I recently bought a 1966 Sunbeam Alpine as my first venture into the classic car world. Somewhat unwisely, I bought this car sight unseen and it has a couple of strange modifications. It has a fuel cell inside of the trunk and an electric fuel pump, all of which I knew. But the strange part is that the electric fuel pump is not pumping anything. It is not connected to the fuel cell, nor is it connected to the original tank. Not thinking too much about why it was installed, I removed it and planned to connect the original tank soon. I also noticed that the fuel mixture was too rich so I fixed that as well. Today, I was taking it for a ride, and about 30-45 minutes into the drive, the engine died. The temperature gauge showed about 100 degrees celsius. When I opened the hood, I saw through the clear fuel filter that the fuel was boiling. The fuel line is not next to the exhaust and it only got hot at the fuel pump. I think the fuel pump is stock, but I am not certain. It does not have a return line to the cell or the tank. Is the fuel pump going bad? Should I replace the mechanical fuel pump with an electric one?
Thanks, JF
Thanks, JF