I don't know any of the science behind it, but when I was in high school, we would find any straight country road out of town to use as a drag strip. Without fail, 2 or 3 of the guys would show up to race, and they would bring a cool can with them. All it was was a big tin can with fuel line coiled inside that they would connect in line with the fuel line. When it was time to run, they would add ice to the can, crank up and go. There had to be some benefit to cooling the fuel, although in those circumstances, and with the people I knew who were racing, who knows!!!

 

it cools your intake charge some for more low to mid range torque. you should also insulate your fuel rails to maximize the benifit. a heat soaked fuel rail will negate the benifits in my opinion.

 

I think you had a discussion on insulating the fuel rails in another post, I'll have to search for that. I've been thinking about that and wondered if it isn't more important to insulate the lines around the engine first, then consider going with a fuel cooler. At the most, the temperature of the fuel in the tank will be close to the outside air temperature. When it moves through the small diameter fuel lines and is exposed to the hot air radiating off of the engine, this is where the fuel will increase in temperature.

I think Steve00Ram360 had installed the cooler and insulated his lines. I'm not sure if he did both at the same time, but I'm curious if he insulated the lines later, if there was even more of a difference in performance.

 

I did the fuel rails 1st and didnt see much of a change in mileage. for the cooler to be effective you need to wrap your rails. otherwise once the rails get heat soaked, you loose the benifit of the cooler. running the return line from the cooler to the fuel rail using rubber hose and routing along the fender behind the brake booster kept it pretty cool, I never found it to be hot enough for me to want to wrap that in addition to the rail.

edit: I did the fuel rails at least 1 month prior to the cooler install... if anyone is curious.

 

Your experience trumps my theories. [sm=hail.gif]

Thanks for the input.

 

oh yeah, another thing about the temp of the fuel in the tank... if it's 90~100 deg out and the fuel heats up to 80~90 deg it will take along time to get that heat out of it while it's in the tank. with the cooler if it takes only 30~40 deg out, it's still way better than the 80~90 deg it started with. Flex-a-lite claims up to 80 deg F IIRC, I doubt anyone would have their fuel that hot to get that much out of it but 30~40 deg doesnt seem un-reasonable.