What material is my fuel line?

[Jimmy]

Looking to reconfigure/replace what appears to be the original metal fuel line.
It has the look of copper, but that would seem very odd to me. There is no fitting on the other end; just the rubber fuel line slipped over and double clamped.
( ...and what appears to be a brown smudge is in fact my blood - the price one pays working in tight spaces)

Cheers
Jimmy

[roadnsky]

Yep. Looks like copper to me.
A lot of early installations were copper all the way to the carb.
Your's was probably Frankenstien'd by a PO during a quick fix repair job.

I have that same fuel shutoff valve.
You can get a hose barb fitting and just do the whole run to your filter/pump/carb with hose.

Be sure to use USCG Type A1 rated hose please.

Oh yeah. I'd leave the blood evidence there. Gives the fuel tank "character".

[ndutton]

I am not a fan of copper fuel lines due to the risk of work hardening and stress cracks under vibration. I've always felt if it's rigidly mounted to structure with strain reliefs at the ends it's fine but why not make the entire run a strain relief? This is exactly why marine wiring is required to 100% stranded, for flexibility. That's right, no solid wire allowed on boats.

Then, I ran across this on another forum:

I worked in the oil/chemical industry for almost 40 years mostly in R&D. Using any type of hydrocarbon in copper tubing was not allowed. The hydrocarbons flowing thru copper will leach material out of the copper and contaminate the oil or chemical. There were tests done pumping gasoline thru a length of copper tubing for 24 hours 7 days a week. The tubing after a short time became brittle and after a longer time, the actual ID of the tubing increased. The only time we used copper was for air, water or low pressure nitrogen.
Just an addition please, use of small diameter copper tubing in a non-flowing application such as tubing going to a pressure gauge, is ok to do. It's the continuous flowing that causes problems.

[joe_db]

Originally Posted by ndutton

I am not a fan of copper fuel lines due to the risk of work hardening and stress cracks under vibration. I've always felt if it's rigidly mounted to structure with strain reliefs at the ends it's fine but why not make the entire run a strain relief?

Then, I ran across this on another forum:

I know someone who looks like Freddy Krueger because the copper fuel line in his airplane cracked and dumped gasoline into the cockpit which then ignited.He was seriously considering jumping sans parachute