life span of aeroquip fuel hose?

[Malcolm]

Would be interested to know what you guys think the life span of aeroquip fuel hose should be? I have used braided aeroquip fuel lines (GTD factory supplied) for all my fuel runs and today when I started the car up after it had been laid up since last September fuel began weeping quite quickly out the braiding on the fuel line between the filter king and my flash back arrester, just on the one tank. But this makes me wonder about the integrity of all my fuel lines, as if one has perished they might all have perished! The fuel lines are original so are 17 years old.

Any ideas? Thanks

[Ron Earp]

Ain't nothing but rubber hose under that steel braid. That said, I've got some on the Z that are from 1992 and still seem to be okay. I was thinking about your very question a couple of weeks ago when racing around and smelling some fuel.....I need to check mine too.

[Big-Foot]

5 years is about all I see out of them.. A lot is dependent upon how much heat and vibration / movement they are subject to..

[Mike Drew]

People are under the mistaken impression that braided steel fuel lines are metal, and thus are immortal. In fact they are nothing more than simple rubber hose with some stainless steel braid, which is designed to protect them from external insult. Sort of like armor plating, perhaps.

A 17-year-old rubber hose is a fire waiting to happen, whether it has stainless steel braid around it or not.

On my Pantera, I have switched to teflon-lined braided stainless steel hose, from Earl's. There is not a speck of rubber anywhere in this system, and thus they really are the next best thing to immortal.

Holley Performance Ultra Flex 650 Hose – Stainless Braid Products

It's a fair bit more expensive than traditional rubber/braided steel hose. I know when I plumbed my Pantera, including a fuel filter, to get from the gas tank, to the fuel pump, and then back up to the carburetor feed cost over $400....

I see they now sell the same internal hose with Kevlar replacing the braided stainless steel outer bit:

Holley Performance Ultra Flex 650 Hose – Kevlar Products

I don't know the cost, but would assume they are fantastically expensive. It's a lifetime purchase though, and a far sight cheaper than an engine fire!

[Dimi]

Under no circumstances would I leave fuel hoses for longer than 5 years without replacing them.

All rubber fuel hoses, other than teflon lined, will suffer from perishing and or hardening due to the fuel, pressure,and heat.

The braided hoses tend to mask the true state of the rubber and or any pinhole weeping which would otherwise be visible is hidden and I personally avoid them.

The cost of replacing a few rubber hoses is insignificant compared to losing the car due to fire.

Dimi

[Ian Anderson]

Malcom

I guess you'll be making a trip down to Think Automotive in Twickenham.

Probably the closest supplier of fuel koses / fittings etc

Ian

[Malcolm]

Ian, that is plan A! Just a bit of a pain to need to do it all now with LMC approaching, but certainly better now than in mainland Europe.

So guess all the above comments relate to braided brake lines as well then? I doubt I am alone in this situation especially as there were about 150 GTDs produced before my car.

Thanks for all the comments.

[Julian West]

Malcolm,

Braided steel brake lines generally aren't rubber lined (mine certainley aren't) so I guess the lifespan will be longer.

FWIW you'll find that Aeroquip hose & fittings are less than half price in the US compared to UK. I recentley bought some Aeroquip for my oil cooler & found that for a -10 elbow UK suppliers were charging 30 UKP as opposed to 24 Dollars at Summit.

Thats roughly 12 UKP compared to 30 UKP for the same item.

Rip-off Britain I guess....

[Bill Musarra]

I am just installing my fuel lines. I supplied the engine builder with the hoses I had won on Ebay. I wanted him to cut and install the fittings as I was having some difficulty with variations in the tubing sizes, even though they were the same size. He took a look at the lines and showed me how to tell if the lines are any good, and also gave me some advice concerning the lines in general. The general advice goes like this. If a fuel line has seen racing gas(and probably for regular gas as well) and has been allowed to sit up, or be taken apart, and allowed to dry out for as little as 6 months, it will dry out and crack, making them useless, and should be thrown away. The test for the lines is to bend them in to an arc = to the radius they are made for. If you hear a crunching sound, they are no good and will leak like a sieve. We had to throw out at least 4 lines and go with new. Sometimes trying to save a few bucks is not worth it. He recommended either the teflon lines or going with the fabric covered kevlar lines. Whole nother set of fittings if you do. I guess the other answer is that the fuel pumps should be run every once in a while to keep themfull of gas and from drying out or letting them be expossed to air.

Bill

[Malcolm]

I went to Think Automotive today. The line that failed was an aeroquip line not a cheaper imitation. They dragged the boss of Think Automotive out to chat with me and he says the lifespan of aeroquip fuel line should be 7 to 10 years. He looked at my failed pipe and we agreed that we couldn't actually see anything or hear anything wrong with it! Most odd.

As to cost of replacement fittings the fuel line itself was £12 per metre and the #6 straight fitting I got was £6.28, all plus VAT. Not too criminal!

[Julian West]

>>> As to cost of replacement fittings the fuel line itself was £12 per metre and the #6 straight fitting I got was £6.28, all plus VAT. Not too criminal!

Agreed, not too bad for a small quantity & convenience etc, however, the same fitting from Summit is 7 dollars & the hose 30 dollars for 6 feet.