Vanagon fuel rail fix

[Antron]

Am I missing something ? I see 4 ports and a pres guage - where is the inlet for it ?

[snowsyncro]

The two outside are the inlet and return, the two inside are to the injectors.

RonC

[RGS Paul]

Keane,

That is feckin' SWEET! Very nice job, I wish I had the tools and skills to knock something like that together when I got snowed in.

Paul
_________________
'87 Syncro 7-Pass. Adventure Touring Vehicle
"Simplicate, then add lightness." Colin Chapman

[Summers420us]

Bringing up an old post for discussion.

Why not eliminate the manifold all together and use the FI Bay window metal fuel rails?

Not only would it clean up the engine bay, but perhaps they would be safer.

Do you need the volume of the plastic tank type fuel rails to even out the fuel pressure?

[msinabottle]

Kicking this thread due to the fear I think we all have of vans with good fuel lines notwithstanding... Having a bad thing happen.



Right now, Van Cafe is selling a metal fuel rail, ecce:

http://www.van-cafe.com/home/van/page_1524_286/aluminum_fuel_rail.html

and one of our own over on the Classifieds is selling his own, less-milled version, that being:

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/classifieds/detail.php?id=1114641

And I thought someone else was, I checked the Rocky Mountain Westy and Go Westy sites.

The Harbor Freight jury-rig of the 1 into 4 air compression fitting also looks functional.

Is there a consensus on these, yet? fastwagens is offering a very good price, but his isn't all one piece, not that I'm sure it needs to be, the Van Cafe ones look beautiful, the jury-rig is easily something I could do... And it's all cheap insurance to keep... Something bad... from happening.

What does everybody ELSE think?

Best!
_________________
'Winston,' '84 1.9 WBX Westy
Vanagon Poet Laureate: "I have suffered in
many ways, but never, never, never in silence."

[teej]

I did some recent research too. GW also sells the pictured Van-Cafe unit, and based on their experience has this comment:

"Product note: In reality, the original black plastic ones rarely ever fail on their own; rather, the "nipples" succumb to heavy-handed mechanics (no, not you!) in a hurry to remove the old fuel line that stubbornly hangs on."

I think careful monitoring after any fuel delivery related service, and also after any extended period of storage, or first temperatures much different from what the van normally experiences are habits to cultivate.
_________________
1986+ Wolfsburg Weekender Pop-Top 2.3 WBX Manual Trans

[90Doka_Guy]

The rail that Van Cafe is selling is pretty elegant. Short of making a casting, I'm not sure much more can be done to minimize any potential failure modes of the thing.

[randywebb]

you have to wonder why VW went to the trouble of putting those little rubber discs in the ends of the stock ones -- maybe they are supposed to function to reduce pressure fluctuations??

if an Al one works fine under all conditions, that would be an improvement tho, as plastic will not last forever
_________________
1986 2.1L Westy 2wd Auto Trans.

[SCM]

[jashv]

Sorry to bring back the dead - so what's the internal measurement of the stock fuel rail ? Anyone have a shot of one cut open ?

[msinabottle]

Harbor Freight no longer offers that 4 into one hydraulic fitting--from the comments I found on the original posting, a lot of them were rupturing...



Mind you, the pressures would be a lot higher than they are in a fuel system. Both Van Cafe the Samba ad are still up. I'm debating asking the fellow in the Samba ad if he'd make rails to which I could BOLT metal fuel line--Metric bubble flare to coupling. THAT would get rid of the ever--aggravating fuel line clamp dilemma.

Still figuring out how to make this happen for Winston.

Best!
_________________
'Winston,' '84 1.9 WBX Westy
Vanagon Poet Laureate: "I have suffered in
many ways, but never, never, never in silence."

[jashv]

I like the one Van-Cafe sells, only because you can add in a gauge which would be kinda nice. What I don't like is that price of $48 is EACH, and you need two !! For that price are you getting a free neck and shoulder massage along with chips and drink?

You could go here:
http://www.onlinemetals.com/merchant.cfm?step=2&id=745

Purchase a foot of aluminum hex for $6.00 and if you're REALLY careful I don't see why you couldn't drill and tap and make the manifold similar to the harbor freight idea.

Or buy brass:
http://www.onlinemetals.com/merchant.cfm?step=2&id=81

One foot of that is $18, I wondered if you could braze brass pips onto that?

I understand the costs in machining a part, but why machine this part? We're talking 36psi at the rails, right? You're going to shove a rubber hose on the pip and screw on a .10 cent hose clamp, right? That's why I asked if someone cut one open, are there tiny fairy's in there or a shard of unicorn horn?

[tencentlife]

[jashv]

tencentlife - why have I never seen your website before? I've seen go-westy's rebuilds, didn't know anyone else was doing it. What about all the electronics, do you have new mass air meters and what nots, or just the engine?

[vanagonjr]

[jashv]

oh yeah - when I replaced all my lines I used the ABA SS clamps that were NOT .10 cents a piece. It was most like 99% my fault of tightening one to tight that has probably cracked one of the pips on my "not a fuel rail" fuel rail (how about gas line thingy) Sorry - just making a joke man.

[tencentlife]

[jashv]

If I'm not mistaken it's 7mm fuel line that connects between the rails and the injectors, right? That converts to .275 " or a tad over 1/4".

http://www.pneumadyne.com/input-ports-aluminum-manifolds-p-2579-l-en.html?language=en

Couldn't you buy two of these at say the 3/8 " NPT size ? That's .374 " if my math isn't to rusty. It's tapped in the end, you could plug in your gauge there if you wanted. I agree with whomever brought it up earlier in the thread, each connection represents a point of failure (I.E. a leak) but it may be an acceptable risk if you take care assembling the unit. If you look at the spec on this one it's 3000 psi hydraulic, temp range -10 to 200. And if you wanted to spend a little more you could go stainless.

I'm no expert, just a techy thinking things out, so thoughts?

[debbiej]

I've been following this thread because I've noticed so many leaks around the nipples of the manifold. (now I know what it's called). I was going to order the aluminum ones, but my husband looked last weekend and determined they were not cracked or leaking, but that I had shoved the fuel line too far up, and the little flanges were interfering with a good seal. probably everyone else knows this, but thought I'd just say anyway.

[morymob]

I had a orig one crack at inj connector 75 mi from home and dripping on exh when i stopped, lucky. Local friend brought one off air cooled and i fitted it, need longer hoses to injrctors, replaced other one when i got home, no more old orig for me.