Fuel Hose & tuning
Posted: 24 Apr 2012 10:43
Mitchel's thread on flooding stung me into action today.
A while back, when my fuel consumption sky rocketed from a bit over 8 to around 17L/100Km, I assumed my floats valves were probably leaking a bit. The thing's idle was not as smooth as usual, & the float valves were about 7 years old. I found a damp spot at the tank outlet, & tightened that, but knew that was not the problem.
Although I could see nothing wrong with the old, I fitted new float valves. These were the ones with a red rubber tip, & a longish spring loaded plunger on the float end of the needle, with the shorter seat body. They replaced needles with a shorter spring loaded plunger, & a black rubber tip. This had little effect on my fuel consumption
Having had trouble with poor quality fuel hose, when talking to my mower [mostly 12 to 20 horse power ride on things around here], shop bloke, he told me he will not use ordinary rubber fuel hose, & only uses semi rigid plastic hose on gravity feed units, & injection quality hose, where a pump is doing the job. I brought home 4.5Ft of what I hope is the good stuff. Meanwhile I had got another set of the original float valves.
Today I got my ass into gear. The fuel levels were not correct, so I fitted the new valves, ran the engine, & checked the levels, which are now good.
I started fitting the new hoses, & found 2 of the quite newish hoses were delaminating, between the inner & outer layers of rubber, up the reinforcing fabric. These areas were wet with fuel, but nothing like dripping.
After fitting the new hoses, I ran the engine, & had one bad leak, & 2 minor leaks in just 6 joints. I was amazed at how hard I had to screw the hose clips to get these joints fuel tight. Obviously the rubber in this hose is much harder. If it works as hard, & doesn't pack up in a year or so, I will be happy.
After balancing the carbs, & tuning them, the thing is running like a Swiss watch. Now all I have to do is find out if all this mucking about has fixed the excessive fuel consumption.
Hasbeen
A while back, when my fuel consumption sky rocketed from a bit over 8 to around 17L/100Km, I assumed my floats valves were probably leaking a bit. The thing's idle was not as smooth as usual, & the float valves were about 7 years old. I found a damp spot at the tank outlet, & tightened that, but knew that was not the problem.
Although I could see nothing wrong with the old, I fitted new float valves. These were the ones with a red rubber tip, & a longish spring loaded plunger on the float end of the needle, with the shorter seat body. They replaced needles with a shorter spring loaded plunger, & a black rubber tip. This had little effect on my fuel consumption
Having had trouble with poor quality fuel hose, when talking to my mower [mostly 12 to 20 horse power ride on things around here], shop bloke, he told me he will not use ordinary rubber fuel hose, & only uses semi rigid plastic hose on gravity feed units, & injection quality hose, where a pump is doing the job. I brought home 4.5Ft of what I hope is the good stuff. Meanwhile I had got another set of the original float valves.
Today I got my ass into gear. The fuel levels were not correct, so I fitted the new valves, ran the engine, & checked the levels, which are now good.
I started fitting the new hoses, & found 2 of the quite newish hoses were delaminating, between the inner & outer layers of rubber, up the reinforcing fabric. These areas were wet with fuel, but nothing like dripping.
After fitting the new hoses, I ran the engine, & had one bad leak, & 2 minor leaks in just 6 joints. I was amazed at how hard I had to screw the hose clips to get these joints fuel tight. Obviously the rubber in this hose is much harder. If it works as hard, & doesn't pack up in a year or so, I will be happy.
After balancing the carbs, & tuning them, the thing is running like a Swiss watch. Now all I have to do is find out if all this mucking about has fixed the excessive fuel consumption.
Hasbeen