OMG! Fuel line failure! The weather in Dallas has been rainy a lot in August, Sept, and in Oct, 27 inches of rain. But, I did get one nice day and pulled the car out for a drive, maybe 5-10 miles. Heading home, after a stoplight and a little heavier gas pedal, noticed that the fuel pressure began to drop from 40, to 35, to 30, then 20, then the motor died. With a dead motor, pulled into a corner strip mall. Gas fumes were extensive, and I had lost 1/2 fuel tank of gas in about 100 yards. Turned the key off and saw a 4 foot diameter puddle of gas on the ground under the firewall. With everything shut off, now including the fuel pump bypass switch in the glove box, stepped away from the car in case of explosion. Took about 10+ minutes for the fuel vapors and puddle under the car to evaporate. Slid under the passenger side of the car to see if any leaking fuel line was visible. No. Called my neighbor and had him help toe the car home and push into the garage were the car sat for about a month. Finally last week, had 3 days in a row to look for the root cause. Began to realize that the most likely place to start looking was under the hood, with no results. Next up was pulling the passenger front wheel and then the plastic wheel well liner. Nothing visible until turning the key for about 3-4 seconds till fuel pressure began to show on the interior fuel pressure gauge. Turned off the key and took a look in the wheel well. Yep, fuel was leaking from at least 1 location, the splice section on the return hose which was a rubber hose with hand pressed on fittings with clamps. Supposedly, this hose was rated for 300 psi. Also looked like some of my steel braided hose was maybe leaking or dripping from the rubber supply hose. So, the photo shows the original setup. Well, it shows up on editing changes, but not after saving.
Made the decision to redo both the supply fuel line plus the return line. Also decided on steel braided lines for both the supply and return, not wanting a repeat of the poring out of fuel on the ground. So, got some 1/2 inch steel braided fuel line locally along with the necessary connectors, jacked up the car, and pulled the return line from the regulator all the way to the fuel tank. Also decided that a hose connection was a bad idea, particularly so close to the firewall and the hot headers. So, first rerouted the fuel return line, and then cut the supply line under the passenger seat which was beyond where the dripping was visible. After the return line was routed and semi in place, then ran the new supply line from the fuel rail down to the splice location under the passenger seat.
Liked the tidy corner to place the fuel lines so the fender well liner would fit back in with out having to hack it up due to bulges. Small red line is the meth/water injection supply line.
Note the fuel regulator in black and the space away from the header and wastegate, both of which get pretty hot.
Spliced connection under the passenger seat on the supply fuel line.
Test run went fine without any drips or leaks. Some how or another, the cap on the PS oil pump came loose and some small amount of oil oozed out and dripped on the driver's side header, but quickly burned off. This is my first post with photos after Photobucket quasi came back on line.
