I'm going to run steel fuel lines and am considering a switch over to an electric fuel pump at the same time. Anyone have a favorite? Anything I should know about the swap?

Some folks like Carter, I think Phil may run those, I'm recently fond of Bosch.

Strongly suggest the carter, my fullsize had the same one on for 15 years till it failed, I currently have one on mine and have for 5 years, no problems and I put 30-50 miles a day on it during the week, and sometimes more weekdays, my dad has run that pump for 20 years on some of his previous trucks, ill have to check the part number, it's not under carter now as carter is now Airtex, I've got the box, helps a lot w/ vapor lock as well, do you have dual exhaust on yours? That might cause more vapor lock issues w/ metal lines if you do have dual exhaust

What ever one you get find one that is rated at 14 psi. Then put a regulator right by the carb and turn it down to 5.5-6psi.

I run a jegs 105gph 14psi pump with a regulator a foot from the carb. Never had starvation or vapor lock with it. It is mounted on a piece of rubber to isolate it. Not that noisy but with my exhaust I cant hear much.

http://www.jegs.com/i/JEGS+Performance+ ... 4/10002/-1

There is a couple of things that can cause that lag. Timing can do it, as can carb tuning. The wiring isn't hard. You wire in a relay and run a single wire from the relay to the pump, with a ground wire from the pump to the frame. It's a little more complex if you want to put in an inertial switch or oil pressure switch (kills the pump in the event of a wreck so that you don't keep pumping gas all over the place), but not much more so. Doing it when you rewire is a good idea, but it isn't much additional wiring.