Fuel Pump Regulator

I have a '94 Jimmy w/ the 4.3l V6 Vortec. I recently was experiencing starting problems which I now know to be caused from my fuel pump regulator. I had been driving it this way for sometime...thinking it was just my starter wearing out. Recently, the engine started running quite poorly, and since in prior situations where this was the case, I assumed a piece of carbon had gotten stuck in my EGR valve. Things got real bad...the engine was running/sounding like a broken lawnmower (Forgot to mention hole in exhaust pipe near muffler). I had put about 30miles on the vehicle in this condition was all. I pulled over about 9 miles from my destination to find the rubber muffler grommet on fire!! I got the fire put out, and carefully drove it back to town to the shop where my trustworthy mechanic said the fuel pump regulator was out. He said when he took the spider cap off and started digging, it was shiny clean down there from all the excess gas going through the system, which is what started the fire.

He says I might be able to just replace the regulator, and change my oil, and that would be that. But, he also says I may need to change the whole assembly which would be around $700 for parts and such. What's the deal here? Assuming there's no metal shavings in my oil as we speak, is it worth trying to fix the regulator? Have I more than likely done too much damage? My mechanic says that the only way to tell if the engine/crankcase is still functioning properly is to fix the fuel regulator, and get the engine up to temp to see if it maintains oil pressure.

I'm a poor college student! Please help me!

Thanks,
J-Ray

Ebay $200 for a new CPI. Do it yourself why waste all that money. It is pretty straight forward. I changed mine out on an older truck I had if I remember right it only took about a half an hour or so.

Yip, CPI injector.

Might as well swap out the nut kit too. It is the fuel lines supplying the injector with fuel. They will rupture also.

Also, remember the upper plenum gasket.

Is there a possibility that I may have damaged the engine...

It got hot enough through my catalytic converter that a fire started back by my muffler...

I just don't want to spend my college dollars to get it fixed and find out it's got a blown engine.

WEll, if you keep on driving it like this it will be blown.

The extra gas leaked will leak into the cat and ignite.

Get this fixed or you will be looking for a new truck soon.

I haven't driven it since the muffler fire. My mechanic started it right up and drove it into the shop...of course it ran like crap...but it ran. He won't touch it w/o my go-ahead, because he's worried I've done internal damage.

And how important is the catalytic converter? I've heard that if you punch out the inners you won't have any problems with it and it won't affect performance.

Other than it is completely illegal and is punishable for over a 5000 dollar fine and you won't see any performance difference and your computer will go on the fritz when it senses that the cat exhaust is not right.