Mikey's new four-door

[P72Ford]

What type of line is that?

I just bought 25 feet of 1/2" aluminum from Summit, just because I need 18" or so to make the pick-up. Seems like it'd be really easy to work with to do the whole car, although I'd probably break it into a few sections and connect with a union and some tube to AN adapters. That way there it wouldn't be so difficult to work with such a long piece.

[1987cp]

That's just the plain store-brand 3/8" aluminum from Summit, so almost exactly the same thing as what you're contemplating. Very cheap way to do a fuel system. By far the worst part was getting to all the retainers and wrestling the old stuff out of there, even though it immediately broke into pieces (I had the old return line to remove as well).

You can easily see some of the scuffing I got from dragging the tubing through the wheelwell in one piece. Probably not a problem, but it'd be more convenient and less dinged with a couple unions here and there. I'd personally use inverted flare since it's cheap and reliable, but I'm pretty sure you know what you're doing if you choose AN. Oh yes, I also had a couple of false starts when I forgot to snake the line under minor things like the transmission crossmember and the shift linkage, so that led to some undesired extra bending.


I do wish I'd taken better note of how much material I actually used, but I was sort of focused on getting it all done and hooked up in just a few hours (minus the time to torch loose the rusted seatbelt bolt once no fuel was nearby, which included running out for a new propane cylinder). Turns out the actual length as installed didn't actually matter to me, as I still had several feet left over after already having used a few feet for pressure-side plumbing, but those things can be good to know.

[P72Ford]

That stuff is very reasonably priced. I think it was $25 for a 25' roll. Not that hard to get good results either, as you know.

I actually already bought my fuel system parts. It will be all braided stainless AN from the roota to the toota. -08, for when I decide to upgrade the engine sometime down the road.

The only issue can see possibly springing up, is that where the fittings enter the the fuel pump, it may be tight. Might have to clock the pump, but I am going to buy a low profile 90 degree 3/8"NPT to -08 fitting for there, because it will provide alot more clearance than the current adapter/ swivel elbow combo. I need to put that elbow on my list for the next shopping purchase. I also want to get some clear sight bowl plugs for the DP.

[1987cp]

That's right, I probably knew you already had all your braided line. Should be really nice, and very easy to install.

Feed into the pump is one of the stupider annoyances in my setup, as on my pump the inlet and outlet are in the same piece and have to be clocked together. And they're backwards from stock for a Panther, so I stuck the outlet where it works and stuck an elbow on the inlet. Should probably add another elbow, too, to cut down further on the amount of the rubber in the system.

Did you end up getting a pump where the in/out are clockable separately?

[packman]

Very nice! That should adequately feed that hot rod engine of yours.



Packman

[1987cp]

Yep, Exploder motor with a 2121 manifold and cam swap is quite the fire-snorter.


It has been doing a bit better, though. I may try turning the fuel pressure down a bit .... still haven't cleaned the sparkers either, just turned the fouling into ash. Oh, and have I mentioned anywhere that according to my timing light and timing tape, my 20-degree centrifugal advance limiter doesn't actually allow 20 degrees of advance? This isn't awful, though, because it means I can run more initial without worries about huge amounts of total timing.

[91waggin]

you throw TOTCG around a lot. What does it stand for/who is it?

[1987cp]

GMN user "torquelover", aka The One They Call Greg. His name isn't Greg, but that's easier for us Americans to remember. He owned this car for 9 or 10 years before I bought it, including when it was PoTM back in '07ish. He hasn't been on here much lately, in part since he hasn't owned a Panther since he sold me this one in '08.

[P72Ford]

you throw TOTCG around a lot. What does it stand for/who is it?

GMN user "torquelover", aka The One They Call Greg. His name isn't Greg, but that's easier for us Americans to remember. He owned this car for 9 or 10 years before I bought it, including when it was PoTM back in '07ish. He hasn't been on here much lately, in part since he hasn't owned a Panther since he sold me this one in '08.

I think I was the one that established the name/ acronym. I always thought his real name was Greg, and then one time in the chat he told me otherwise. So from that point on, I referred to him as 'the one they call Greg', or TOTCG for short.

And he referred to me as TOTCRBN, or... 'the one they call red box Nate.' But his name seemed to stick better...

[87gtVIC]

Mystery solved.

[1987cp]

You mean TOTUTCRBN?

[P72Ford]

Precisely.

So technically...

TOTUTCRBNBNCWBN

[91waggin]

Oh. I know who torquelover is.

[1987cp]

Precisely.

So technically...

TOTUTCRBNBNCWBN

Yes!

So what's that make me? TOTUTCWWMBNCBPCM?

Nah, probably not ... people keep on referring to me in passing as just "CP", though all that means is Colony Park.

[1987cp]

This thing doesn't like me lately. After running nice and strong for a week after the hardline upgrade, yesterday it started losing power and showed very low fuel pressure when I popped the hood. First I discovered that the rubber I'd used on the suction side after the upgrade was all floppy in the heat (82 degrees!), so reduced the amount of rubber on the suction side by probably 5 or 7 inches and replaced the rest with thick-walled tranny cooler tubing. Then pressure was still a little low, so I tried to pull the fuel sender/pickup unit and found the lockring rusted solidly in place. This meant dropping the tank to have better access for persuasion. Yuck. Since I couldn't tell for sure whether the old pickup screen was clogged, and in the meantime discovered that sedan and wagon pickups differ only in the mounting of the sender unit and shape of the float lever, I went ahead and swapped in my 3/8" pickup I'd made for the wagon a few years ago. Now I have fuel pressure again, the car is much happier, and I know I've got upgraded tubing all the way to the cheapo fuel filter.