Desmogging the 4400 and got rid of the crap holley carb that I tried to make work for 2 weeks.wasted time and effort...I.bought a new aftermarket that works just wonderful .. I really dont need the fuel pump and all those steel lines now....can I take the pump and push rod out and build a plate/cover and not have any issues ? thanks

pull the push rod out and cap it be sure to use a gasket to stop any oil leaks . if you start to feel your losing power you might need to add a small electric fuel pump . most race cars do use manual fuel pump alot of them ran electric fuel pump or like nascars run a cable drive fuel pump

I had a 3 cylinder 4000 that someone had removed the lines and pump and capped off the pump mount.
It idled along fine and would do some work but when I put my 6' bush hog on it it would not make the power my 3000 does.
I temporarily installed a small electric fuel pump on it and it made a lot more power. This was a 192. A 201 might even be a little more starved.
I say fix the original stuff.
It was a good, reliable system if it got a wee bit of maintenance every 10 or 20 years.

was you using the original carb ..holley or zenith ?

If you search back in the archives here and read some old posts you'll see I'm no fan of those darned Holleys.
That tractor hadn't run for a couple of years when I bought it.
First thing I did when I got it, after getting it to spark, is replaced the Holley with a Zenith.
Zenith will make them RUN.

you and another person wrote back and said that I might have power issues by using just the gravity flow and not using the fuel pump....and I was wondering why it would matter ....then I thought that maybe because of the Holley is not a regular updraft carb...maybe it does need more pressure than gravity flow..because it is built with a pump inside and just the way its stupid built....where as a regular updraft carb like zenith,marvel shembler ect ....is fine with just a gravity flow..and I dont think it matters ..I cant see how having more pressure that just gravity flow can give a regular updraft carb more horse power? maybe with the holley...but not normal updraft ...I have not used it or worked it yet ...Its a backhoe..not pulling a plow or mower...I hope the carb I put on works fine and not under powered...guess I will find out..

was you still using the holley carb or a zenith?

If you keep the tank at least half full all of the time and don't lean it too much on hills it will probably run fine, but if you really work it hard it may not put out as much hp as it would with a pump.

Yea I had that gas level figured in when I did it..so right now I have only 2 -3 inches of gas in tank still runs fine..I have dont have any hills here so I should not have that issue...but what I wanted to know is without the pushrod in the block will there be any problems if I eliminate it like oil splashing around or something else..to do with what drives it ..like cam follower problem?