Motorcycle fuel pumps are crucial in the delivery of fuel to the motorcycle’s engine. The pumps pressurize fuel from your gas tank and send it to your engine. Keeping a regular regimen of the fuel pump and filter maintenance is the ideal way to keep your bike’s engine at its peak performance. This article will present to you six insightful tips on how to maintain your performance fuel pumps and filters.
1. Use Clean and High-Quality Fuel
It’s always prudent to use high-quality Tier 1 fuel. Tier 1 fuels include fuels from popular fuel providers such as Chevron, BP, Marathon, Shell, and Sunoco. Also, you should avoid getting fuel from a fueling station that is also receiving its fuel at the time that you’re refueling. When the station receives fuel the new fuel stirs the tanks and you may end up getting fine dirt and debris in your fuel. Such dirt may clog your filters and affect the performance of your engine.
2. Change Your Fuel Filters and Keep Them Clean
If your motorcycle has an inline fuel filter, which isn’t within the tank, you should change it at least once a year or as recommended by the manufacturer regardless of how many miles your bike may have done. Another option could be reading Effuel reviews to improve your vehicle’s performance.
3. Keep the Fuel System Clean
Your fuel tank often gets dust and debris during the refueling process because some gas stations don’t offer high-quality fuel. Also, the fuel tank undergoes corrosion and the corroded debris ends up in the fuel system. You might need cathodic protection, it’s a proven and highly reliable way of controlling corrosion. When washing or riding your bike in the rain, the water and dirt around your fuel tank’s cap may end up in the tank if it’s not well fastened. The dirt in your fuel tank can reduce the durability of your fuel tank, damage the fuel pump, and clog your filters.
So, how can you keep your fuel system clean to avoid damaging your filters and performance fuel pumps? It’s advisable to use the best fuel injector cleaner on your fuel injection system and to have the throttle body cleaned after 20,000 to 30,000 miles. You can take your bike to a reputable mechanic or a service center to get a tank washout.
4. Ensure That Your Performance Fuel Pump Doesn’t Heat Up
Fuel pumps are electric motors and they heat up while pumping the fuel. The fuel pump gets immersed in the fuel so that it can cool off when it heats up. As such, your fuel tank level should never go below the ΒΌ of a tank. This ensures that your pump is partly immersed and it can get some cooling.
5. Avoid Fuel Gelling
If you aren’t burning your bike’s fuel in a week or two it’s advisable to add some anti-ethanol agent to your fuel tank. The anti-ethanol agent prevents the fuel from gelling. Gelling can cause injector and performance fuel pump failure and you should prevent it.
6. Learn To Make Early Identification and Repair of Fuel Pump Problems
Performance fuel pump problems often start in a gradual manner and worsen when they’re not attended to by a professional mechanic. It’s advisable to note your engine’s sound and vibrations to detect any deviation from the normal. Jerking movements of your bike or the inability to kick-start the engine well are also some of the indicators of a faulty fuel system.
How can you tell whether your fuel pump is malfunctioning? The easiest way is by riding your bike at its peak performance capacity to note any performance problems. If you’re not sure of your bike’s fuel system performance, you can always hire a mechanic to help or take your motorcycle to a service center.
Bottom-Line:
A performance fuel pump problem can lead to engine failure and it may make your bike to misfire, stall, or have insufficient power. Efficient fuel pumps can give your engine more power because they deliver fuel well. Always maintain your inline fuel filters and fuel pumps. When they get damaged always ensure that you use high-quality replacement fuel pumps and filters to do your fuel filter and fuel pump repair.