Don Rey <radon220@gmail.com> wrote:
> The steel fuel line on my Dak is severely rusted and it finally
> cracked where it wears against a subframe component. I'm going to
> replace it with rubber fuel injection rated hose. About $5/ft. I know
> I should be using hard line, but it's the reason I'm in the
> predicament I'm in right now. I considered stainless lines, but those
> are a PITA to work with. I don't trust aluminum or steel not to
> corrode again. And I can install it in less than 20 minutes. I'm going
> to strap it up well with zip ties and put some sort of sheeth over it
> where it crosses hard edges and such.
> Anyone else run rubber fuel hose instead of hard lines? Truck has 94
> engine with returnless MPI
Yep, I did this with my '92 Ram. I see it as a "six of one, half
dozen of another" situation. Steel is probably more resistant to road
debris and will not get soft like rubber, and will probably hold out
longer against abrasion than rubber would, but on the other hand,
rubber will not rust and its certainly easier to work with. IMHO,
both types of line will fail eventually, so which one to use comes
down more to the vehicle's particular use and ease of installation and
maintenance. (Local laws/inspection requirements may play a role as
well.)
An alternative which you may wish to consider, not only for
increased functionality but potentially reduced price is braided
stainless. The outer stainless weave helps with abrasion resistance
and probably supplies some UV protection to the hose itself. Most
brands of braided stainless are rated to 1,000psi which the EFI hose
couldn't dream of touching, but the braided stainless costs
considerably less than the EFI hose! (Price will vary depending on
supplier, amount purchased, etc. but just as an example, a quick
search at Summit Racing shows -6AN stainless (3/8") for $3.75/ft.)
You will still need to resarch the cost issue though because
stainless does have some "accessories" which add expense over the EFI
hose such as hose ends and fittings. Many different fittings are
available, so which ones you choose depend on exactly where you are
connecting to, but hose to NPT fittings are pretty common, figure
maybe $5 each for those. Although you can get special AN wrenches,
those are just so you don't mar the finish of the ends in your pretty
trailer queen; functionally, an adjustable wrench will work just fine.
I used a bunch of braided stainless on my Barracuda, and when the
steel fuel line in my '92 Ram split, I discovered that the factory
connectors from the hard lines to the engine are actually braided
stainless! Since the fittings on the end of the lines were rusted and
corroded beyond saving, I simply cut the factory braided stainless
line and used an AN fitting on it to adapt it to a hose barb or
something along those lines. I think I used the EFI hose on the Ram
though because the section I needed to replace was fairly short and I
had some of the hose laying around from a previous project.
Be aware that if you need to connect braided stainless to hard
lines, the AN fittings use a 37 degree single flare as opposed to a 45
degree double flare. A 37 degree flaring tool can be had for about
$100, or for a small project, just flare your hard lines with a 45
degree tool, use a flare to NPT adapter then an NPT to AN adapter.
Probably you will not need to worry about this at all, since it
sounds like you will not be installing any additional hard lines.
Anyhoo, just wanted to bring up the braided stainless possibility
as something to consider, and also to voice my opinion that I don't
see anything wrong with using rubber fuel lines as long as its
limitations are known and it is installed accordingly. (Law
enforcement or safety inspectors, if any, may differ.) :-)
--
-Jon-
.- Jon Steiger -- jon@dakota-truck.net or jon@jonsteiger.com -.
| '96 Kolb Firefly, '96 Suzuki Intruder, Miscellaneous Mopars |
`-------------------------------- http://www.jonsteiger.com --'
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Sat May 01 2010 - 00:11:43 EDT