Lancia Beta Forum

I've been fretting about the fuel system on my Spider for some time now. The fuel tank is away being Re-Nu'd at Hartlepool radiators and I'm currently attempting to acquire some Gates Barricade fuel line from the US, as it seems the most ethanol-proof line available. It's not proving easy, however. The other part of the fuel line that I'm now thinking of is the solid part that runs underneath the length of the passenger cabin and up into the engine bay. While I've experienced no obvious problems with it as yet, I'd very much like to get a copy of it made, but in 316L stainless.

Has anyone thought about doing this, or (better yet) even done it? And would anyone have an old pipe that I could use as a template? (My car is in France and I won't be seeing it until May at the earliest). It doesn't matter how rough it is, as long as it's complete and unmolested. I guess it would be best to use one off a Coupe or Spider; would an HPE pipe be different (longer)?

I'd have though cupro-nickel would have been fine for a fuel line - and that's soft enough to form as you install it.

For what it's worth the tank on mine was full of cr@p but the fuel lines were OK. The line on an HPE would be longer.

I had always thought stainless was more brittle and hence less easy to form than other types of steel etc and as such with such small pipes I would be concerned about cracking on bends. as above I would have thought standard current day fuel lines would be fine and the softer material makes for easier installing as you go.

One quick question, anyone have issues with modern day rubber fuel lines with the higher ethanol content?  Have bought some cotton braided ones to replace the old ones which connect the fuel tank and carb, but have read that the may be issues medium term with degrading?

Peter

Yes, the more I think about it, I'm probably worrying about nothing. Does anyone know what material the OE solid fuel lines are made of?

On the older rubber hose front, I've read a lot of stuff about that and ethanol, and they don't play well together. Or rather ethanol doesn't play well with OE hoses, or any that aren't formulated specifically to be ethanol resistant. I'm actually in the process of getting some Gates Barricade hose sent to me by my brother-in-law in the US. That is touted as being resistant to all concentrations of ethanol, and also has very low permeability. The really annoying thing is that they just don't sell it in the UK, or anywhere outside the USA, apparently. I can't imagine why not, but that appears to be the case.

The OE pipes are mild steel, painted grey.

I bought some cotton braided fuel line from Kiowa (Newark?) a few years ago when I changed all the under bonnet fuel lines. This has been fine.