So I am installing the new air gap intake on my truck. The fuel line that connects the fuel rails had to be removed and shortened. They put a new one in the kit but it is a hard plastic tubing. For the life of me I cant get it over the barbs on the fuel rails. Would I be able to substitute rubber fuel line for this or would the fuel pressure be too much?

 

I remember someone talking about this a few weeks back. I think you could take a heat gun to expand the plastic a little to ease the installation.

Rubber fuel line cannot take the PSI, and will start to degrade from the inside, clogging your injectors.

 

Let me help you out here. DO NOT USE RUBBER FUEL LINE for it is NOT compatible with the additives in modern fuel from Shell, Chevron and Mobile that I'm aware of. What you want to do here is discard that line altogether. While it's the right material for the job and, it's OEM, it's a bitch to work with that stuff and, I'm going to inform you that there's a special process for installing that onto the barbs that requires hydraulic force and a heater and LN2 to do the job PROPERLY and, have it be safe.

What you're going to look for is one hose and one make only and that is: Goodyear, BLUE OR BLACK lined FKM inside and a (synthetic) rubber sheathing on the outside. The P/N for that hose can be noted here: http://www.goodyearep.com/ProductsDetail.aspx?id=5144

I've sourced this hose at common part stores such as Napa so, you shouldn't have too much trouble sourcing one. Again, the hose inner may be BLUE (if pre-2010) or BLACK if post 2010. The blue material was discontinued and replaced with all black of the same material.

Now, you are also going to need proper hose clamps that are EFI rated. These are SMOOTH walled clamps. The clamps are not to have any sharp burs, or punched out areas as one would note on a cooling system hose clamp. Those types of hose clamps must never be used on EFI / FUEL line systems due to abrasion and deep cuts when clamping force / pressure is applied.

But, DO NOTE: Some of the smooth wall EFI hose clamps are so cheap (Chinese variants) that the threaded fastener will strip out if too fine a thread exists. The better clamps have a coarser thread and a nut folded into a square section of the clamp band. (it is folded on itself)

Those are the ones you want.

Now, lastly, I'm going to tell you what happens when using rubber lines that were designed for use with regular (non-additive design) fuels with modern fuel containing additives.

As fuel passes through, the additives attack the inside wall material thus, softening it and attacking it thus breaking it down. It becomes gummy and, it begins to separate and migrates into the FUEL INJECTOR baskets where, it either does one of two things, clogs the baskets or, if the basket mesh is large enough, the particulates find their way into the pintle valve assembly thus jamming up the injector valve.

At this point, the injector is to be removed from service and taken apart and cleaned out along with being rebuilt. It's a major pain in the neck to deal with and, I myself, have dealt with this once before.

The hardest part was troubleshooting root cause for that failure. One keeps replacing injectors and then you know something is up after it happens again.

Also, as another tip here: WATCH YOUR FUEL RAILS. When removing them from service and reintroducing them back onto the intake, it is extremely important that one checks them for gross debris inside. The OEM rails are cheaply made, cold rolled steel with a micro thin PTFE barrier to prevent corrosion. After a period of time, this coating is breached by oxides and, over time, rust forms on the walls as more of the base material begins to leach through the PTFE barrier.

What ends up happening is, corrosion becomes a problem. The particulates of rust begin to flake of and dislodge from the inner walls of the fuel rails thus making their way into the injectors. The end result is exactly the same root problem as I described above with the cheap rubber hose material.

So, be sure to check the condition of the fuel rails and, if they are rusty, they "should" be etched with an acid etch, rinsed out thoroughly and then coated on the inside with a low-viscosity epoxy designed to withstand fuels, solvents etc etc.

There's a company that makes kits for this type of application and, this epoxy withstands jet fuel. It's good stuff. Now, I've got a kit out in my shop back in So Cal but, for the life of me, I can't recall who makes it. It has everything you need to do the job. You can even coat the outside of the rails so that the outside doesn't rust either. YOu can tint the epoxy and spray it on -if you want black rails.

Again, you may not have an issue but, seeing that you've got the same year truck that I've got and, you're out in KS and see winters, I've got a pretty good idea of what those rails may look like inside.

Hope that helps,

CM