Cougars have an "access" port, as you call it, but it's only half as big as it needs to be to get to the ring.
Dropped the tank last night, didn't find anything "unusual", per se, but found a few things that we corrected in order to make a *possible* difference.
The pump itself appeared fine- It was snugly in the fitting, the screen was only a little nasty. We noticed that the screen was actually somwhat smashed at the bottom where it was hitting the bottom of the tank (Walbro's longer than stock), so I took some more plastic off the top of the pump to fit it into the gasket fitting a bit more. Also, we noticed something interesting. This pic is a bit rough, hopefully you'll be able to see what I'm talking about.
The picture shows the top of the pump housing with the pump installed. You can see the top of the fuel pump as viewed from the perspective of the fuel outlet. It's off center- By a good bit, too... Maybe a restriction? We removed some of that obstructive plastic to open her up a bit. Then, we trimmed down the outlet line to allow more of a "chamber" for the fuel to travel rather than immediately being "shoved" around a corner into an off-centered hole.
We re-assembled everything, took it for a test run, and she held 60psi at WOT all the way up at 12.5psi (after spinning through 1st, 2nd, and 3rd... Amazing what running a chip with the secondaries turned on will get you...
). Also, somehow the noise has gone- Barely audible now, just like when I first fired it up.
Then, thinking all was well, I went to fill up (had less than 1/8 tank left), and about 10gal. into the fill, fuel started POURING out of the bottom of the car.
Think I may have busted the fill tube gasket... It appears to be coming from the filler neck.
Oh, and poo-poo on whoever designed the thing- You can't get the filler breather tube hose back on for beans unless you drop the entire fill tube! There's just not enough slack!
