jacob80 Posted April 24, 2012 Share Posted April 24, 2012 Hey guys, Well, I've run into a big problem. As some of you may know, I bent up some stainless steel 3/8" fuel line to replace the stock lines that run the length of the body. Unfortunately, I cannot seem to find a way to attach/adapt a braided -6 AN hose to the end. The reason being is that stainless steel seems to be very uncommon when it comes to fuel lines. The material is so hard that you have to buy a hyper expensive tool to flare it, and once you flare it, it is difficult to find a tube nut and sleeve that is stainless steel to work with the lines. Even if I did find a stainless tube nut and sleeve, I'd be afraid of the seal to the aluminum ends of the braided lines. The hardness of the stainless steel wouldn't conform well and, like I mentioned, would most likely result in a leak. At this point, my two legitimate options are to 1) Rip out my nice, new bent stainless lines and run braided hose the length of the body (which I REALLY don't want to do, the lines look great and I spent a lot of time bending them) or 2) Hunt down some stainless tube nuts and sleeve and try to see if the connection between the aluminum AN hose ends of my braided lines and the stainless tube nut would seal. I don't like this option because once you flare the line, there is no going back and no guarantee that the seal will happen. There is a third option that I got to thinking about, but it would only be temporary because it is SUPER redneck. Because I'm trying to make it out to the Branson Z Fest on May 30th, I could use a hose clamp to clamp a rubber hose on the end of the stainless line, then attach a male -6 AN adapter to the other end of the rubber hose, and then attach my braided stuff to that. Like I said, that is not what I want to do, but could be a temporary solution. If you guys would, please throw out ideas and comments. Really trying to get this done as soon as possible! Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Braden Posted April 24, 2012 Share Posted April 24, 2012 What type of fuel pump are you running and whats the output pressure of the pump before it gets to the regulator? I would go ahead and source the stainless parts needed to finish what you already have,it would make more sense to not make more work for yourself. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yem73z Posted April 24, 2012 Share Posted April 24, 2012 Im running stainless 3/8 line also and I ended up using AN to hardline adapters from jegs. They are like 6-10 bucks or something. I have a link to my flickr acct that shows the picture http://m.flickr.com/#/photos/39553792@N02/7110142317/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jacob80 Posted April 24, 2012 Author Share Posted April 24, 2012 Im running stainless 3/8 line also and I ended up using AN to hardline adapters from jegs. They are like 6-10 bucks or something. I have a link to my flickr acct that shows the picture http://m.flickr.com/#/photos/39553792@N02/7110142317/ I'm running a high pressure fuel pump that will deliver your typical fuel pressures for EFI, I'd say 50 or so PSI. I have those fittings too, but I'm pretty sure those won't hold up to these high pressures, especially if you don't flare. Did you, in fact, get these to work for you? Are you running fuel injection? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
24OZ Posted April 24, 2012 Share Posted April 24, 2012 How about trying to hire the tool or take it to a shop with the correct tools to finish it off. Sounds like it won't take them long, so shouldn't cost you much. The biggest cost will be trailering it there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZeeNoEvil Posted April 24, 2012 Share Posted April 24, 2012 "The hardness of the stainless steel wouldn't conform well and, like I mentioned, would most likely result in a leak." You could buy a -6AN steel fitting (any store selling hydraulic supplies) and use it to seat or conform the stainless line to then swap out the steel fitting for your aluminum hose ends. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nigel Posted April 24, 2012 Share Posted April 24, 2012 We use a lot of stainless tubing in the nuclear industry, and Swagelok fittings are very handy for making connections to stainless tube without the need to flare the tubing. They use a compression style ferrule with a nut and can take thousands of psi. All you do is slide the nut onto the tube, then the 2 piece ferrule, slide the tube into the adapter and then tighten the nut. You can get all sorts of adapters and they do have tube to AN fittings. I did a quick search and came up with this... http://www.swagelok.com/search/find_products_home.aspx?part=SS-600-6-6ANWD&item=20b6dcb5-5a04-42f1-9df7-a5d3fd3672c3# Nigel '73 240ZT Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nigel Posted April 24, 2012 Share Posted April 24, 2012 I found an animation of how they work: http://www.swagelok.com/Downloads/Animations/EN/Tube_Fitting.htm (Use Explorer. Doesn't seem to work in Chrome) Nigel Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jacob80 Posted April 24, 2012 Author Share Posted April 24, 2012 Wow! This may be my solution, just what I'm looking for! My only question is...is AN 3/8" as specified on their website equivalent to AN -6? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nigel Posted April 24, 2012 Share Posted April 24, 2012 Wow! This may be my solution, just what I'm looking for! My only question is...is AN 3/8" as specified on their website equivalent to AN -6? Should be. A -AN size is a fraction with an implied denominator of 16. So -6AN is 6/16 = 3/8. I'm not sure what "with wire drill" means though. You can always call to doublecheck it's what you want. Nigel Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony D Posted April 24, 2012 Share Posted April 24, 2012 Nigel beat me to it, a Swagelok SS6- something AN Adapter fitting will solve your issues. A/N 3/8" is -6 same measurement system Swagelok uses. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jacob80 Posted April 24, 2012 Author Share Posted April 24, 2012 You're right, I did not think about this. Honestly, of this is as good as it sounds, I will be ordering a set yesterday! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rossman Posted April 24, 2012 Share Posted April 24, 2012 You can use anodized aluminum tube nuts and sleeves with stainless fuel line. That is what I used. Most of my AN parts were sourced from anplumbing.com. I'm not sure what you mean by hyper expensive tools. Both Rigid and Parker make hand tools that go for <$200. You could resell the tool on Ebay and recover most of that. I used the Rigid tool to flare my 5/8" stainless lines. The problem I ran into was that the line that I bought had deep extrusion marks preventing a good seal in the as-flared condition. I had to polish the snot our of the flares to get them to seal. In the end it worked and sealed well. Leave a little extra on the ends of your fuel lines that you can cut off and re-flare just in case. Threads I started on the subject: Installing my fuel lines: http://forums.hybridz.org/index.php/topic/99619-installing-custom-fuel-lines/page__p__933971__fromsearch__1?do=findComment&comment=933971 This one involves pressure testing the system after installation. I'm glad I did, there would have been fuel leaks everywhere otherwise. http://forums.hybridz.org/index.php/topic/104364-pressure-testing-fuel-system-with-no-fuel/page__p__975912__fromsearch__1?do=findComment&comment=975912 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jacob80 Posted April 25, 2012 Author Share Posted April 25, 2012 Awesome, thanks a lot man. I knew I could count on you guys to get me a viable solution. I called Jegs, and they're always very helpful with finding solutions to my problems, but this time around they didn't have much for me. The Swagelok stuff is a god send! Looks like the rep right down the road from me has 22 of the fittings I need! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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