Neither Aluminum or Copper is certified / approved for pipe style fuel rails or fuel feed-lines. It will work harden and develop stress cracks over time. Solid billet Al and extrusions are acceptable however for fuel rails and fuel blocks only. Not intended for fuel injection fuel delivery lines.
What is the material that composite fuel rails are made out of? It has to be both fuel and heat resistant as well as meeting burst tests and burn tests, UV tests, temp cycling tests, mechanical shock and vibration tests, salt tests and more.
If someone knows what these "plastic" fuel rails are made out of please post it here. I am very curious to read what the material is as I have never seen plastic fuel rails before nor heard of plastic fuel rails. Just curious that's all.
The coating on the metal fuel rails is a powder coated type of coating. It is not very thick either. The MIL thickness on that looks very thin on mine. It has to be thin so that the I.D. and O.D. are not grossly affected by paint thickness and go out of tolerance.
I don't know what type of materials they used but I can tell you that from a visual inspection the rails on my truck are a black material that looks like either a plastic coating or a plastic material. Since I have never removed them I can't say anything about their strength. I know on my Mustang they are a metal material since they are just shiny with no coating at all. Whether that is aluminum, tin,nickel, I don't know, but as long as they do their job I wont mess with either of them. If it aint broke, don't fix it, is my motto.
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__________________ 1997 1500, 318 CID, 4x2 Laramie SLT, Extended cab, Pendaliner SR bed liner, After market fogs in OE slots, Bone stock, Dodge Mud Guards, Custom tool box under hood on pass fender, Laramie Club Member, Black Truck Club Member 111.
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The black coating is a plastic coating in fact. It's a powder coated epoxy type of material that is used to paint all fuel rails black. None of them are shiny as they are made out of cold rolled cheap junk sheet stock with cups welded on and two fittings and a Schrader valve (depending on the year).
This epoxy is used to prevent them from rusting on the outside. So, what your seeing is in fact, steel fuel rails that are powder coated. All those mounts are spot welded as is the fittings that accept the fuel line quick disconnect as is the crossover tube in the rear of the intake. If those were plastic, they would snap off as would the main inlet. They are only 5/16 quick disconnect inlets with VERY thin walls so, to make those out of any composite or any plastic material would lead to failure as there's simply not enough material to make the joint strong like steel welds. On steel, the inlet will bend and give way before the joint / weld fails. I just can't see those made out of plastic.
They do bend, they are not super rigid as the wall thickness is not very thick. Sometimes then bend like a banana when removing them. Sometimes you end up with flat spots on them as well when trying to push down and seat the injectors into the manifold. These are from a 2000 model and they are metal.
I wanted to bring this thread back up because i still haven't solved the problem of the start-up idle being ****ty but on further inspection I noticed what i thought was a vaccum leak was just my intake sucking in lots of air at a 600rpm idle which i thought was a little wierd.
__________________ Small tires are like small tits
Ok, after going through this post from start to finish, first thing that I note is that all the sensors were changed. Now, one of them looks like it's 180 degree out. The IAC should have the connector facing the passenger side as illustrated in the manual. Why: I don't know as it is round and, one would not think that it makes a difference but, there must be something inside that has to face upwards is my guess. I can find out later today from F&Bs Bruce as he knows the reason why as was stated in his installation instructions for his TBs.
Ok, now, it may not be that so, moving on, we look at what components your running and what happens at startup.
First question: Are you running a 180 T-stat and, if so, have you reprogrammed your PCM to accommodate for this?
Second, if you are running your IAT sensor in your tube and have not factored that in to your PCM, your going to have issues.
Without explaining why yet, did you change any other components besides the ones that you mentioned early on?
Let's start there.
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96 Dodge Ram 1500 4WD, Hughes Fi Airgap, Custom Al -6AN billet fuel rails, Bosch FIs, JBA headers/ JBA perf. exhaust, F&B TB, Summit- -6AN fuel supply lines, Magnaflow hi flow CAT, Pulstar plugs, Moroso Ultra 40s, SCT, MSD coilpack, Volant CAI / Kenwood Excelon XVT 819 DVD, Alpine PDX 4150, Kenwood KAC-X10D, Boston Acoustics, single 10.
Last edited by cmckenna; 10-08-2009 at 04:32 PM.
Reason: Wording was not correct
I did change to a 180 t-stat I'm not sure how to re-program the pcm I left the battery out for 2 days after all the work and the new sensors where added as for the tps it fits either way but ill go ahead and flip it.
__________________ Small tires are like small tits
