Using flex fuel? Please check for hose disintegration.

Centripetal

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Companies responsible for the kits should be supplying us with proper fuel lines. Thanks @Hondata for the information.
In the defense of the Companies producing flex-fuel kits, they were buying fuel hose rated for Ethanol. They are working to make it right.

A lot of the industry is having supplier issues. In addition, Gates might not be at fault either. It's completely possible (still speculation) that their supplier decided to add a little filler to plastic (PA aka Nylon) to make it easier to process the PPA (or to make more money). PPA is completely resistant to all the chemicals in ethanol blended gasoline (E85). However, PA has really poor chemical resistance against Xylene. The amount of Xylene in E85 can vary from 0-5%.

Perhaps, sharing some of my sympathy will enhance your empathy. The company I used to work for made a part that went in the dash. One day, we started getting customer complaints that the color looked funny during sunrise and sunset. Furthermore, their friend that has the same car does not have this life threatening issue. We were caught by surprise because all incoming material passed our quality tests. Consequently, the supplier changed the material composition without telling us—most likely to make more money. As a result, we had to add another incoming inspection test to ensure quality.

As I said in another post, you shouldn't judge the flex-fuel kit companies because turds roll down hill.
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We have noticed a sharp increase in the number of FK8 support problems where the cause is fuel contamination. The source of the contamination is fuel hose from flex fuel kits, presumably breaking down from the ethanol content, but it also might be from the hose assembly.

We've noticed this with customers using our Fuel System, but it could apply to those using the stock fuel pump(s). The symptoms we see is that the fuel pressure not meeting the target fuel pressure at high rpm, even through the fuel pump duty is well below 100%. Upon disassembly there are little particles of rubber in the HPFP and the LPFP sock is stained black.

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The particles will find their way into the high pressure pump, where they clog the intake filter. They also will find their way through the high pressure pump into the injectors, which is not good.

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It seems the contamination will back flows upon key off back into the fuel tank because the sock on the low pressure fuel pump is often contaminated too.

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So what should you do? Don't panic. If you have a flex fuel kit then be on the look out for fuel pressure problems. I would also recommend that you inspect the HPFP low pressure inlet for any signs of contamination. Inspecting the low pressure fuel sock is much more of a chore but worth doing if you have fuel pressure problems not related to the fuel pump just running out of volume. I would suggest that you pump a little fuel from the low pressure line into a clear container, but someone would probably find a way to set themselves on fire, so don't do that.

Here's two bonus photos that the forum will not allow me to delete

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So I have been chasing down a fuel pressure problem and have now dumped a whole lot of $$$ into new OEM fuel injectors, new Douchewerks 300 LPFP, and a new new OEM HPFP with no improvement and I believe this may be the problem I’m having here. The vehicle in question has been daily driven on e85 for a very long time and now sits at 137k miles and is equipped with the Sirimoto flex fuel kit. I found braided fuel lines online but they only replace the stock ones. I need this car back on the road asap, where can I get some upgraded new lines I can use with the Sirimoto flex kit??
 


 


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