Fuel hoses

Hi, I'm about to order up some new fuel hoses which will be made from high pressure braided hose.

Basically, does the k-jet system require these hoses to be a specific length to work properly?

Does The curly supply hose from the accumulator need to have a curl in it? Is there a purpose to the curl?

I'm trying to measure up the amount I need to tell my mate whose making them for me, an don't want to have them made longer if its going to make a difference the pressures or fuel delivery etc.

Any thoughts?

The length won't make much difference as long as it's in inch or two either way, loop in the curly pipe is to take up movement and not stress the joints. keep it in or generate slack movement some other way!

Is your mate supplying like for like with connections? If so I wouldn't mind a list of the components needed. Some of the joints are unrecognisable on the underneath of my Mk1!

Cheers Domma

Cheers for the reply!

I thought the hoses wouldn't have to be specific lengths but its always reassuring to have others opinions!

Ill take a few photos of mine now when they're made up and post them up here. They will also be in my build thread too. (Helios blue campaign).

I'm going to try and do away with the curly hose altogether, and just run a braided hose from the accumulator straight to the fuel filter, this will also do away with the other braided hose that is by the fuel filter, at the other end of the metal standard lines. I will get my mate to crimp on tge correct m14x1.5 banjo so it will connect straight up. I'm also going to try and do the same for the return hose, do away with the flexi bit and just run a braided hose with appropriate banjo (m12x1.5 I think) from metering head straight back to the tank.

Anyway, I'll let you know how it goes! Thanks again.

This is interesting, after having trouble with my current braided fuel lines leaking, i need to replace mine and was thinking of going the very same route, the additional flexi's now seem pointless and i was going to do the same and run the supply line with the appropriate banjo fittings straight from the accumulator to the filter. I assume, these short flexi's were just there originally to provide some movement from the solid line's? Can anyone see any reason why it shouldn't be done this way? Campaign build thread is looking awesome, keep up the good work!

I did eventually get round to getting the hoses made.

I used 8mm I.D metal braided hydraulic hose, rated up to about 140bar! So should hold the pressure from the k-jet. Haha.

I'm thinking the same as you, that the braided parts of the fuel hoses are just to allow movement for the rigid hoses.
With this in mind, I just ran the supply hose straight from the accumulator to the fuel filter. And the return hose is the same. The only other hose I needed to have made up was the one from the fuel filter to metering head, it's only about a foot long. I had this made out of the same stuff. I used PirTek to make them, I know a guy who works there who did me a deal on the metal braided hose, but I don't see why you couldn't use any hose with a high enough pressure rating. The only thing would be heat protection from where they run past the engine.

This seems the best option, it's alot easier to fit!! I dont really understand why VW faffed around with all the different types of hoses and fittings! To save money I suppose. It seems complicated to have braided hoses to rigid ones to rubber ones etc all with different size banjos and unions. Very complicated.

I thought I had some photos of them before I fitted them but I can't find any! I do have some of them fitted though, I'll be posting them up in my thread soon. Ill try an stick some on this thread too.

I have no I idea if my hoses are going to work mind! I haven't put them to the test yet! I can't see why they wouldn't though, they are the same, just simpler! We shall see anyway ;-)

Sorry, there were four hoses in total.

Supply hose from pump to accumulator.

Supply hose to fuel filter, from accumulator to fuel filter.

Supply hose, fuel filter to metering head.

Return hose to tank, from metering head.

I think that's it anyway!! I double check and get back to you.

Haha. I'm sure they'll be fine, i'm going to take advantage of a day off and head to pirtek tomorrow and try and get it sorted. Less is more (hopefully). Cheers for the input! Good luck with the rest of the restoration.

Ive taken out all solid fuel lines and run braided hoses right through
keep the rubber blocks that hold the original fuel lines in the clips under the car because you can just about get the braided lines back in them

Here are some pics that I have of mine, I couldnt find the ones I had of them off the car for some reason.

Here are the accumulator fittings..





And a pic of them running under the car….



I would of had no hope getting these into the rubber mounting pieces. They only just fit without them!  

And here they are coming into the engine bay…



I uses the original clips here to clip them to the bulkhead, again, without the rubber bits. These clips were a bit to bit for the pipes so I wrapped some electrical tape around the pipes to make them fit snug in the clips.

Here they are heading up towards where the metering head will be….



When I go down my unit tomorrow I will find the piece of paper which has all the lengths of the hoses and all the correct banjo and union sizes written on. When I find the piece of paper, ill post up what I used.

could you tell us what cost these were,i need to do mine at some point if i`m gonna have it a while..

cabfan said

could you tell us what cost these were,i need to do mine at some point if i`m gonna have it a while..

I had them through my mate who works at PirTek so I couldnt tell you what they would of cost normally! The braided hose I used isnt cheap though 8O

For those of you who wanted measurements, here is what I used…..

Supply hose from accumulator to metering head,

m16 union (I think its m16)/ 380 cm braided hose / m14 banjo

Return hose,

Hose clip to tank / 320 cm braided hose / m12 banjo

For the other two hoses, the first being the fuel pump to accumulator hose, the second being the supply to metering head from fuel filter, I just took the original hoses into pirtek and my mate copied them. I took all the hoses in so he could copy the exact unions and banjos, hense why I said 'i think' its m16! Just take yours in and they will copy them.

Here is a pic that I found of my supply hose, fuel filter to metering head …



If your struggling to get hold of the hoses let me know and ill get you a price + postage to have some made up for you!

thanks for that.
i`d def be interested in having some made up,but it`ll not be any time soon though..i`ve not got time to break wind at the moment.
i`ll bear you in mind if/when the time comes.

cabfan said

thanks for that.
i`d def be interested in having some made up,but it`ll not be any time soon though..i`ve not got time to break wind at the moment.
i`ll bear you in mind if/when the time comes.

No probs, if and when the time comes, just PM me and we can sort something out.