Sn95 Fuel Hose Fires

Hi guys,
Was browsing around today instead of doing anything productive (snowing like madness around here) and came across a sticky over at the Coral about SN95 engine fuel hoses deteriorating over time and causing some bad situations. http://forums.corral.net/forums/94-...ng-5-0-gas-fuel-lines-fire-hazard-issues.html
I don't see anything similar here (a few vaguely related links searching), and I'd actually never heard about it being a problem before. With my 95 and the turbo downpipe being underneath the lines, I think I'll be doing the swap-over sooner rather than later.
Has anyone here swapped in the braided fuel lines or had problems with a leaking hose? It definitely stoked the flames of my paranoia but I wanted to make sure it wasn't a case of mass hysteria and a real risk. $150 or so for the parts seems like cheap insurance, but if there's no need it's $150 I don't want to spend.

oneslowgt said:

I just replaced the 2 fuel hoses that run right near the throttle body passenger side valve cover they didnt look bad at all until i accidentally broke it off Lol =(

Click to expand...

Since you just did the replacement, could I ask a simple question. The smaller of the 2 hoses as they connect to the hard-lines (not the fuel rail) -- what the heck holds that on? Can't see any clips and it doesn't look spring-loaded.

To answer my own question, it has a clip it's just hard to see or get to. However, the smallest fuel-line removal tool worked on it just fine.

So I picked up all the parts I needed for a braided fuel line installation from Summit. One thing you'll find if you end up following instructions from over at the corral is that the RUS-644113 (the larger one for the 5/16 fuel line) is impossible to fit to the line as-is (the retainer part won't go between the two flares on the tube).

RUS-640863 is the alternate part which is a push-on type with a built-in plastic clip which should fit better. However there are large number of reports of that one popping off and causing engine fires -- what you might be hoping to avoid in the first place, and Russell doesn't make it any longer in favor of the new & improved design (though you can still pick it up on eBay).

So... if you want to use the RUS-644113 just be advised you'll be doing some customization to get it to work. In my case I dispensed with the screw-on retainer, drilled a set of 4 offset holes on the body, and secured it with a metal clip. There are probably other ways around the problem (shaving down the retainer is what I tried first but it became too thin to be useful.) Some have suggested boring out the main piece of the fitting to let the first flare go deeper into it which might have worked better.

If anyone has suggestions for an alternate part that doesn't require tube-cutting / bending / flaring and results in a 6-AN connection to the 5/16 line I'd love to hear about it.