How to Spot a Fake Walbro Fuel Pump

A comprehensive guide on how to spot fake
Walbro ’190’ and ‘255’ fuel pumps.

 Anyone who's ever heard of a ‘Walbro GSS342 / 255lph fuel pump will most certainly know just how popular they are. Indeed it seems they're a synonym to fuel pump / fuel delivery everywhere. However, with so much confusion on-line regarding which ones are the “truly genuine” product, we've decided to help and solve all myths and mysteries that are circulating around regarding this powerful, yet tiny pump.

To make things clear, this information and the pictures shown are of a pump that was advertised and bought on a very popular auction site and was listed as “completely genuine” which included a Walbro branded box. The thing is this rang alarm bells straight away because truly genuine Walbro GSS342 fuel pumps are not supplied in branded boxes of any description. The next give away was obviously the price where it’s listed at just below the average going rate of real 342’s.

Then it just got better and better once compared side by side, take a look and share this post to all fellow automotive / tuning enthusiasts.

Differences #1 – The Box
As already stated, to our best knowledge and experience with the real thing, genuine 342’s are not supplied in branded boxes of any description.

Differences #2 – Pump Bag
The genuine pump comes in an unsealed bag with the pump covered in mineral spirit to help stop corrosion forming. Walbro also uses this fluid to flow test their pumps to make sure they're working to full spec, whereas the fake is in a sealed bag with no treatments and has most likely been untested.

Differences #3 – The Pump Body
The following photos provide proof of just how bad the fake pump we received is.

• The fake 342’s Walbro logo hasn’t even been stamped with a hydraulic Press. Some poor person has used a hammer on a metal stamp, where they’ve obviously not hit it ‘straight and true’, resulting in a fading, unfinished effect!
• The fake 342’s Walbro logo is also completely wrong, with no ^ notch in the bottom line, the stamping font and dimensions are different too.
• The fake 342’s metal casing colour is completely different and has a blue hue to it
• The fake doesn’t have manufacturing indents which hold the outer metal shell securely to the pumps inner body
• The genuine GSS342’s shell texture is not as smooth / glossy as the fake

Differences 4 – Weight
The weight is a crucial factor the counterfeit pump can’t hide from, so we weighed three identical genuine GSS342’s to get an average guideline figure. Our scales showed two pumps were 365g and the other was 355g, so there’s possibly just more mineral spirit that’s been left inside two of them. The fake pump weighed in at just 310g so that’s quite a significant difference and a clear sign the design is different inside. The real pumps heavier thanks to the gerotor metal gear system instead of a plastic impeller design. Use 355 grams to 365 grams as a guide, but also note these measurements were taken without the inlet and outlet caps fitted.

If you suspect your pump is fake but its appearance is different to the one in our photo’s, you can use the real weight in our photo’s as a guideline.

Differences #5 – The inlet

• The genuine GSS342 features high quality ‘gerotor‘ style internal metal gears, the fake uses a plastic impeller.
• The genuine pumps inlet protrudes out further from the metal casing which you can see in the ‘Differences #3’ photos
• The fake we received has quality issues with bits of loose plastic evident in the inlet hole – A unique way to make your new fake ‘Walbro’ fail immediately!

Differences 6 – The Outlet

• There is no return valve pressure pin evident in the fake 342
• The electrical contact pins are square making for a fiddly install
• Various other differences are seen between the two.

Worried your pump that was purchased elsewhere is fake?

Hopefully this guide will put you at ease, saving your engine from fuel starvation and running into lean conditions. If you want to be sure you're buying genuine, purchase from one of the turbo Dodge supporting vendors listed below.