New Transmission  60                 June  2012

June 3rd.

Last week I mentioned that I had dodged a bullet and here's what I was talking about. When I started the car for my test drive and was warming up the engine for a few minutes, I backed out of the garage and then got out to shut the garage door. While I was pulling the door closed I noticed a small wet spot on the floor and went over to see what it was. After getting some of this liquid on my fingers and giving it the smell test, I couldn't be sure what it was because of all the exhaust fumes lurking in the air. I slowly walked towards the door while doing the smell test for a second time hoping to get some fresh air to help me process this liquid.

The clean air helped and the stuff on my fingers smelled like gasoline. With my eyes opened wider now I looked up to see what looked like steam coming from the passenger side of the car. In that a split second the puzzle was solved, 'oh no...gas leak'. In record time I turned the key off and then started looking for the problem. Turns out that my fuel pressure gage line was leaking on my exhaust.

In the picture below you can see my fuel pressure isolator (top arrow) that doesn't have a line going to it. That line should be going to my fuel pressure regulator (bottom arrow). This hose is much smaller than my normal fuel line and is used for my fuel pressure gage that's in my dash. If you're unfamiliar with how a fuel pressure gage works when mounted on the inside of a car then let me explain because they're a little different.

When an engine is running, fuel is being pumped through your fuel lines under a constant pressure. To monitor this pressure you use a gage. But in the case of gasoline you don't want any of that on the inside of your vehicle (for obvious safety reasons) and to accomplish this you use what's called an 'isolator'. This isolator has fuel on one side and an inert liquid on the other with a bladder between them. When pressure is applied to this bladder it then pushes the inert liquid with the same amount of pressure to which the gage reads.
 

 

 
In my case the fuel line that went to my isolator started to leak near the top (arrow). It then ran down the line and dripped onto my exhaust which is what I saw as steam. The fittings didn't fail but the rubber tubing inside must have cracked causing the leak. Now this was no surprise to me because I've had this happen a few times before when I owned my Camaro many years ago. If I would let the car sit for extended periods of time, fuel would either drain back out of the line or evaporate enough to dry it out. Over time this dry condition would crack leaving me with a leak.

I had some of this -4 line left over from when I originally put the car together but at this point I didn't trust it so I bought some new stuff. For under twenty bucks the new braided line seemed like good insurance to me which is why I spent the money.
 

 

 
For those of you that don't know how to assembly braided steel hose, this should help. The first thing you'll need to do is determine how long your hose assembly will be and this includes the fittings on both ends. After you have that dimension it's time to cut the hose. Using a couple of wraps of electrical tape works well for this and I highly recommend it but just about any tape will work in a pinch. I've already placed a nut on one end but we'll go through that process in a minute.
 

 

 
Now I've cut braided steel hose many different ways but my favorite is using a Dremal with a cutoff wheel. Now you can use a hacksaw with a fine tooth blade to cut this stuff, even a cold chisel will work if you had to (not the best choice but it will work) but the Dremal is by far my first choice.
 

 

 
After you've cut your hose to length it's time to do some assembly. I like using cardboard in my vise to protect the nice finish of the anodized parts but a rag works here too. What you need to do is insert the hose into the nut which is usually the hardest part. Now you can leave the tape on or you can remove it because it doesn't seem to make a difference either way as this is on the outside of the sealing area. I've had the tape slip back while inserting the hose into the nut and when this happens it looks bad when you're through so be on the lookout for this.
 

 

 
I removed the tape for this one and once you do, it's time to get busy because the ends of the braided steel want to separate. To get all the individual stainless braids inserted into the nut I like to use a small flat blade screwdriver to help here. I slowly walk the screwdriver around the nut to get all the strands inside. If you don't get blood on anything while doing this then you did a good job because the individual strands of stainless steel are just like needles.
 

 

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