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Flex Fuel Line Leaking

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Blonde Healey Girl

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The flexible braided line from the fuel line to the carbs (BT-7) had a fine misting leak while under pressure. If you moved the line it would leak more. I replaced it today. Just wondering is there a rubber hose inside and is it possible that our 10% ethanol injected into our local fuel caused the rubber to fail. The faulty hose was installed 6 yrs. ago. (no telling how long it was on the shelf from the parts company).
Are there any other rubber fuel parts on the car that I should be watching?
Thanks!
 
Yes, there is a rubber inner hose under the braided stainless. No telling what the composition is. In the aviation industry we have found that ethanol, under some conditions can cause swelling or decomposition of some fuel line material. I think that this is not a problem with modern compositions. I have a Sthil chain saw that works fine if I run aviation gas in it, but the fuel line lasts only a season if I use automotive fuel. However, six years is perhaps a reasonable life for a fuel ine that has been on the shelf for an unknown period of time.
 
Ethanol will also increase your chances of vapor lock....which is why I prefer Sunoco gasoline which is free of ethanol here in ohio.
 
What would Avgas 100LL do for a 3000?
It's $5.00 a gallon here at our local airport.
We have a 5hp tug and a airport use only 150cc Honda moped that runs solely on Avgas and they seem to do just fine.
 
It sure wasn't 5 bucks a gallon when I managed to fall into about 300 gallons of free 100LL. I was going to run it in my airplane, but I managed to put that out of comission (long story), and in the meantime finished the 100 which I had been working on for a long time. I was delighted to run some lead through the motor I had just built. So the answer is, that it was sitting around, and it didn't cost me anything. In general, if it doesn't ping under load I'll run it. I will be sad when it is gone, it smells so mich nicer than the brew they sell as auto fuel.
 
I used to use avgas before, good stuff, think standard, then premium, then avgas, its really good stuff, just more lead in it and a higher octane reading, however over here it not allowed in your car on the road due to no road tax on it and its more flammable if thats the word for it
 
I believe avgas has a lower and more consistent vapor pressure (Reid Vapor Pressure or RVP) rating than autogas. Also, the VP of autogas is usually seasonally and regionally adjusted (higher VP in winter, lower in summer). So, a Healey running pure avgas in winter might be a little harder to start.

The lead in avgas won't hurt a Healey engine since there's no catalytic converter (yet ;), but a stock Healey engine shouldn't need 100 octane so a 50-50 mixture with premium autogas would be more economical. The lead in avgas should help protect your valves and seats, but running pure avgas in a relatively low-compression engine might result in lead fouling of the spark plugs, piston rings and/or valve stems/guides.
 
One other thing: I wouldn't run much if any avgas in an engine using full synthetic oil; synthetic oil does not scavenge lead well and this can lead to fouling of rings and/or valve guides. This is why Mobil AV1 was pulled from the market and there are still no full-synthetic oils used in light piston aircraft (that I know of, anyway, though there are several popular synthetic blends in use).
 
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