gearheadE30
I'm Awesome
There are good vacuum pumps out there; I ran one in a Caprice I built up. But it's not actually going to be much cheaper than hydroboost, if at all. The good pumps are a few hundred bucks, and then you'll need some adjustable vacuum switches and some relays so you can set the high/low hysteresis properly. Because the pumps aren't designed for 100% duty cycle, you will also need to make sure that there are no leaks at all so you don't burn the pump up accidentally. You will also need to add a vacuum reservoir in there somewhere; the pump needs to have some volume in the system beyond what the tubing and piping provides. I ended up with around 2 liters of volume before I was happy with how mine worked. Any less, and I would have inconsistent brake feel because the vacuum would move around on repeated brake application and the pump couldn't keep up.
You can't just add a reservoir to the system you have because the manifold vacuum won't ever drop low enough to actually 'charge' the system.
So yes, you could do a vacuum pump, but you would be better off saving up for used hydroboost parts. Go to a junkyard, watch FB marketplace, etc. I got my hydroboost setup for something like $50 earlier this year off of Facebook from a guy parting a truck out.
You can't just add a reservoir to the system you have because the manifold vacuum won't ever drop low enough to actually 'charge' the system.
So yes, you could do a vacuum pump, but you would be better off saving up for used hydroboost parts. Go to a junkyard, watch FB marketplace, etc. I got my hydroboost setup for something like $50 earlier this year off of Facebook from a guy parting a truck out.