Any one make or offer 14076161 14076162 ?

 

I am not familiar with those part numbers but a quick call to Classic Tube in Upstate NY should solve your need. They reproduce virtually any tube or hose on the C4 Corvettes. They frequently offer the choice of Steel or Stainless Steel on both the fuel lines and the brake lines. If they don't have them they might be able to custom make a set depending on what those part numbers are from.

Happy New Year!

 

Those early C4 front fuel lines pop up on ebay from time to time. If you don't care about the car staying 100% factory original you can replace those with braided steel lines for a lot less than buying factory replacement lines.

 

How many of you guys have replaced their fuel lines. These are car pushing 40 years old. Problem with braided is you cant tell the condition of the rubber until its too late.

 

I just replaced mine with braided PTFE. They will far outlast rubber. Not as expensive as I thought it would be. I did have to fabricate my own steel clamps to bolt the new lines in place. But not too bad. Getting the factory lines out with the diff still in the car was kind of a pain though.

 

I am talking about the 2 lines in the front by the right tire.

 

You could replace just the front lines with braided hose. If you get a -6an PTFE 20' kit with fittings you could be done in an afternoon. Probably cost around $100 or so. You might need a couple extra fittings but the kit should cover 99% of it. I used this kit here.

The quality was surprising good. I even used it to make new trans lines for my 4L80e.

 

Any hydraulic shop can make or remake that hose and crimp too. And probably do it with braid if so inclined. I thought about PTFE on mine but the bend to do it plus how much it moves around was probably not the greatest idea for the liner. I figure if the original goodyear fluoro whatever line lasted this long, anything I put on will last a good while too. Although I will say on mine the factory hose was about double the thickness of any 3/8 I've seen in my life.

 

Im a few months late to this conversation but .... Id highly suggest staying with stock style Steel lines for the front, unless you have a modded Fuel rail, or third party external pressure regulator. I didnt, and I regret it. (There are plenty of companies that make them still). I did a pretty elaborate conversion to ALL braided PTFE using EARL's best stuff, to accommodate dual redundant high flow pumps and high flow filters. I'll probably post a write up on it soon. It ended up being closer to $1500 in parts. I did the upgrade because the rear lines rusted through, and couldnt be patched, and it would have been a pain to remove the rear suspension to change it. I wanted to maintain equal or higher flow than stock, since I had a road map to build the car up to 600HP eventually, and I wanted the return line equal size as well, since I had the redundant and higher flow pumps. The fun was making it better. Again, it was unnecessary, because there isnt much loss with a little restriction to the lines. First note that 6AN braided is usually the matched equivellent for Steel 3/8". BUT the 6AN braided has a narrower ID because the walls are thicker, and therefore slightly more restrictive than 3/8 steel. So I went with 8AN, that has slightly wider ID. But that also means about double the OD of 3/8" steel. I made it work, but its really tight clearance. Now gotta be careful not to catch it when jacking. The problem in the front is that two 8AN elbows, if attached to the stock fuel rail, don't fit downward in the hole space, that the steel lines passed through previously. So one of the lines needs to take a different path. There really isnt a good path without fabricating some brackets. Eventually, Im likely gonna end up making a new tube out of the Fuel regulator, so I can connect the braided line to the back of the rail instead of the stock front of the rail. And the one braided line that will fit through the hole and take the original path, you got to worry about the cable hitting the header or laying against the engine. So still got to take a slightly different path, and also good idea to put some fireproofing cover over the braided at those spots. I went under the AC evaporator thing., But the thing is the front steel lines are super easy to replace, and only need to replace down to the fuel filter. So its so much easier and time saving to just buy replacement steel lines. Atleast if just a stock engine. .

 

Thanks for contributing to this conversation. I simply re ran the lines from the rail to the frame rail location where the filter is. The new fuel lines are 3/8 supply and 5/16 return to metal tubing pipes with the stock fittings that screw into the rail supply and return on the rail. So far, no leak. Car seems to run well with this set up. I am pretty pragmatic about things and I often use DIY solutions that are far from stock and may blight the purist but Id like the paperweight to turn into a R&D.

Charles