The only time you really need to upgrade a fuel pump is when your engine starves for fuel under high loads. If you have your foot in it and you go through the gears without any surging, popping or backfiring (lean pops), then you shouldn't "need" a bigger fuel pump.
If however you nail your throttle and you are able to go through 1st gear, then 2nd gear, and then have it start surging and popping in 3rd, that is a good indicator that your pump isn't keeping up with how much fuel your engine needs.
When you nail it hard you use the fuel is stored in the carb flaot bowls through the lower gears, and when that runs out (usually about the time you hit high gear), the pump can't keep up so the carb goes dry and the engine begins to surge and pop.
Sometimes it's nice just to have a great looking pump on there, such as a new Edelbrock pump to insure you have good fuel flow and so it looks really nice, but most stock pumps do fine for most mild performance engines.
The only time you really need to upgrade a fuel pump is when your engine starves for fuel under high loads. If you have your foot in it and you go through the gears without any surging, popping or backfiring (lean pops), then you shouldn't "need" a bigger fuel pump.
If however you nail your throttle and you are able to go through 1st gear, then 2nd gear, and then have it start surging and popping in 3rd, that is a good indicator that your pump isn't keeping up with how much fuel your engine needs.
When you nail it hard you use the fuel is stored in the carb flaot bowls through the lower gears, and when that runs out (usually about the time you hit high gear), the pump can't keep up so the carb goes dry and the engine begins to surge and pop.
Sometimes it's nice just to have a great looking pump on there, such as a new Edelbrock pump to insure you have good fuel flow and so it looks really nice, but most stock pumps do fine for most mild performance engines.
The only time you really need to upgrade a fuel pump is when your engine starves for fuel under high loads. If you have your foot in it and you go through the gears without any surging, popping or backfiring (lean pops), then you shouldn't "need" a bigger fuel pump.
If however you nail your throttle and you are able to go through 1st gear, then 2nd gear, and then have it start surging and popping in 3rd, that is a good indicator that your pump isn't keeping up with how much fuel your engine needs.
When you nail it hard you use the fuel is stored in the carb flaot bowls through the lower gears, and when that runs out (usually about the time you hit high gear), the pump can't keep up so the carb goes dry and the engine begins to surge and pop.
Sometimes it's nice just to have a great looking pump on there, such as a new Edelbrock pump to insure you have good fuel flow and so it looks really nice, but most stock pumps do fine for most mild performance engines.
Here's what I do run into though when some people install a bigger fuel pump on their car and have problems:
1) The new bigger pump may have more pressure than the needle and seat in your carb can handle, thus causing a flooding problem when idling or cruising unless a pressure regulator is installed. Edelbrock carbs are a little more sensitive to fuel pressure than "most" Holley's. Some Holleys (on serious engines) use high flow needle and seats, which can only handle about 4 psi of fuel pressure. Just remember, fuel flow isn;t always contingent on "pressure", but rather "volume". A 1/2" fuel line with 3 psi will flow more than a 5/16" line at 7psi.
2) they'll install a big engine, or do some hefty modifications, then install an elaborate fuel pump and system, only to have a 5/16" fuel line on their fuel tank's sending unit. OR... they'll have brass fittings that have inside diameters of 5/16" or less.
I had one guy that we built this REALLY nasty 427 small block for. He installed the engine and did all of his other work, but that engine would surge in high gear, no matter how much fuel pressure he tried on the regulator.
He brought it in to me and low and behold, after a little detective work, I found a brass fitting feeding his fuel pump that was supposed to be a 3/8" pipe thread with a 3/8" line, yet the ID was actually not drilled out like it was supposed to be. It was more like 1/4", so the flow from the tank to the pump was all coming through what LOOKED lijke a 3/8" fitting, but with a tiny little 1/4" ID which wasn't enough to feed the pump so it could keep the float bowls filled when under hard acceleration. Once that was changed out, it never had that surging problem again. So it isn't always the pump's fault.