I'm pretty pleased with myself. After about 3 months fiddling around with it I finally have a 575 fuel pump in my 550. No more worrying about rubber debris, no more worrying about a cracked cover. All the soft parts are Viton® fluoroelastomer, the hoses are the same corrugated vinyl as used in the 575 and 550 pump, the cover is aluminum, all fabricated internal parts are either brass, stainless steel or aluminum. This is a project John (Cribbj) and I have been working on for quite a while. We decided long ago the this will not be offered for sale due to product liability issues that we just don't want to deal with. One of the reasons it took so long is that while John has a spare tank we could use for measurements and test fitting after getting several discrepancies we finally realized his is a 99 and mine is a 2000. The tanks are different. John will be test fitting the final iteration in the 99 tank soon but my 2000 is now running a 575 pump with no problems, in fact its much easier to get into the tank than the 5550 pump. One of the pictures shows all the parts that go into one pump conversion, some of them like the brass fittings and the cover I made. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
Dave- Wondered when you would get them working. Another good thing is the 575M pumps are an order of magnitude less expensive than 550 pumps. If you could find a NOS 550 pump. Which fuel gauge sender did you use?
Taz, luckily on the 550, the fuel level sender is in a 3rd fitting on the back of the tank - it's not integrated with one of the pump baskets like the 575M's right pump. So we've been fooling with the LH pump assembly. Dave really took the lead on this project, and I've just been doing test fitting for him. Have had my hands full lately with my own major service and head refreshening Found all exhaust guides badly worn and needing replacement. Some had as much as 6 to 8 thou clearance with the valve stems (Ferrari spec is 3.5 to 4.0 thou, which is still too loose.)
John- Sounds like Ferrari used those high copper content guides pretty much throughout production. Who will do the machine work for you? Here is what I have on valve guides and machine shops, none of which are near Texas, unfortunately. Lesco is who Brian Crall uses. Lesco Automotive Machine 3000 McMillan Ave. San Luis Obispo, CA 93401 (805) 596-0400 Fax (805) 596-0205 Lesco Custom Performance & Race Engines E-Mail: [email protected] Machine Shop, Race Engines S&R Exotic Motorworks 853 State Road 101 South Liberty, Indiana 47353 765.458.5900 765.277.2848 cell http://www.srexotics.com/ [email protected] Engine Rebuilding, Machine Shop CHE Precision Inc 2640 Lauery Ct, Suite C Newbury Park, CA 99320 (805) 499-8885 CHE Precision FLASH Intro Valve Guides, Seats Manley Performance Products, Inc. 1960 Swarthmore Avenue Lakewood, NJ 08701 Phone (732) 905-3366 Fax (732) 905-3010 East Coast Manufacturing Plant Sales Hours 9:00 AM - 5:30 PM EST (800) 526-1362 [email protected] Manley Performance Valves People had been having trouble with the 550 sender, so thought you two might try the 575M sender, even if the gauges are different. Plus they are just about free.
Or what ...... The funny thing is that people like Dave & me + Dave Helms are coming up with solutions to sort out "known" issues with these cars, because in some instances these issues can/have caused real safety problems, not to mention serious and expensive technical problems. But if/when there's a serious accident with a car that's been "modified", the insurance companies tend to go straight to the modifications as the cause, not the initial cr*p design from the OEM. Anyway, I think Dave has provided enough pics here that if someone wanted to adapt/build their own 575 pump baskets for the 550 or 456, it should be easy enough to do.
Dave I remember John talking something about this a long time ago. What actually did you do? Cannibalize a 575 pump and machine your own aluminum plate and other stuff fitted on the 575 pump? I thought that alcohol in the gas was eating the plastics and that was a problem in all Ferrari systems. How is the 575 pump immune? How are the 99 and 00 tanks different? How many miles did you and john have on your 550's? I am starting to think the cars with worst guides and carbon build-up are infrequently driven and conservatively driven. The fleet of 550's is reasonably low mile. When people see 550's for sale with 40kmiles they are already thinking that's high mileage. I have one 2000 550 with 60kmiles and one 2001 with 21kmiles and the 60kmile car is in much better mechanical condition despite the miles. Did you discover your head problems during a major doing a leakdown test or???
What John was speaking about was converting the 550 to a return-less system like the 575. This would be difficult but not impossible to do because the 575 cover includes the pressure regulator but the 575 cover won't fit a 550 tank opening. The gasoline used now attacks the rubber parts, not the plastic parts. Unlike the 550 pump the 575 has no internal rubber parts. What I did was design and fabricate my own cover and hinged bracket then I used a new 575 pump/basket and new hoses. The hinge feature makes it possible to insert the 575 basket and cover into the tank as a unit. The difference in the tanks can be seen on Ricambi's diagrams 550 fuel tank tables 12 and 13, notice the top of the tanks at the rear.
Dave- The 575M also has no external fuel filter since there is a strainer and a full pump diameter filter built into the pump. Very ingenious, and cost saving, modification kit you made. It is a real shame you cannot duplicate this one. Something similar would probably work for the 456 and 456M, too.
Terry, that part number has been superseded to a new part number, 239819 and while nothing apparent on the pump has been changed the FNA list price is now $487.57
Dave- 50% price increase. Sounds about right. I looked up the numbers from other sources and the prices are about the same as you quote. The later part numbers are not on Ricambi's site. Thought maybe the pump was shared with the 612, but the 612 has a different pump shared with the 599 and Maserati Gran Sport. Have not read about too many problems with 575M pumps so there are probably some NOS pumps with the old part number out there. Nothing in any of my tech bulletins on the pumps and, since my old XP machine crashed recently, I cannot read my Superamerica WSM to compare parts numbers and see if the change was made for early SA (Apr 05) production.
Terry, For my purposes all I want is the basket/filter/pump with wire harness. I throw away the cover and hoses. It looks like 360, 430, 612, 599, or 575 pumps will serve as well as a Peugeot 406 2.0D HDi 98-99, Maserati Gran Sport, and maybe more. Its a fairly generic Bosch fuel pump Fuel Pump Mounting Unit What I don't know and why I used a 575 pump is the actual output specifications of the pump itself. That one I know will function properly on a 550.
Dave- Save those extra parts, especially the covers, which have been known to crack. If you are tossing them, I am interested.
I would say so Terry, This is what mine looked like after 15 years and lots of miles ! cheers, Bill Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
Terry, The second pump will be here in a few days, when I get finished I can send the left-overs to you although I don't expect you will ever need them. They're a completely different design and material than the 550 covers which will fail over time. The 550 covers have two studs and two brass fittings molded in, that's where the leaks occur due to stress fractures. The newer covers are all plastic but of course they are not interchangeable, different size apertures on the tanks.
Dave, I never needed to open tank area on my pair "yet.". If this is not going to be MSW kit, liabilities etc., have you considered uploading the files for the cover etc to say an emachine file so people can make it and take the liabilities themselves?
Dave, just thinking about what Carl said. If someone opted to buy a pair of those FMS Car Parts rear covers, like Bill did, then all they'd need would be the dimensions of the support bracket and the cross bar, plus those hanger/retainers that slip down into the basket and they'd be set. They really wouldn't need to replicate your cover, in/out fittings & electrical pass throughs.
Carl, I didn't make any drawings or save any notes, sorry. John, If someone wanted to use those covers with a 575 basket I imagine a bracket could be made but it would have different dimensions than mine due to the design of that cover. Anyone considering this be aware that headroom is severely limited in the pre-MY-2000 tanks, in fact we haven't proven it will even fit at this point.
