m010702

Thinking of doing something other that the original hard fuel line from the pump to carb. Some folks at work recommend braided lines; others say leave it the same. Any ideas with some pics would be much appreciated.

zmanc3

I had a braded fuel line, but was concerned of it rubbing against lower radiator hose, heater hose and scratching the valve cover.

Yes, I tried various routings to the crab to get the lowest heat transfer, and this is what I can up with.

Rubber has it's down sides. Like internal separation, but it is way easy to work with!

But like most things on a vette, people will have their own "best idea". Which is why sharing those ideas give you options on what you want.

zmanc3

69small block

I would usr hard lines for safety you can get a tubing bender for about 20.00 buck and some 3/8 fuel line at autozone and build your own also need to get atool for making double flare about 6.00 for that and bend till your satified the steel line is not that expensive fitting are a little sbit but the satifaction is worth it inho you can get some copper tubing to get your pattern then do it in steel copper is a little easier to start out with and you can some what straight it out to try again I have 2 sets of benders small and large the smaller give you tighter bends good luck

RonR80

I took mine to a local truck dealer with the two fittings off the old line and they made one up in high pressure braided hose and it's been on for about 8yrs , easy to work with and cost $20.00 it's fuel and fire resistance . Ron

CheezMoe

Don't use rubber lines on the pressure side unless you like the risk of fire!

Lars as an excellent paper on fabricating fuel lines using available GM parts. I'm sure it's on corvettefaq website. I followed it and made a great system but spent close to 100.00 on the GM filter and lines.



ps; Looking back at the original post and question, if you have a factory hard line now, and it is intact and working i would see no reason to replace it unless you want the bling of braided lines. they don't do anything for me!

Ak. Mal

I used the same paper and amazed myself at how easy it was. I wanted the billet filter Edelbrock sells, but when I saw the price tag I went searching for an alternative and found the summit brand was about 1/3 the price. I even buffed up my fuel lines to gussie them up.

m010702

did a search for "Lars" and "fuel lines" under the FAQ link on the forum; no dice. Most likely operator error. Can anyone guide me in a little closer to Lars' paper? Thanks.

phclub

http://wiki.corvettefaq.com/index.ph..._O-Ring_Filter

I am also, looking to upgrade my old ruber line, cracking). Cheers,

71rdster

Use hardlines (steel) for safety as described in above posts. Bling it up by polishing it. Zip has them in stainless. Polish it up real bright, it won't rust.

CheezMoe

There was a much more detailed paper than this...but I don't see any of Lar's other papers on that site anymore. Let me look at what I have in the home archives tonight. I had the full version printed out when I did mine last year.

peace

Buzzardz_vette

I'd like a copy as well, please. Thanks.

Jims66

I've used rubber lines for years without any problems. Buy a good quality hose (gates from NAPA) and good quality clamps. I added a Jegs billet in-line filter between the pump and dual feed line and I change the rubber hoses every Spring (it's cheap). Whenever I'm tinkering on my motor I usually make sure the clamps are snug as well as the float bowl screws. I also make sure the radiator and heater hoses are snug as well. If you rarely open the hood (which I can't imagine) then stay with the hard line. JMHO........

thebruce

I searched for months to find the fittings described in Lars' paper. The part number he lists was no longer available when I was looking. As it turned out, NAPA has generic fuel line repair kits and one of them has the exact fitting in the paper, 18" of 3/8 steel line, and a compression fitting, all for about 12 bucks. Buy two and you've got everything described in Lars' paper with the exception of the spiral armor.

thebruce

I have attached a Word version of the paper (assuming I did this right)...

thebruce

I should also mention that I used braided hose from the frame rail to the fuel rail on my TPI conversion, and the braided hose had a really strong gasoline smell that stunk up my garage. It didn't leak, it just had a fuel smell that was without a doubt coming from the braided hose. You may not get as bad a smell with the low pressure pump.

I wound up replacing the braided hose with Push-Lok hose and fittings that I got from a hydraulic supply store for about 4 dollars total for the hose and four fittings that attached to the fuel rail and the flared ends of my fuel line. From here on out I will only use these types of fittings and hose for short fuel lines (I would never use them along the frame instead of hard line). I don't have a show car or boat, so I don't need shiny, and JIC fittings work just as well as AN and cost way less than half.

7T1vette

Use hard line when installing after the fuel pump. Given enough time, any rubber/synthetic flexible line will weaken, crack and leak. Not a good thing when passing pressurized fuel in an engine compartment.

Buzzardz_vette

Do you happen to have a pic of your setup?

thebruce

I'll try to take a couple of pics and post them tonight.

thebruce

First two pics show the feed and return lines that run from the frame rail to the fuel rail. I flared the ends of the the 3/8 lines on the rail and used AN-6 to AN/6 flare unions to connect to the braided line I used to have. Since I already had these, I used female JIC flare push-lok fittings at the ends of the rubber lines.

The second two show the fuel pump in the rear, with the fuel filter described in Lars' paper. You can also see push lock hose used from the outlet of the pump to the rear end of the 3/8 fuel line on the frame rail. I used a compression to JIC fitting to connect to the line, and a push lock JIC fitting at the end of the hose. At the pump end, I replaced the 5/16" barbed banjo fitting with a 3/8" push-lok banjo fitting, which should let more fuel flow.

Sorry about the quality of the pictures. I had my phone in one hand and my two year old in the other.