I've been doing some calculations to determine how close my fuel pump is to its flow limit.
I have the Walbro F90000267 in-tank, E85-compatible fuel pump. The official specs from Walbro are as follows:
Fuel pressure, Flow rate (at 13.5V)
30psi, 455 litres/hour
35psi, 442 litres/hour
40psi, 430 litres/hour
45psi, 417 litres/hour
50psi, 405 litres/hour
55psi, 393 litres/hour
60psi, 381 litres/hour
65psi, 368 litres/hour
70psi, 355 litres/hour
75psi, 341 litres/hour
80psi, 328 litres/hour
Fuel pressure, Flow rate (at 12V)
30psi, 400 litres/hour
35psi, 387 litres/hour
40psi, 375 litres/hour
45psi, 362 litres/hour
50psi, 349 litres/hour
55psi, 336 litres/hour
60psi, 323 litres/hour
65psi, 310 litres/hour
70psi, 298 litres/hour
75psi, 285 litres/hour
80psi, 273 litres/hour
EDIT: I already have a separate relay to power the fuel pump directly from the battery, therefore I was assuming that the voltage at the fuel pump would be at least 13.5V, but I later found that it's closer to 13V.
I decided to buy and install a fuel pressure sensor from Adaptronic so I can monitor the fuel pressure properly through my ECU. The sensor has a 1/8 NPT thread so I was able to install it directly into the gauge port on my Turbosmart FPR1200 fuel pressure regulator.
After installing the fuel pressure sensor and calibrating it in my ECU, I discovered that my base fuel pressure is 35psi, which is lower than normal, but this is actually good news. Even if my fuel atomisation is suffering a bit, it's been like this all along and the engine performs very smoothly.
EDIT: For my own reference, I made a few refinements to the info below since I first posted it.
I reviewed some data logs and confirmed that my 386rwkw tune has a maximum injector duty cycle of about 57%.
I have Injector Dynamics ID2000 injectors which flow ~2000cc/minute each at 35psi differential fuel pressure. At 100% duty cycle and accounting for all 4 cylinders, that would be a total of 8 litres/minute.
With an injector duty cycle value of about 57%, my engine would be consuming about 280 litres/hour of fuel at full power.
The fuel pump should be capable of flowing about 330 litres/hour of fuel at 13V and 70psi fuel pressure (35psi base pressure + 30psi of boost + 5psi conservatively estimated pressure drop from pump to rail), which means that it
should be able to support just over 400rwkw if I keep the base fuel pressure at about 35-38psi. This is all theoretical at this stage, so I don't know how it will differ in the real-world.
I had been considering installing a surge tank with twin staged pumps in parallel to get even more fuel flow, along with the other benefits of a surge tank, but I'd rather avoid installing a surge tank at this stage so it's good to know that I don't really need it. If I ever get better track tyres in the future and increase my cornering G's, only then will I possibly reconsider the surge tank idea. Anyway, if I just make sure that the fuel tank never runs too low at the track then there won't be a problem.
I'm also giving serious consideration to the idea of having twin staged pumps inside the standard fuel tank.
I'm not saying that I'll definitely go for more power either. I'm sure the engine is capable of more, but I hardly NEED more power haha. In any case, it would definitely be activated by a button so I can choose when to punish the engine a bit more than usual (eg. at the drags).