Fuel line recommendations...

[andrewb70]

Question on hard lines. There's seems to be a handful of popular materials out there. Steel, stainless-steel, aluminum, nicopp. Other than the obvious strength differences between them, why would one be preferred over the other? Do any of them have certain fuel restrictions?

I wouldn't use aluminum with any fuel that contains ethanol. I like NiCopp because it is easy to bend and flare and is non-corrosive. I also like how looks.



Andrew

[roguegeek]

I wouldn't use aluminum with any fuel that contains ethanol. I like NiCopp because it is easy to bend and flare and is non-corrosive. I also like how looks.

Andrew

I've used all those materials. All will work fine.

• I prefer nicopp: it's easy to work, and bends and flares easily. It comes in rolls, so you have to work a bit to make the straight sections "straight". Still, I don't use anything else anymore.
• Aluminum comes in several alloys and stiffness, from the completely annealed rolls you get from Summit/Jegs to the very stiff sticks you can get from McMaster-Carr. I've had success with all of them, and prefer to start with the straight versions.
• Steel rusts, so you need to paint it or coat it after it's been bent to shape.
• Stainless looks nice but is a real bitch to flare, and often cracks at the flares when used for brake lines. It tends to seep through flares in general too.

Very nice comparison here. Thank you.

With hard tubing, do you have to considering linings or is that not a thing with hard tubing? Is it all just bare material?

[Jonathonar89]

I wouldn't use aluminum with any fuel that contains ethanol. I like NiCopp because it is easy to bend and flare and is non-corrosive. I also like how looks.

Andrew

There's a lot of conflicting information on this if you poke your head around with Ethanol. Some people say it's the worst corrosive thing ever and others swear by it with no claimed issues at all.

For those who may be worried about ethanol, brands like Lucas and Sta-Bil offer fuel treatment/conditioner and stabilizers for storage.

[JohnUlaszek]

There's a lot of conflicting information on this if you poke your head around with Ethanol. Some people say it's the worst corrosive thing ever and others swear by it with no claimed issues at all.

For those who may be worried about ethanol, brands like Lucas and Sta-Bil offer fuel treatment/conditioner and stabilizers for storage.

There’s a reason new cars are no longer equipped with aluminum fuel rails.

[Jonathonar89]

There’s a reason new cars are no longer equipped with aluminum fuel rails.

This can be said about many things such as manufacturers switching to DBW, decline of manual transmission vehicles and now eliminating gasoline engines from production.

[roguegeek]

I’m guessing that since people have been doing this forever, there’s a generally accepted route from the back to the front on these cars? Like all fuel line run up the driver’s side or something like that? Again, I’m just trying to make sure I’m using common practices.

[Jonathonar89]

I’m guessing that since people have been doing this forever, there’s a generally accepted route from the back to the front on these cars? Like all fuel line run up the driver’s side or something like that? Again, I’m just trying to make sure I’m using common practices.

Follow the factory line routing. Hard line on the body/frame....soft line between gas tank to body, body to frame and frame to engine.

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I’m guessing that since people have been doing this forever, there’s a generally accepted route from the back to the front on these cars? Like all fuel line run up the driver’s side or something like that? Again, I’m just trying to make sure I’m using common practices.

Follow the factory line routing. Hard line on the body/frame....soft line between gas tank to body, body to frame and frame to engine.

[roguegeek]

Follow the factory line routing. Hard line on the body/frame....soft line between gas tank to body, body to frame and frame to engine.

Ok. This helps. Everything down there has been stripped off, so I’ll have to go digging around for a diagram that shows where it all sat before. Thanks.

[roguegeek]

Follow the factory line routing. Hard line on the body/frame....soft line between gas tank to body, body to frame and frame to engine.

Ok. So some quick searches and I was able to find the factory routing. Seems simple enough. At some point, I would need to route the line to the driver's side to access the fuel rail on the LS427 as opposed to the original carb access from the passenger side. When/where do people usually make that deviation from the factory route?