Deserion

Please tell me how monumentally dumb this is.

After reading Goughary's Intake Madness thread I was spurred to research replacing the fuel lines along with the oil lines. They're old, and it's better to be safe than stupid. Even with discounts from the usual places, the OE lines are pricey and will easily approach $1000 for the fuel hoses alone. Then add in oil lines and we're certainly talking money here.

My idea was to obtain application-specific hoses and applying high-pressure clamps (constant-tension, Oetiker) to secure the hose to the fitting after the old crimped collar has been removed. That would allow fresh hoses without breaking my budget. Is this even viable? If the clamps are a no-go, would a metric HVAC hose crimper with fresh collars be a wise path? Clearly I don't want my 964 to go up in flames from a fuel or oil leak on a pressurized line due to my cost-consciousness.

If the metric crimper would be the preferred route, then I could also replace the R12-spec refrigerant hoses with R134 barrier-type.

cobalt

Honestly I would not do this myself. I am lucky to have this place around the corner and if they can't do it nobody can.

​​​​​​https://americanhose.net/


You might see if you have a similar place local to you.

cjoenck

FWIW, I had an independent hydraulic shop make a couple of the long oil hoses from the thermostat to the oil cooler for me and they leaked after about a year. Went back to OEM.

18T_BT

I am in the same thought process, thanks Rob! :P

Honestly, I don't agree with the above. You can make all new hoses and have a hydraulic shop attach them to the existing metal lines. Just tell them it will be used with ethanol fuel and not just regular high pressure fuel injection hose. (We can debate the use of MTBE vs ethanol erosion in another thread). I would probably purchase the line that goes from the tank to the pump as it's bendy and not that expensive.

If you are willing to put in a little bit of work (and can afford to have down time on your 964) - you can see that replacing these is time consuming, but shouldn't be very expensive from a hydraulic shop that knows what they are doing.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/7517831-post15.html

Goughary

Side note. You don't need, and really never needed, an oxygenate in finished gasoline. So no need for mtbe or ethanol...

JasonAndreas

Pay attention to the fittings on the fuel lines. The rubber lined polyamide pipes (which have no problem with ethanol unlike the lines used in earlier models) are not crimped, they are press fit (#2 in the image below). And if you try to crimp those fittings onto new rubber lines you will have problems down the road.

Dingo

I'm halfway through doing this at the moment... should just buy the proper part? Only reason I decided to go this way is because I read many threads on here on the poor fit of a new one.

Goughary

The only oem hose that has consistently had a problem is the one oil line that runs from the filter to the thermostat above the right rear wheel. For whatever reason, that oem hose tends to not handle the radius curve down to the thermostat and can kink. Which is unfortunate.

Oem lines are fine for the most part. There are better looking alternatives...and there are lines that are "higher quality" for sure. But they are all fine....even that one problematic line, if it's not kinked, is fine.

Now- as to price....making your own can be significantly less expensive....and you can effectively make better quality for less money. But it's not necessary. I will likely make all my hoses going forward. But i also like to do this stuff...

tjb616

I read a LOT of threads on rebuilding the soft sections of the oil cooler lines. Lots of stories of local hydraulic shops creating a poor fit. It has to be very precise to sit in the fender properly. I was turned down by 4 different shops while providing the parts necessary from Elephant. I ended up shipping the hard lines across the country with the parts I bought back to Elephant.

The moral of the story? Ship your hard lines to Elephant (I used a 50" TV box, was $60 each way from Philadelphia) or just buy new ones if you only want to do it once.

cobalt

I will disagree on the oil lines being fine. I have replaced numerous lines. Many get dry and brittle and begin to weep. When removed they crack and break easily. The line over the top of the tank, the smaller ones below to the thermostat the J pipe to the engine, the high pressure line from the oil pump to the filter and the oil lines to the cooler all fail eventually even on cars I find have been garage kept most of their life.

The new fittings used for most hydraulic or fuel lines are now press fit and easily installed without failure. Once installed there is no removing them without cutting them off. These are easily able to handle pressures of 2500 PSI or more.

Some shops will require crimp specs on the oil lines and will not touch them without this info.

Goughary

I didn't mean to say keep the old oem lines. I meant buying new oem lines is fine. The only problematic new line has been just that one over the rear wheel...as far as i have seen.

koenig_roland

I will do the fuel lines with an aeroquip replacement over the next winter... Guess, this will be done within ~250,-€ for the fuel lines and the fitting process should be easier with no hardline parts....

cobalt

You mean availability wise? I know they were NLA which is an issue since so many of these fail. When I purchased the new lines from the thermostat to the oil cooler in 2014 last they were only $220 each. Classic prices have gotten to the point where it makes sense to have some of these made instead of replacing new.

Gus

tjb616

Are you attaching Aeroquip to the hard sections, or are you replacing them entirely? Some of the bends are a little tight for braided stainless if you try to ditch the OEM hard sections. Particularly around the tstat