I'm Not Afraid of Fire

So this weekend I decided to replace all of the fuel lines in the van. I really wasn't expecting it to take all that long but I ended up spending almost 8 hours working on the thing in total. Since I didn't really know what I was doing I was being extra cautious and triple checking that I had dotted all the i's and whatnot. The good news is that it works great and I ran the engine for almost 20 minutes with cardboard underneath it and I didn't see a single drop of gas. I also visually inspected every connection after I had been running for a while and there wasn't any sign of seepage so aparently I have mastered the incredibly difficult art of clamping hoses. It really wasn't a difficult job but any time I'm working with lines that until quite recently were filled with a fuel that is used because of how explosive it it I get nervous.

I'm actually quite glad that I finally got around to changing those fuel lines. The Vanagon folk of the Internets are constantly encouraging people to get out there and replace their hoses and I am now a firm believer in their preaching. Most of the hoses in my engine had clearly been changed but I'm not sure that the clamps were rated for fuel injection. Also some of the critical hoses, like the ones connecting the injectors to the fuel rail which is situated directly above the super hot exhaust was clearly the hose from the factory. After 24 years it was brittle and cracking. I'll post a pic soon showing how bad it was. The hose in the worst condition however was the hose just on the other side of the engine firewall. It is really hard to get to if you want to switch it out and I ended up having to bear hug my transmission in order to get my hands into a postition where I could mess with it. That hose was actually cracked pretty badly and I was able to pull it off the firewall connection piece without removing the clamp. Nothing like the feeling of narrowly avoid death in a fire.

Here is what the left side of my engine looks like now:



Here from another site labels all of the fuel lines:



Anyone interested in doing this job should certainly check out http://www.benplace.com/fuel_line.htm to learn how. Here are a few reasons why you should do this job. Here is a picture of my injector line which sits directly above the exhaust:



This is what it looked like after I replaced the hose:




In other Vanagon projects, I hit some of my stainless steel with the old grinder today and I was less than thrilled with the results. Its not going to be nearly as easy as I thought it was going to be to get back that original luster. Granted I haven't used any of the polish stuff that I used on the poptop handle but I expect the grinder to do a lot more than it did. Oh well, maybe if I just hit it with some steel wool and Bar Keep's Friend then it will clean right up. If it doesn't then its painting time. Sweet!