Hi. When I joined the forum several members mentioned "check your fuel lines".
I assume this is a common failure point after 30+ years?
I often smell fuel when driving so I took a look around today.
I see what looks like two parallel lines running across the passenger side rear of the engine.
One goes to the fuel rail
One goes to a diaphragm of some type

See photos

The lines are strange to me.
They seem to be soft rubber hoses with no clamps on either end. Do these hoses just protect an inner line? I could not feel an obvious hard line inside.
I can pull back the rubbers hoses 1/2" on either end, but I did not pull back any further.

Help a guy out?
What should I be looking for to "check my fuel lines?

 

Fuel pressure regulator.

The 'rubber' fuel lines you see will be reinforced of some kind inside - i.e. it won't be just the rubber lines you see. Do you have a loud'ish fuel pump whining noise when in a traffic queue or similar? Sometimes a symptom of a malfunctioning regulator - not to say the root cause though in all instances.

 

The rubber lines get old and brittle with age and heat of the engine bay.
If you do a Google search on 944 fuel line fires you'll see examples of failures.
It's good preventive maintenance to replace them on a 30+ year old car in the case of a 944 / 951.
The 968 and 944S2 uses slightly updated fuel lines with threaded fittings at each end. That may reduce their failure rate?
It's a piece of mind thing. I replaced mine along with rebuilding the ball joints not long after purchasing my vehicle and reading about known failure points.

Fuel smells in the passenger compartment can also come from the old emissions canister and lines located at the back of the drivers wheel well, behind the wheel liner.
Exhaust smells can also migrate into the interior through the old and worn rubber rear hatch seal.

 

I don't know if it's clear from the responses but those 2 lines are the ones that should be replaced. The heavy rubber bit is some insulation that goes over the lines themselves. Under that heavy rubber insulation, there is a reasonable chance that there is cracking of the underlying rubber hoses which, unfortunately, run right over the exhaust manifold, hence the danger when they do fail.

The lines themselves are not clamped in any way, though you will find a beauty cover over the end of the hose; that is not intended to be a crimp, it's just for aesthetics. The hoses are held on the fittings by friction alone, on barbed ends. The OEM fittings are made by Cohline, if you want to look them up. No crimping is necessary on that particular design.

There are all kinds of ways to make AN type fuel hoses to most of the fittings on the feed and return lines (which is what you're seeing there) but over near the fender you will find what is a very hard to find fitting, where one of the hoses attaches to the hard line in a somewhat rare fitting configuration. If you go the route of making your own fuel lines, the place to get that adapter is BAT (not Bring a Trailer, in this case, but British American Transfer, out of Florida). The Lindsey lines come with that adapter already.

You can also carefully remove the old hoses and buy new hose from Cohline, and reuse the fittings. Cohline will also sell you the beauty caps to make your lines look OEM. Given how long the OEM hoses last, I think that there's good peace of mind with the "regular" rubber hose, even if it's not as high tech as more modern PTFE lined hoses.

Good luck

 

Can we still buy new factory fuel hoses for the 968 today?

 

Looks like the supply line is and an aftermarket is available for the return.
https://944online.com/air-fuel-syste...l-diagram.html

 

Thank you for clearly describing the situation and options.
Be well.

Craig

 

Lindsay Racing has aftermarket fuel lines that are a direct replacement for the 968. They do recommend heat insulation (see notes on their page) to cover the lines.

https://www.lindseyracing.com/LR/Par...FUELLINES.html