Fuel vent line hoses/fuel smell inside car!!!

[jerseydave]

Sounds like a game plan, I'll go on a shopping spree at the Auto Parts store. Will they have the adel clamps also?

[namba209 (R.I.P.)]

Sounds like a game plan, I'll go on a shopping spree at the Auto Parts store. Will they have the adel clamps also?

IDK about the clamps, Dave. I got mine at a Surplus Store locally. Then again I do live in one of the largest military communities in the world.

[baz]

copper pipe is a no no it vibration work hardens and will split with time


Cupronickel like brake line is ok but not pure copper

[BobCGT]

Adel clamps are available through Aircraft Spruce.
Bob

[RallyBob]

As much as I love Aircraft Spruce (my racecar has a bunch of aircraft gauges from them!), Del City wire has very good prices on Adel clamps, in steel, aluminum, or stainless steel. I buy them in bags of 100 for about the same price as a bag of 10 from Summit racing!

Bob

[73_Opel_GT_Guy]

Guy's as a former A/C mechanic myself (gave it up, tired of working 3rd shift with Tuesday and Wednesday off). Tygon makes many different types of tubing. High-Performance Engineered Plastics - Home Some of it is rated for use with gasoline most of it is not. The best thing to do is find out which tygon tubing you have it useually has the number runing the length of the tubing along with it's manufacterer Saint Gobain then get the specs off the web site. Alot of people think they have tygon tubing when its nothing more than ordinary clear PVC tubing available everywhere. If it does not have the info above on the tubing it's not tygon and probably not good for use in any applicatition around gasoline.

[2 Fast 4 U]

copper pipe is a no no it vibration work hardens and will split with time
Cupronickel like brake line is ok but not pure copper

Here it's used for the LPG fuel lines, and has been under the car for a few decades now and I haven't seen anything wrong with it yet!! [LPG is under 10 bar / 145 psi pressure]
So why not for a gas fuel line??

[baz]

erick i can almost guarantee its cupronickel , it looks and bends like copper but the nickel stops it work hardening

its not a case of pressure splitting it ,its the copper itself ,if you got some copper plate and try beating it with a hammer it soon gets hard and will crack this is why coppersmiths heat it and quench it in water , so it anneals and is workable again . Under a car it vibrates and hardens then one day it cracks and splits

[jerseydave]

OK I'll get the stainless steel tubing from Inline Tube (Fuel Line Replacement Thread) and the clamps from Del CIty Wire both sources from RallyBob! The steel tubing comes in 6' lengths, I guess it is OK to use a stainless coupling to join sections, compression not soldering, correct? Remember I have no mechanical or plumbing background, but I am usually good at following directions.

[2 Fast 4 U]

erick i can almost guarantee its cupronickel , it looks and bends like copper but the nickel stops it work hardening

its not a case of pressure splitting it ,its the copper itself ,if you got some copper plate and try beating it with a hammer it soon gets hard and will crack this is why coppersmiths heat it and quench it in water , so it anneals and is workable again . Under a car it vibrates and hardens then one day it cracks and splits

Well I could swear it's copper, I had to bend a piece, several times in the same place, to fit the new LPG evaporator and it started to harden on me, and because the color is exactly the same, thats why I think it's copper

[oldopelguy]

Copper was used at one point on a lot of cars, particularly on LPG systems, and a lot of people had OK luck with it. Some cars even used copper line for brakes, bad idea as that is. Point is still valid, though, that if you use copper line the odds are very good that if there is any movement of the line, anywhere in the system, then it's not a question of if it will break but instead a question of when. Aluminum line has the same ticking time bomb, though it takes aluminum a lot longer to work harden to the failure point than copper.

The point here is that if you're going to do a new install, you simply don't want to use copper line. With Summit and Jegs both selling either stainless or regular steel hard fuel line in rolls of 25' for less than $35, it's not worth the risk to save a few pennies getting copper at the local hardware store. Heck, Summit even has their regular steel 3/8" line, in your choice of several cool colors, on sale right now for $17.50 for a 25' roll.

[baz]

Well I could swear it's copper, I had to bend a piece, several times in the same place, to fit the new LPG evaporator and it started to harden on me, and because the color is exactly the same, thats why I think it's copper

it could still be cupronickel and i must say im surprised they could have used it when its not that much more for cupronickel and it saves the problem but some company's will do anything to save a euro/dollar/pound

cupronickel will still work harden btw just takes a lot longer when its only vibrations doing it

[rsefczek]

well, i also noticed a gas smell in the back of my gt and wedged myself in the space to see what was going on. i only have 1 tee connection with the 2 corner vents connected to it and then to the filler hose. i notice the diagram shown in an earlier post has about 3 tee connectors. seems like this arrangement is better with fewer possible leaky connections. is there a reason to have that many tees?

bob

[jvandyke]

Good question. This is my next task. Just this morning I went to look because the gas smell in the garage was so bad. It has been bad inside the car when I fill up, not this bad. Car has been jacked up in front (brake work)and gas is leaking out of somewhere, lower driver's side. No time to investigate yet, not good.

[markandson]

I would not drive the car until you find it, and fix it, sounds like it should be real easy to find.

[David McCollam]

Once upon a time I had a 1978 280Z with the same problem. The garage was full of fuel vapor after the car would sit overnight. The solution was the replacement of the fuel tank vent lines. This also solved the issues with the fuel odor in the cockpit.

This thread is full of conversation about this and that type of fuel line, clamps, etc. This is a low pressure application, but one where sealing is paramount. The most straight-forward approach is to use good quality fuel line (rubber is fine) and good hose clamps. There is a place, Forge Motorsport, in FL selling the nicest stainless steel clamps you've seen, but you don't need them for the fuel tank lines ($2.50 ea). A good Ideal hose clamp is fine.

Put on the new vent hoses and get the fuel tank vents configured back to the vapor canister in the nose if you still have one. That is one reason it was there, to help eliminate the vapor in the tank by pulling it into the canister.

Good luck,

Dave

[jvandyke]

Yep, I've read up on this and downloaded the diagrams and all that, 5/16" fuel line, clamps. Don't recall about how many feet it takes now, anyone remember? Also, at some point to get through the body 5/16 was tight, maybe splice a little section of someting a bit narrow there? I have to go look through all my stuff again. I suspect as soon as I lower the car I'm okay for the moment. Probably pouring out the top left line, gas is way too expensive for this loss!

http://clubs.hemmings.com/clubsites/...h/TankVent.pdf

from another thread

[namba209 (R.I.P.)]

well, i also noticed a gas smell in the back of my gt and wedged myself in the space to see what was going on. i only have 1 tee connection with the 2 corner vents connected to it and then to the filler hose. i notice the diagram shown in an earlier post has about 3 tee connectors. seems like this arrangement is better with fewer possible leaky connections. is there a reason to have that many tees?

bob

Actually, there's only 2 "T"s in the fuel tank vent lines, one hooks up the two corner lines and the other hooks up one "T" to the other, the fuel filler neck and the line going to the charcoal cannister. If you only have one "T" hooked up to the filler neck and the corners, how does the vent line go forward?

[David McCollam]

It's either 6mm or 8mm, I can't remember. I used 5/16" fuel line for the replacement vent line in a 1975 Manta with fuel injection. The closest I can remember is about 12-14 ft. in the Manta. T

he problem with using the fuel line is that the wall of the plastic was thinner, thus smaller O.D. for the whole tube. As long as you're not against a sharp edge in the metal, a little silicone grease or spray lube should solve the pass-through issue.

Dave

[jvandyke]

Good question. This is my next task. Just this morning I went to look because the gas smell in the garage was so bad. It has been bad inside the car when I fill up, not this bad. Car has been jacked up in front (brake work)and gas is leaking out of somewhere, lower driver's side. No time to investigate yet, not good.

can't pin down the source of the leak sure is leaking, not done with brakes but lowered car back down to hopefully stem the flow as it really reeks in the garage, not good