Fuel pump going down???

[BenFox16NA]

Hey guys, background on the situation.
My 90 VW Fox with its 1.6NA swap usually starts slowing down as the fuel filter gets stopped up, (like maxing out speed at 65 instead of 75) this is when i change the filter. typically every 1000 miles. i contribute this to todays bad fuel. no problem. But! this last time didnt help much. I dont have the means to test the pump, and I have no idea what car they took this engine from when they did the swap so getting a rebuilt one is gonna be tough less yuns can help me ID the engine or the pump.
the pumps numbers from what I'm think i know about manual diesel injection pumps is that these are VE pumps, so I got the number off the side with VE in it.
VE 4/9F 2500 R16-2
Any help will be greatly Appreciated.

[bscutt]

1000 miles on a filter sounds pretty bad. Wonder if the tank is rusty inside and little grains are clogging up the filter. Maybe a dissection of a used filter would show some nasty stuff.

[BenFox16NA]

I'll be sure to check that on the next one.
But i got to looking on the Main page here and saw where He is using ATF every third tank, I haven't been using anything in mine. :/
I'll try that on this filter and see how she does.
I've messed with rusty tanks before but this is the first VW I've ever had and diesel. I'm learning new stuff everyday about it, and I Love it!
Thank you for the suggestion.

[bscutt]

good luck. I always thought a swap into a Fox would be cool. Hope it's something not too hard to fix. I have used in line electric pumps to boost fuel flow to the pump intake but if it's rust then you'll just be pumping more rust into the filter anyway. Not sure if putting a small in line filter before the regular filter would show you anything. In other owrds just get a small clear filter from your local auto parts store and put it in line in the hose that feeds the filter inlet. If it's rust or particulates you might see that in one of those filters. Won't solve the problem but might help with diagnosis. Hopefully someone else will jump in and tell me if that's a bad idea.

[82vdub]

To know more of what's happening inside the filter, you'd need to either cut it open, or use one of those cheap $2 clear in-line filters before the main filter and see what shows up in that. That will give you a little idea on what may be in the tank.

[Fatmobile]

All my cars have a dash-mounted vacuum gauge connected to the fuel line.
This will tell you how hard the pump is pulling way before there is a problem.

[sgnimj96]

you can get a cheap but new tank delivered
http://shop.advanceautoparts.com/p/spec ... 7CL3*15386
I sprayed mine with a can of undercoating before installing it

use a coupon/promo code like TRT30 (just google advance auto codes); get a big discount AND still get free shipping. Then say goodbye to clogging main filters unless you find some really bad fuel.
The clear pre-filter is still a great idea- I like these https://www.rockauto.com/en/moreinfo.ph ... 96&jsn=296 or these if you don't mind changing it more often https://www.rockauto.com/en/moreinfo.ph ... 42&jsn=297
I put one before a cheap electric fuel pump (just for priming) which is also before the main filter. No problems after 3 trips coast to coast. Changed the prefilter twice and the main filter once, but it was still clean