will be too late, because all the skills require to make good quality parts/products will have been lost... We are doomed to be buying crap for the rest of our lives...

Chris......

 

[ktbarrentine]

Re: Aftermarket fuel pump for Mercruiser 5.0L. Lessons Learned!

You know what really worries me? People are buying these cheapo crappo parts, having them fail, buying them again... All the time the companies making good parts aren't selling any, because they cost more (surprise surprise :facepalm and they go out of business. It's not going to be long before all we can buy IS cheapo crappo parts, that my friend, is seriously scary!!! By the time the public realises what's really happening it will be too late, because all the skills require to make good quality parts/products will have been lost... We are doomed to be buying crap for the rest of our lives...

Chris......

Guilty as charged! (except for the part about buying them again). Hopefully with threads like this one, and accurate product reviews (like the one I left on Amazon), more people will get the message. I wish I had done better research on the part before I fell prey to the low-price monster! I had to learn the same lesson when I started flying. Pay me now, or pay me later....

 

[mr300z87]

Re: Aftermarket fuel pump for Mercruiser 5.0L. Lessons Learned!

I leaned this lesson many years ago when replacing a water pump on a Nissan V6 car with a $20 water pump from Pep Boys that lasted less than 20K miles. The replacement required the whole front of the motor be taken apart (3-4 hours by an experienced mechanic). The pump rebuilt (probably in china) had a life time warranty but after 2 hours removing it and driving to the store they would only give me a replacement even with the receipt, I promptly left the POS on the counter and drove to the Nissan Dealer for a new pump which lasted 100K + miles. Since then I have only used OEM part on my cars and boats, my time is valuable and don't like doing the same job twice because of cheap low quality parts. Remember you get what you pay for.

 

[telstar1]

Re: Aftermarket fuel pump for Mercruiser 5.0L. Lessons Learned!

Nissan you say?Wouldnt that be the aforementioned japcrap a few years on?Stay tuned.

 

[Friscoboater]

Re: Aftermarket fuel pump for Mercruiser 5.0L. Lessons Learned!

You know what really worries me? People are buying these cheapo crappo parts, having them fail, buying them again... All the time the companies making good parts aren't selling any, because they cost more (surprise surprise :facepalm and they go out of business. It's not going to be long before all we can buy IS cheapo crappo parts, that my friend, is seriously scary!!! By the time the public realises what's really happening it will be too late, because all the skills require to make good quality parts/products will have been lost... We are doomed to be buying crap for the rest of our lives...

Chris......

It has happened to my industry. I own a home theater company, and manufactures have made their stuff cheaper and cheaper to "race to the bottom" price war. People don't give a ***** anymore about quality. There is a reason for the saying "you get what you pay for". Now getting a good deal is not a problem, and I think if you shop around you can find good prices on an oem part.

 

[30 Commander]

Re: Aftermarket fuel pump for Mercruiser 5.0L. Lessons Learned!

Regarding aftermarket parts, I always thought OEM parts were the safest and best bet.

I had a failed fuel pump on a 5.7 L Merc. I went way out of my way in both time and money to replace with an OEM fuel pump, when I could have bought an aftermarket one close by at half the price. After installing the new OEM part, I started having serious carb flooding. The float bowl kept overflowing. Not even thinking about the brand spankin' new fuel pump at all, I rebuilt the carb....but it kept flooding. I am embarrased to say I rebuilt that carb three times that weekend, replacing the float, float needle valves, etc....but it still kept flooding.

Then it dawned on me to put a pressure gauge on the fuel line....you guessed it...20 psi out of the new pump! Way too much! The float valve couldn't handle the pressure. Specs called for around 5 to 7 psi if I recall.

I went back to my local parts guy, bought the cheap Sierra pump and replaced the Bad OEM pump. It's worked great since. Moral of the story...OEM parts can be bad out of the box like anything else.

Good thing was, Merc warranty replaced the bad pump, and paid me for the carb work and all parts I wasted money on.

 

[Don S]

Re: Aftermarket fuel pump for Mercruiser 5.0L. Lessons Learned!

There are always specific exceptions, and yes, even OEM parts fail. Just not near as often.

 

[eclipse196]

Re: Aftermarket fuel pump for Mercruiser 5.0L. Lessons Learned!

I am really careful of the parts that I install. We do a lot of our business at NAPA and if you look, many of those parts are also made in China, Korea, etc. I really pay attention if the work to install is significant. If it is a rather simple, non-critical part, I don't worry as much. We do buy the higher end in everything that we purchase.
Quality and customer service are problems in our current time.

 

[HT32BSX115]

Re: Aftermarket fuel pump for Mercruiser 5.0L. Lessons Learned!

Funny, people always think the OEM pump is better......in many cases it IS literally the "same".
Mercury Marine does NOT make their pumps. They frequently get them from other companys.

For the mechanical pumps bolted to engines and raw water pumps (Bravo), they're made (or were made) by Airtex.
http://www.airtexproducts.com/ (I don't think they sell retail)

There's also Robert Bosch, Denso, and many many others.

I bought my Airtex pump bolted to my Bravo raw water shaft housing, from a Kragen/Schucks (Now Oreilly) autoparts store. I ordered it right out of the Airtex catalog (Marine section) for $50 when the Mercruiser ( also Airtex) pump was up to $189


You just have to do your homework.

Cheers,


Rick