CheezMoe

While fiddling with the gauge cluster, the plastic pressure line which was dried out and brittle snapped off in my hand. Should I replace with a new plastic line, or use copper? Anybody have any experince and advise with these? Any idea what came from the factory on a 73?

thanks in advance as always.

Durango_Boy

If it were me I would use replacement plastic line.

88turboGT

Copper work hardens over time and will crack and fail....

Skunkvette

Be careful. I plumbed a new copper kit into the back/top (and almost unreachable when the engine is in the car) oil port on the new 502, fed it through the firewall when I installed the motor and discovered weeks later when I got around to hooking to the factory (72) oil pressure guage, that the fittings for the copper kit DO NOT WORK on the 72 gauge.

Luckily the local speed shop found an old fitting to adapt the copper line, or I would be struggling to switch back to plastic.

I went with the copper because I had a plastic line let go years ago, but if I was doing it again I would use plastic, which it appears the factory used in 1972.

I'm Batman

I've seen Chevy and GMC trucks with copper lines that are still fine after 50 years. YMMV.

7T1vette

Apparently, the plastic one that broke lasted 30+ years. If you replace it with plastic, will 30 years use be long enough for you?

sweethence

when i broke mine, i went to the local parts store bought a cheep 14 dollar guage that came with plastic line and new fittings...... used the line saved the fittings and verified the old guage vs the new for accuracy

BTW my oil pressure reading went up by 10 psi with the new line and was dean on with the new one

Durango_Boy

Great idea Sweethence.

sweethence

necessity my man, i broke the line messng with the distributor on a saturday an needed a new line for a cruise on sunday, no time for catalogs needed it now

7t2vette

SS is also available.

http://www.autometer.com/cat_accessories.aspx?sid=37

I'm Batman

The AutoZone stores around here have the line kits separately. Don't know about any other regions.

Durango_Boy

I think Oreilly can get them too.

Gordonm

I got my plastic line kit from Pep Boys. I hate going there but sometimes you just have to.

wfo76

Think these are actually copper plated steel lines and not solid copper.

I'm Batman

Interesting. I'll have to stick a magnet against one and see what happens. Whatever they are, they don't wear out.

mrvette

The one's I see in parts houses are copper allright, and getting high dollar too.....

I played with plastic parts house lines, and they leaked worse than anything, meaning CAT *** TROPHIC very quickly....right there in the garage....hell with that....

second off, the stock OP gauge takes a special fitting that a normal copper compression fitting will NOT work the internal taper is differant for the plastic lines....I didn't find anything that would work...so cut off the fitting, drilled it out to 3/8 inch and sweated in a normal 1/8 NPT fitting to 1/8 comp tube adaptor...like screwed into the engine block....

the way to keep the copper from fatiguing and snapping is to coil up about 2" diameter of excess line into a large 'spring' looking that takes the engine vibration outta the pix....the gauge end is fine...obviously...

it's the ONLY fix I found when my OEM plastic line finally snapped about a year ago.....

69vettester

Its not a good Idea at ALL to use copper lines for "fuel" or "oil". Engine vibration will cause the copper to flex at the connection points and quickly crack. Use the Plastic or an upgrade to plastic if there is one.

CheezMoe

I bought a plastic line kit from Napa and cleaned up and re-used the fittings at the gauge with the new compression sleeve. Haven't fired it yet but it appears to be nice and secure.

Thanks for the reply's!

pws69

This is correct - the hard vacuum line to the distributor was the same.

rpoL98

my preference is -4 AN stainless braided hose with teflon liner. Earl's "speed-flex", for instance. -4 instead of -3, to get better needle response at the gauge. it does make a difference (if you've got a halfway decent gauge). I sheathe it with heat shrink to protect other stuff from abrasion, and to hide it.

with the plastic hose, you run the risk of inadvertently melting it from header heat, exhaust heat riser, EGR tube, (of course you carefully ran it around those hazards), and then you lose oil pressure as it squirts all over your engine compartment.