Just a friendly warning about fuel leaks.
#1
Just a friendly warning about fuel leaks.
This needs to be addressed because I feel it can be a huge safety issue and since I've replaced a handful of them over the years with the last couple being within the last two weeks and my own personal one this past weekend, I thought I would share and let you all know to check your truck out if you're still running the original fuel bowl/feed line setup. My personal experience is the one that finally made me realize that a warning may be in order.
Pay attention to the odd-bank fuel feed line. It's the hard steel line that is routed between the fuel bowl and the back of the right head. Mine turned into a geyser yesterday on a road trip. Had I been hauling something with high EGT, I could have ended up with a crispy truck.
There is a bracket that holds the line against the cylinder head. It's located right below the intake manifold and over time it will rub a hole right into the steel line causing a small drip that eventually changes into a huge leak.....that happens to spray right at the turbocharger turbine housing.
Luckily, I was able to remove the line (no other parts removal necessary, just a bit of "snaking" through) and clean/TIG the hole shut - mine was a 1/2" long by 1/8" gash by the time I got the line out. I have repaired hydraulic lines in the same manner and they hold thousands of pounds of pressure so I figure sixty PSI isn't that big of a deal to patch up. As for the rubber seals on either end of the line, that was easily remedied by using 1/4" x .125" emission hose that was cut into the correct length pieces. Under normal, non-emergency situations (read: while I'm at my house), I use the bona-fide Ford offerings because there's nothing better than using the actual OEM parts; these ones had lasted 260K miles. In this instance though, I used what I could get my hands on.
As I have stated before, these trucks are susceptible to this fault and I've replaced a half a dozen of these lines over the last couple of years. As these trucks begin to age, I think that we'll see a few of these failures start creeping into the forum realm one by one. I purchased a new line from Ford this morning although I'm going to leave the repaired one on the truck until I build a different style of fuel system for it. I have a few spares at home, but I am too lazy to change the line again....and now that it's not going to leak since I left the bracket off of it.....I'll just keep it in place until I need to take it off. I don't see much of an issue with leaving the bracket off because each end of the line is basically rubber mounted so severe vibration shouldn't be an issue. The line is actually damaged because the line can move but the bracket cannot. Heck, my bracket came off in nearly two pieces because it was worn so thin. It snapped as soon as I started prying it open to remove it from the line.
Pay attention to the odd-bank fuel feed line. It's the hard steel line that is routed between the fuel bowl and the back of the right head. Mine turned into a geyser yesterday on a road trip. Had I been hauling something with high EGT, I could have ended up with a crispy truck.
There is a bracket that holds the line against the cylinder head. It's located right below the intake manifold and over time it will rub a hole right into the steel line causing a small drip that eventually changes into a huge leak.....that happens to spray right at the turbocharger turbine housing.
Luckily, I was able to remove the line (no other parts removal necessary, just a bit of "snaking" through) and clean/TIG the hole shut - mine was a 1/2" long by 1/8" gash by the time I got the line out. I have repaired hydraulic lines in the same manner and they hold thousands of pounds of pressure so I figure sixty PSI isn't that big of a deal to patch up. As for the rubber seals on either end of the line, that was easily remedied by using 1/4" x .125" emission hose that was cut into the correct length pieces. Under normal, non-emergency situations (read: while I'm at my house), I use the bona-fide Ford offerings because there's nothing better than using the actual OEM parts; these ones had lasted 260K miles. In this instance though, I used what I could get my hands on.
As I have stated before, these trucks are susceptible to this fault and I've replaced a half a dozen of these lines over the last couple of years. As these trucks begin to age, I think that we'll see a few of these failures start creeping into the forum realm one by one. I purchased a new line from Ford this morning although I'm going to leave the repaired one on the truck until I build a different style of fuel system for it. I have a few spares at home, but I am too lazy to change the line again....and now that it's not going to leak since I left the bracket off of it.....I'll just keep it in place until I need to take it off. I don't see much of an issue with leaving the bracket off because each end of the line is basically rubber mounted so severe vibration shouldn't be an issue. The line is actually damaged because the line can move but the bracket cannot. Heck, my bracket came off in nearly two pieces because it was worn so thin. It snapped as soon as I started prying it open to remove it from the line.
#2
Nice repair, and good to bring this up again, Cody.
I have always recommended people inspect and proactively prevent failure by wrapping the clamp, as found in these Failure prevention threads https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...on-thread.html
Here is Robin's thoughts on a failure prevention as well https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...-for-e99s.html
I have always recommended people inspect and proactively prevent failure by wrapping the clamp, as found in these Failure prevention threads https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...on-thread.html
Here is Robin's thoughts on a failure prevention as well https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...-for-e99s.html
#3
#4
#6
#7
Mine started on fire when the high pressure oil line blew during a dyno run. I'd ASSUME fuel would be a little more volatile.
Trending Topics
#9
#10
#14
#15
Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: Marlboro Mental Hospital.
Posts: 60,937
Received 3,087 Likes
on
2,154 Posts