My God, it's full of fuel!
I ditched the boxing analogy for a hilarious click-bait title. I see these types of things shared on Facebook more than I can count. For some reason, I refuse to click on those articles out of some stubborn defiance. Sadly for me, that probably means I won't see: dogs seeing their military owners come home, dancing skeletons, some sort of act of scripted kindness, probably some video with racist contextual overtones and other super fun political stuff. Darn!!!!
Anyway, A few nights ago, I decided to get all that fuel line bent, connected and fired the beast up.... Fuel squired all across the front of the engine from an unknown origin. It went EVERYWHERE.
After frantically disconnecting the battery and cleaning up my mess, I discovered that I missed tightening up a fitting. After spilling more fuel, I found that the AN-to-NPT fitting to the fuel inlet line (the black thing to the silver thing) was ill-fitting and did not create a seal. So I tightened it further!! When in doubt, crank it out!
To test this:
- Disconnect coil wire (not the lead but just the power feed). This prevents the engine from actually starting.
- Turn the key, let it turn over a few times to get some gas pumped into the line.
- Observe leak become even worse....
- Become super high off of gas fumes. (Just joking...I think)
So after yet ANOTHER run to Summit Racing, I armed myself with a Summit Line kit that feeds directly to the Carburetor. With nice and fresh threading, not ruined by my touch. Then connecting to that is an -6AN-to-3/8 NPT fitting. Interesting to note...it was used. There was gunk in the threading that I cleaned out with a pipe cleaner. Huh. Moving on....
Drum roll...and pigeons
After tightening everything up, I turn her over; the leak disappeared and I had solid fuel pressure! Wooooo! Mission Accomplished!
Also, the gas fumes made me chase a pigeon away from my bird feeder, making me look like the crazy bird guy on my block. I HATE pigeons. I hate Doves second. They are basically the upper class of the pigeon world. I'm pigeonist. I'll take a kickass scrub-jay any day. Or a rockin black bird.
Back on track;
So here are a few pictures of the line setup starting from the Carb.
Edelbrock 1411 Carburetor to Summit Fuel Line Inlet
That golden bell like thing is a fuel pressure sender. I had to bend the summit fuel line outwards to get it to fit underneath that carb choke.
From there, 3/8 hard line, bent around to the front of the engine.
That black rigid stuff is some heat shielding to prevent it from touching the block directly.
A -6AN inline fuel filter with two -6AN to Tube adapter connecting it from the 3/8 hard line.
Then it wraps around behind the coil and down into the gas pump. Sheathed in more heat shielding
It connects to the stock gas pump using -6AN to 5/8''-18o-ring.
Another shot from the passenger side.
So in conclusion, here are the parts list for this entire setup:
Fuel Line Setup:
- Summit Fuel Line Inlet
- 3/8 NPT to -6AN fitting
- -6AN to Tube adapters - 4x
- -inline fuel filter
- -6AN to 5/8''-18o-ring fitting
- 3/8 hard line - 25' Roll
- 1411 Edelbrock Carburetor
- Stock replacement Carter mechanical pump.
No more degrading rubber.
You may ask why I was so insistent on moving away from rubber. Look for yourself. Below is from my previous inline fuel filter setup with a full rubber line coming from the pump.
That black stuff? That's rubber from a brand new O'Reilly Auto's fuel rated hose. This happened with several rounds of rubber tubing.
Maybe those mechanics were right when talking about the ethanol in our gas. Or maybe it could be my leaky exhaust baking the living hell out of anything that will melt within its radius. Or both!
Into the future
Anyway, next week will probably be centered around the start of the 466 build! My friend / El Hefe is rad and is letting me post up in his shop/man-cave to build up this engine. So expect lots of pictures and progress reports coming in regards to that.
Until next week.
