Please excuse all of these newbie questions, if I'm causing disruption let me know and I'll stop.

Anyways, busted my fuel line while playing in the water. I thought it would be best to get a rubber fuel line for flexibility reasons, Autozone told me I was insane to run rubber for a complete fuel line and I should buy the $30 metal fuel line. What do you all think?

It's not a daily driver or anything but I don't want it bursting while on a fishing trip and catching fire on the exhaust.. I think it would be easier to work with, if I did it I'd probably run dual filters (one at the tank, one at the carb).

Thanks

Oh, there was an old rubber fuel line hanging off of the truck that had run to the tank, so at one point in its life it had a rubber line running the length of the truck.

 

Steel allows for cooler gasoline.

Rubber absorbs heat and can cause of vapour lock in hot climates.

Autozone guy was correct.

 

The rubber line is just not safe.
While rubber line is easier to install, it is also subjct to chaffing due to its lack of support over short runs. Dollar for dollar, I am sure that you would be ahead by installing the steel line. $30.00 is cheap.
If you are looking for an easy alternative for seel line, many racers use aluminum line. It can be easily formed, and is much safer for use, plus you can install any number of fittings to insure a safe leak free system. 25' coils 3/8" o.d. is available for around $15.00, and 1/2" o.d. is only a few bucks more. The aluminum is very easy to work with, and can be clamped to the frame properly to eliminate leaks for many years of use. Bacause of the softer material holes can wear through very quickly, so care must be taken to prevent chaffing, but when done properly will work fine

 

Use steel line properly secured for safety. Replace ALL rubber lines in the system, they are probably all old and rotted. A friend lost his truck to a rotted rubber line. Route the lines away from places it could be damaged or hit by debris off the trail. A double flare tool makes great hose retention beads if only the first die is used.

Check your brake lines while you are down there installing that steel line.

 

Borrowed this info from a tech site.
Vapour Lock

From WW2dodge

<!-- start content -->The problem with vapour locks is basically caused by fuel reaching a heat where it becomes gas instead of liquid. This problem is all in the fuel pump not lines from the pump to the carb.

The most common time vapour lock happens is on restart when the vehicle has been switched off for a short time after a run and heat soak from the engine heats the pump to such a point that the fuel starts to vapourise and the pump valves which work OK on liquid are not good enough to pump gas so it starts to "wheelspin".

The pump normally is kept cool enough by the air flow from the fan (Heat shield not only protects from manifold radiation but directs air over the pump) and the cool fuel passing through. On very hot days or crawling along in a parade, a pump which is a little down on efficiency can reach a temperature where it starts fail to pump the vapourising fuel.

There are a number of ways of fixing this.

1. Make sure your pump is up to new specifications by replacing or rekitting.

2. Make sure all your filters are completely clean and free-flowing as a pump struggling with "bubbling" fuel will not provide as much suction and the resistance of dirty filters could make the difference.

3. Blow back through the line to the tank. You might have clean filters but an unseen partial blockage might be the culprit.

4. Make sure all unions are tight. Go around and give them a nip up as it is very hard to check leaks on suction lines and any air will enter before the fuel and wreck the suction.

Another common fault is the old "rubber" tip float needles. Modern fuel kills the rubber making it sticky and it can jam in its seat when the carb gets hot, say after a short stop. This fault can also manifest itself as flooding when the sticky seat fails to seal properly. people may think the vehicle is vapour-locking when in fact it is flooding. Replace the needle and seat with an all-metal kit.

Fuel with ethanol in it vapourises at a much lower temperature than normal petrol. Avoid this like the plague (hard to do in some countries where they add ethanol during winter)

If you are near an airport use AVGAS 100LL. Not much dearer than car fuel these days. The vapour point of AVGAS is way higher than car fuel and it will stay liquid long after normal fuel has turned to gas. A BIG plus for old car users is the fact it has around 16 times more lead in it than modern car fuel - absolutely perfect to save our old valves designed for leaded fuel.

Chevrolet and Ford (which suffer much more from vapourising than Dodges or Chevs due to the higher pump position - requiring more lift -and placinement on top of the hot engine) were aware their pumps were not good enough in all circumstances and fitted additional electric pumps for vehicles going to India/Burma

Instant practical permanent fix: Buy a small electric in-line fuel pump from any car parts place. Place this in the line along the chassis as near as possible to the tank (pumps can push much more than they can lift). Also fit a plastic in-line filter which cleans the fuel vastly more efficiently than the military filter, can be viewed for rubbish as they are clear and can be replaced in two minutes by new ones costing a few dollars.

A big plus for the electric pump is the fact it will prime the carb after a long period of no use saving lots of hand priming or flattening batteries by cranking over to get fuel up to the carb. No matter how hot the fuel gets the pump will continue to push solid fuel through the mechanical pump and up the lines to the fuel bowl. The vapourised fuel will just bubble through the needle and either return to liquid in the bowl or vent to air while the float acts normally only to whatever liquid is coming through which will continue to be pushed by the electric pump until the needle says enough!

Retrieved from "http://www.ww2dodge.com/wiki/Vapour_Lock"
<!-- end content -->

 

i always thought vapor lock was from not putting the right spacer under the carb and when you shut a hot engine off, the fuel in the bowls boiled and wont burn properly in the cylinders....hmm

 

My truck had vapor lock real bad before I started rebuilding my truck and it has never had a spacer. The vapor lock issues disappeared after I replaced all the fuel lines (steel and rubber) from the tank to carb and replaced the fuel pump.

 

Rubber is not safe. Our truck has mostly steel lines, and a few bends are rubber. Came stock this way. Anyway, One weekend we were working on the truck and I smelt something, thought my dad was just cleaning something or working on the engine or something. He asks me where the gas smell is coming from, both of us didn't know. I looked down and there was a puddle of gas on the floor and the line was cracked and spraying. Im shur lucky I wasn't grinding or welding!

 

Never a bad idea to replace rubber fuel lines. B U T while you are down there add the electronic fuel pump and you vapor lock days are gone. All my fords wear an inexpensive electronic fuel pump near the tank. Comes in real handy if you run out of fuel. Fuel line and carb vopor lock will clear when you hold the petal to the floor. If it does not then we are back to the fuel pump. Another real neat trick is an old fashoned can of spray starter fluid. This works best if you have a helping hand to feed the carb small steady shots of starter spray. Best to do this after you give a short cool down time, otherwise you are back where you started. Just in case you wonder where this knowledge come from I have 6 Ford vans, 2 Ford trucks, and 3 Ford cars, including a way-cool 67 mustang. But I have to admit the Mustang has a 5.0L fuel injected Lincoln engine. This is not only bad to the bone it gets 35mpg. For those of you mechanically minded I highly recomend the engine swap. The right salvage yard can get you the engine and trans for as low as $300. Usually the core charges are more than the purchase and don't forget the pull the computer whil you are there. Those of you who don't mind the expense, a good salvage yard will pull the whole deal for you(about $2-4k) There are other things to consider like modifying the drive shaft, possibly a different rear axle, engine mounts, modified exhaust, and suspension.

 

Todays fuels vaporize much easier than what we had when the trucks were new. The mechanical pump is like a heat sink on the side of the block. The problem can occur in the carb also. Especially after you shut it off.

 

If anyone cares I found out it was just the spacer betwene the metal lines.. the way it was running through the frame I thought I was going to have to replace it all.

I would have gone all rubber without the help, thanks for the warning.. saved me from, potentially, one hell of a headache.