A few years ago, I went to use my car for the first time in the spring and had some trouble (428, so I thought I'd post here....LOL). Over the winter, the short rubber fuel line between the metal fuel line along the frame and the fitting on the fuel pump had rotted away and small bits of rubber plugged up the fuel filter at the carb once I started the engine. Although the hose was only a few years old and should have clued me in to an issue, I merely replaced the hose, cleaned the filter, and more or less forgot about it.
Since then, I had a problem with the 50 gallon tank in my boat. Fuel fitting is on the top and connected to it is a piece of plastic tubing that goes almost to the bottom of the tank. I removed this and found the tube to be brittle and basically it fell apart in my hands. So I replaced it with a piece of rubber fuel line and added a brass fitting at the end to sort of act as a weight.
Two days later I checked the new hose and found it completely swelled up and very soft. The gas was attacking this piece of automotive fuel hose. How can this be?
As near as I can tell, rubber fuel line is processed somehow (vulcanizing?) on "the inside only", and therefore only the inside is gasoline proof. Ah Ha! Now I understand what happend to the short line feeding my 428. The sharp edge of the metal fuel line must have cut into the rubber fuel line a bit and everything went down hill from there.
So, the point of this story is to let people know they should trim all sharp edges of metal lines when connecting to rubber hose. Maybe even a partial double flare. Barbed fittings (like on the fuel pump) worry me too, but so far, they seem not to cut into the rubber like the sharp end of a metal fuel line. However as I am re-installing my engine, I think I'll put in a new piece of rubber fuel line just in case it got cut when I removed it taking the engine out.
Side-Note: For the boat, I finally used some sort of clear plastic tubing from the hardware store. I think it is some sort of PVC. It's been submerged in gas for a few years now and I've stopped checking it, as it's been fine every time I did check. Oh....I had to use flexible line as the tank is below the deck and the tube has to bend when you remove it.
Back in '01? Daily driver was '86 LTD II (V6) and one day it wouldn't start. After lots of messing around I pulled the tank and found the 2" long rubber line between pump and bracket that hold it inside tank had rotted away. Huh? Why put rubber INSIDE the tank? How about mounting the pump to a steel line with a Oring or such? Whatever.
My '69 F100 had issues one day, barely made it home before finally wheezing to a stop. No fuel. Traced it back to my fuel cell in the bed(18 gal race unit) which happen to have a RUBBER line inside for a pickup tube. Great, it had rotted apart after 15 yrs or so. I replaced it with a nice 1/2" alum line bent back to rear side of cell. Kinda pain to get in, but don't have to worry about it anymore. Plenty of foam to support the tube also, so it shouldn't break off. It uses a AN bulkhead fitting to get through body of tank.
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