Question on Hard lines and AN Fittings

[John McIntire]

I was thinking of buying some aluminum hardline, and the necessary fittings in order to make a crossover for the fuel rails on my car. Instead of just using braided line. I figured this would be a little neater.
Anyways, my question is do you need a tubing flare to make these lines? I see that the AN fitting comes with a tube sleeve and a tube nut, is the sleeve like a compression collar?
Just curious, I'm sure someone here has done this.
Also the aluminum line is strong enough for EFI fuel pressures right?
Thanks guys!

[Overkill]

You will still need a tubing flare. The AN fittings use a 37* flare instead of your standard 45* that brake lines use.

I'll leave it up to someone else on whether aluminum is strong enough, but I would think that it is as long as the wall thickness isn't too thin. I used stainless steel lines on mine just to be sure, but it was a little pricey.

[Fuelie Fan]

I spent all of about 30 seconds looking for al tubing properties but didn't see material or wall thicknesses, so I'm going to make a few assumptions here until somebody can post better data:
6061 (approx 42,000 psi yield), 3/8" line with .040 wall
hoop stress = pr/t = (45 lb/in^2)(.375 in)/(.040in) = 420 psi. That's a safety factor of roughly 100.

[Matt@RFR]

I believe they use 3003 for its ductility, in .035 wall. Could be wrong though.

It will be fine. The only time you don't want to use aluminum tube is, for instance, going from a frame rail to the engine. You need flex lines anytime something can move even the slightest.

[Siroadrnr]

Russel makes AN to hard line adapters and they use a compression collar, so I did not need to flare the tubing. However, i used them to attach to the stock sender/pump unit, which has steel tube.

[ProdigyCustoms]

Use the AN adapters with the compression collars. The aluminum will be fine pressure wise, but kinks easy in tight spots.