About two years ago, when I was getting my Pantera back on the road again, I decided to replace the fuel pump. At the time, it seemed like a good idea, as the old pump was the original with 106k miles on it, and I wondered if its diaphragm was compatible with today's pump gas.
About 6k miles later, I was doing an oil change, and I noticed two small oil streaks on the oil filter. I dismissed this as my having used excess oil on the filter's base gasket, and the excess oil had worked its way to the filter "can"...done that before.
One month later, when I was under the car, I happened to notice quite a bit of oil on the oil filter. Further investigation revealed that the oil was not coming from the oil filter, it was coming from the breather hole on my new fuel pump. Bummer. So, I went to a different parts house and purchased another new fuel pump.
Turns out that both of these fuel pumps were Carter pumps. The first one (the one that leaked) came from NAPA, and the second one came from O'Reilly's. Examining both of these pumps revealed that they appeared identical, right down to the same ink stamp! And both pumps were new, not rebuilt.
Checking the fuel pump's breather hole for signs of oil leakage has now been added to my list of periodic inspections (or any time that I am under the car!!).
John
Original Post