Inside A Nitro Fuel Pump: How Top Fuel and Funny Car Engines Get Fed

Nitro engines are hungry monsters that need to be fed a whole lot of fuel. These mechanical beasts have massive fuel systems that move fuel at astounding rates. Dean “Guido” Antonelli is the crew chief for the Ron Capps-driven NAPA Funny Car, and he dropped some nitro knowledge on these fuel pumps for us on this episode of Dragzine’s Tech Inspection.

Modern nitro engines require massive amounts of fuel. Your typical muscle car that runs on pump gas uses a fuel pump that flows about 35 gallons of fuel per hour. The nitro-burning hot rods you see in Funny Car and Top Fuel use fuel pumps that move at least 120 gallons of fuel per minute. This large demand for fuel is due to the properties of nitromethane and how it burns in the combustion chamber.

A nitro engine fuel pump is a mechanical-style pump that’s driven off the camshaft. The fuel system uses shutoffs, bypass valves, barrel valves, and pneumatic timers to control the delivery of nitro to the engine. Essentially, the pump is providing the volume, while the nozzle jets and pressure curves are used for tuning.

Antonelli does a great job explaining how these fuel pumps work and what goes into the tuning process. You’ll want to check out this entire Tech Inspection video to get the lowdown on nitro fuel systems.