Fuel hoses revisited

[brian]

These are cautionary tales!
My Flavia Sport with a newly rebuild engine glided to a halt in Derby last week. It only kept going for a 100 yards then stopped again. Was found to be due to very soft and collapsed petrol hoses to and from the petrol pump (which en passant I had put in upside down but I will keep quiet about that) and the pump was full of a grey-black slime. The hoses were not very old but had no writing on them - the whole car was rebuilt in 2010-ish. The rubber was very soft and had collapsed on one of the bends. Will be sorted soon.
Today I was playing with the B10 - greasing water pump etc - and out of interest moved the hose from the filter on the rt inner wheel arch to the carburettor to see what the writing on it was and it snapped in two places and spewed petrol over me and the engine. The hose was rock-hard. I knew I had replaced the original yellow one and I thought it was recently. On the hose was printed the date SEPT 1987!!! It was just before the second Coppa Delle Alpi Paul and I did and not recently at all.
MORAL OF THESE TALES: Check ALL petrol hoses again.
The replacements I have bought are dated - not sure if they have an expected life but does give a rough idea of when last done!

[SanRemo78]

I'd always recommend buying a fuel injection high pressure hose from a reputable source - take a look at Car Builder Solutions - and avoid anything braided as you can't see the state of the rubber underneath. I once had a failure on the Stratos replica with a stainless steel braided hose rotting out resulting in a mist of fuel in the engine bay. So close, one spark....

Guy

[neil-yaj396]

Same happened to me a few years ago with my Beta. Some cotton braided hose fitted in 2017 was shot by 2021. All replaced with Gates injection spec hose which will hopefully last much longer.