An interesting report on wear factors in Stanadyne DB2 pumps

[nelstomlinson]

http://www.motormayhem.net/wp-uploads/2009/10/QL-xdYbyhmR.pdf

They look at pumps which failed during Desert Storm 1, and conclude that using Jet-A1 caused extra wear.

 

[CDX825]

No surprise there. Jet A is a very dry fuel. Very pure kerosene basically.

 

[IDIBRONCO]

No surprise there. Jet A is a very dry fuel. Very pure kerosene basically.

Not to mention that if I remember right, you needed specially hardened internals to run jet fuel in the winter time in places like Alaska.

 

[nelstomlinson]

Yes, the report mentions an Arctic conversion kit with much harder components to minimize wear with dry fuels. Looks like the dry fuels mostly wore the transfer pump and hydraulic head assembly.

Here's something interesting from the report:

Failure could not be initiated by pumping cold fuel [50*F (10C)] into a hot pump [180*F
(82°C)]. However, immediate failure occurred when sufficiently hot fuel was passed through a
cold pump.

Fortunately, we are unlikely to have hot fuel when the pump is cold.

 

[Clb]

Someone put the in the tech section!

 

[nelstomlinson]

@Thewespaul has probably seen a lot more failed pumps than these 10, but this might be interesting to him.