Hot Rods Translucent fuel lines. Who is using them?

Anyone who buys any of the crap quality garbage from the Hoffman group deserves the grief and possibly dangerous situation such poor quality brings.
Red fuel line from Helix ?
I wouldn't use it as water hose.

 

On my tri power set up on the roadster I used the clear red plastic from Charley Price I think. It would very quickly go to the pink color and also shrink.
I have replaced it several times and finally went to a proper black line that will not cause an inferno.

 

The stuff in the 50's and 60,s turned pink too As has been said, stay away from it, it is a good thing to start a fire with this line.

 

Bravo!
I too have had an engine fire. Nearly burned my 36 to the ground. I wouldn't use plastic of any kind in the fuel system.
And lesson #2. Be sure to carry a good fire extinguisher in the car. Got mine attached to the floor board in front of the seat.

 

Gates low permeation fuel hose for me, after taking apart a couple carbs to clean rubber chunks and slime out of them, I bought a roll.
http://www.amazon.com/Gates-Permeation-Carb-Fuel-27314/dp/B00498G5QC

 

I use it on my T-bucket, just change it when it starts to turn pink. But it is out in the open air too.

 

The Everclear I remember seeing is 190 proof. That's as close to pure as you're going to get outside a lab.

 

I had 2 spools of the stuff shelved away in my shop that went missing about 2 months ago.
Previously I had used a couple of feet of It on my 32 roadster but running steel tubing inside the clear red plastic lines.
Today's new fuels concern me.
Now I find someone has liberated my stash of the clear red stuff.
When I catch wind of someone's car burning to the ground due to a fuel line failure, and it may be someone I'm aquatinted with, then I'll quickly figure out who the culprit might be.
Karma, it's a bitch.

 

I had some translucent red hose that I sold with my old 6x2 set up, made sure it was DOT approved before I purchased it.

 

I've had it start leaking but never had a fire. Thank God. With today's fuel blends none of the old plastic or rubber formulations will hold up. Change it out often, use modern hose or go hard line. I say that but I've got a couple of cars with the red stuff that I really should change sooner rather than later.

 

Plastic is for drinking straws, not fuel line!

 

I ran 2 short lines of the Speedway red clear fuel line from my regulator up to the carbs. It fades QUICK to an orange-ish and then looks like butt. You have to destroy it to get it to let go of the hose barbs. I gotta get it off and just put something black on there. I wouldn't recommend. Never had any leakage but like I said both pieces are only about 10" long.

 

The HELIX Racing Products fuel line is high quality stuff. It is rated for up to and including E-85. Helix ALL FUEL can withstand any concentration of ethanol or alcohol due to the high resistance multi-extrusion process. This fuel line remains flexible and will not crack or harden when in use. Helix ALL FUEL is EPA & C.A.R.B. approved for modern OEM fuel line replacement. It is a clear light blue color. They also make fuel Vent lines in many colors but it is rated for only a max of E-10, it is polyurethane

 

I'd like to amend the above. the Tygon I used in the past was Yellow Tygon, this was to be my first year using the clear Tygon, yesterday I emailed Mike Woods @ Component Supply and asked him about using the clear that I had now, he said no, use only the Yellow color line, made especially for pump gas. I apologize for my original posting, I clearly misspoke, don't want anyone hurt. Thanks Blue One for setting straight!! I'll reorder the Yellow Tygon today.

 

I had them in 1967 on a 40 with a j-2 set-up VERY dangerous then and now. I would not trust them my opion

 

All Tygon is not the same, many are not even close to being automotive appropriate.
Tygon F-4040-A is yellow. Temperature application is an important parameter and many Tygons
are only rated 120-130*F . You might want to check your under hood temp after running.

 

You know, after reading hotroddons post and looking at the helix racing products site, I like the all fuel light blue hose better than the yellow Tygon.
Would probably look better on your ride too.
http://helixracingproducts.com/index.php/products-html/tubing-hose/fuel-line/helix-all-fuel.html
Note, NOT a Hoffman company

 

As far as I can tell the helix all fuel only comes in 1/4" ID.

 

I looked at these, couldn't find 3/8" ID. Appreciate you getting back with me!!

 

Thanks for this thread. I'm setting up a new intake system now, and was going to reuse just a couple of short pieces of some red stuff to join together a couple of hard lines from the pump up to the filter. I'm going to rethink that, and at the very least replace the old stuff with new, E85 resistant material.

 

When I started this thread I never imagined it would get this involved. I'm glad it did. Hopefully it raises a few eyebrows and saves a few cars. I wish Helix made it in other colors as well. I wonder if their blue color is due to the materials used in manufacturing or some sort of Federal regulation requiring it to be blue for pre race inspection purposes or something deep.

 

Hard lines are just better. I have done it with steel, copper and aluminum tubing. the aluminum tubing (20 bucks for a 25 foot roll from Jegs) is very easy to bend and polishes up great. you can flare it easy (use tubing sleeves) and makes a nice easy to fab hard line set up.

 

Hard lines are all well and good, but there is that point where you have to go from the firewall or frame to the carb. You have to have a flex point in there to absorb engine vibration and torque, otherwise the hard, fuel line will break from stress or fatigue. You just try to keep the length of flexible hose to as minimum a length as possible.

 

On my 56 Chevy, the only place I had the rubber line was from where the hard line (coming from the gas tank to where it terminated along the frame rail) connected to the fuel pump. Then from the pump to the carb was all hard line again. See my thumb nail below.

 

X2

I changed out the connector hoses to my tri-power and discovered this:

 

As much as I like the look of some of the hosed systems, black rubber or otherwise, I think I will plumb my RPU with hard lines and keep the rubber for flexibility short.
I think I'll use Cunifer as it bends easily and will look nice too.

 

I know what your saying it has to flex somewhere. I personally hate electric fuel pumps so mine have always had mechanical pumps (I've taken quite a few electric pumps off and switched them to mechanical) only needing a flex line from the frame rail to the fuel pump. everything can be hard lines after that. and as non traditional as it may be all my flex lines from hard line on the rail to fuel pump are AN fittings and braided hose, I hate hose clamps, you cant see them most of the time anyway, but there just safer. As for on fuel lines on the fire wall that has always seemed like a bad idea to me. I know tons of people do it, and yes it does look cool on the right car, but it seems that its really just a way to show off your red fuel lines that are slowly gearing up to catch you motor on fire.

 

This our member/brother "safari-wagon":
http://www.techafx.com/?q=catalog

Proper high pressure stuff for modern fuels and injection pressures. Not cheap but you only buy it once.

 

As impressive as the techafx stuff is, I was left less than impressed with my experience on it when it was first posted here on the HAMB.
I contacted them (techafx) and through numerous messages I said that I was interested in setting up a fuel system for my 26 RPU project.
I laid out all of my components for the tri power, fuel block etc. and was promised that they would get a package of fittings and hose figured out and get back to me so that I could pay and place my order.
After weeks of nothing I tried contacting them again, I even called.
No response to phone calls or messages after numerous tries I gave up , it was like they did not want my business.
So, I dropped it and called it a wash.
Not a company I would deal with.
Larry

 

New guys,read some of the posts with a grain of salt,cuz many are only repeting what they hear. Its how BS becomes new facts. Some is real an some are very good ideas,but think it through. I used clear and the red semi clear back in the day an some now,the few fails it has had were tracible to me not updating or reusing line too many times. Heat can kill it fast as can too much sun,I love the red stuff looks wise,but like every thing on your rod,stay after it. Its not a bad thing tell you let it be. I said this ,this way hoping not to afend,but just put things as real as I know it is.