I've got a 92 Toyota Celica All Trac that the feed line coming out of the fuel bracket has rusted through in several places. The bracket is no longer available of course and finding a used one, much less a decent one, used is next to impossible. So I'm going to have to fix what I have one way or the other. Everything inside the tank is in great shape.
One option that has been mentioned is using AN fittings and the braided stainless lines. I can see how this would work but I've never used AN lines before so I'm not 100% sure.
What I would do in this case would be to use the AN fittings to hook to the hard line in the tank (connected to the pump) with a 90 degree bend at the top. This would go through the plate that bolts the pump bracket to the tank. Then I would run the braided line the length of the car along the route the hard line currently flows and then use another adapter fitting to tie it into the hardline feeding the fuel filter. I don't think that the rest of the hardlines are in that great of a shape anyway.
This would work right? I run the car in the winter some so it would be exposed to the elements but I'm thinking that since everything is aluminum or stainless that shouldn't be an issue either.
So, what's the consensus on this idea?
Couple things to keep in mind on the braided line.
The outer diameter is going to be significantly larger than the original hard line. Might make routing harder.
Traditional braided line is still rubber hose at the core. Eventually it will break down. Not all on the market is compatible with ethanol blended fuels. There are PTFE (Teflon) lined braided hoses out there that can handle ethanol and are smaller in OD. Fittings will cost more.
Aluminum will corrode exposed to road salt, but not like steel. Stainless is your better bet.
For street cars I prefer as much hard line as possible. Either stainless (harder to bend & flare) or the NiCop (nickle copper alloy).
We use AN lines for all lines in our V8 conversions - we need the extra ID for more flow. We use ethanol compatible lines. Spend a bunch of time sketching it all out, especially if you don't have an AN supplier in town. You want to make sure you figure out what adapters you'll need before you start the job.
Thanks for the input guys.
I think I may just try to replumb the pump bracket with the AN fittings and then run the braided to the hard lines going forward.
BigD
Reader
11/6/16 7:57 p.m.
Something no one ever seems to talk about is the braided rubber racing hoses do not have an inner liner so they weep fuel vapor. Your car will always have a faint fuel smell with no leaks. They are also a bit of a pain to assemble, particularly if you don't want to scratch them up (you can get funky aluminum assembly jaws that go in a vice which help a lot but I just use a canvas or leather rag in the vice).
If you can afford it, use Aeroquip ptfe hose and fittings. They are almost the same OD as a hard line and are indestructable. They are also very easy and in my opinion, quite fun to assemble. Don't use cheap Chinese alternatives like siliconeintakes, I've tested them and had one leak and one broke during assembly.
Speaking of indestructable, do NOT use aluminum hard line. It is not rated for efi fuel pressures and any offroad excursion can easily result in a ruptured fuel line.
For adapting AN to your existing lengths of hard line, you can either weld a steel bung to the tip or use a pipe to AN adapter (uses a brass ferrule)
44Dwarf
UltraDork
11/6/16 8:08 p.m.
To adapt to AN you'll need a flare nut and the proper 37deg flare tool. Personally, I try to keep flexible fuel line to under 15 inches in any car.
On my AE86 project, I cut off the offending section of hard line as close as was practical, hit up GRM and found a friendly local with a flare tool who came over and flared the end of the hard line, adapted to AN, and ran a short section of braided flex line...so far, so good!
make sure you buy a set of the vice jaws to hold the fittings the ptfe fittings are impossible to tighten.
As mentioned, use PTFE line.
Also, make sure you secure the line early and often. I didn't and had one rub through on me. I dumped a lot of gas on the road to get it home.
After that incident I replaced it all with stainless hardline, and used compression fittings to adapt to short lengths of braided at the beginning and end of the hard line. I couldn't come up with a good way to flare stainless.