I've been using the Shurflo pump continuously since the summer of 1998.... Yup, that's right-a good seven years on that pump. Two stage DIY setup. This was a daily driver up until the last 2 years. I restored the car and now I'm scared to drive it.When I say daily driver I'm talking about over 300,000 miles on the car. Of couse I've been driving it since 86 when it was brand new so I'm not saying I put 300,000 miles on the pump. Probably around 125,000-150,000 miles though. I have used nothing but methanol since about 1999 or 2000. I experimented with other alkys and mixtures until I found the methanol to work best. In those 7 years I had to replace 1 O- ring on the pressure side cause it swelled up and I also replaced the rubber diaphragm in the pump head once. It got distorted and the pump pressure was lower. It seemed to ocurr after sitting unused for a couple of weeks. (Must have been too much snow on the ground or something.) After soaking the old diaphragm in H2o for a while it seemed to conform back to the original state. I did order a 100 psi pressure switch to replace the 60 psi one but that was just for atomization-not because of a problem. I use a custom alcohol tank made of aluminum and have no problems whatsoever with that either-even though methanol is supposed to attack the aluminum.
The methanol I buy has a SMALL quantity of oil in it so I don't know if that is what makes a difference or not. I buy it from a go kart racer. He sells it to the other racers as well. These are high HP go karts that look like world of outlaw cars with wings and everything.
Maybe the newer pumps have changed materials? I can't see why. The internals that handle the fluids are not big buck rocket science. Maybe they can't handle methanol now? I dunno! If so the pump heads can be changed I'm sure. Or maybe you can buy an upgraded pump from Razor? If not just check into a different replacement diaphragm-or just buy the whole dang kit from Razor.
