There's no problem that a homeowner dreads more then when he has to repair the plumbing. In my experience, the problems that require a professional to come out to your house could have been avoided by simply having it installed correctly the first time. This couldn't be more true when dealing with your race car. If you don't plumb the car correctly the first time you could be looking at an expensive repair bill that could have been avoided.
For our asphalt project car we need to plumb the oil, fuel, and water lines. To do so we are going to need 8-, 10-, 12-, and 16-gauge lines with all of the fittings to fit each line. We chose to go with Earl's performance plumbing to showcase a few new products that could make our lives easier when we plumb the car.
Earl's Performance Plumbing...
Earl's Performance Plumbing is a leader in providing the best lines for your application.
For our fuel line we chose to go with Earl's Pro-lite 350 hose because it's extremely durable and will resist crimping. But it's also 50 percent lighter than its normal fuel line. There is always a lot of fuel line in a race car and its weight can add up, if we can save weight here and not compromise the safety of the driver, then we want to take advantage of it.
The fittings we'll be using are Earl's new Ano-Tuff fittings. These fittings use a unique military spec hard-anodized coating that actually penetrates the aluminum for superior wear, corrosion resistance, and resistance to thread gauling. This can be extremely important if you ever have to hook up a fuel line at the track in a hurry.
In our ProCup rulebook, the maximum length of the fuel line is not specified. So you might notice in some of the pictures that our fuel line wraps around the underneath side of our car. In homage to Smokey Yunick, we did that on purpose. The extra full line will allow us to carry more fuel on board, in turn we can go farther on a full tank of gas. A typical race in our series will run 250 laps at a half-mile track. Now we can't make all 250 on one tank of fuel, however, by putting extra fuel line in the car we might be able to extend our fuel mileage to 235 laps. So our strategy would be to pit early in the race, say around lap 15, and get our fuel stop out of the way.
We have got all our fuel line...
We have got all our fuel line and now we are running it through our firewall to the rear of the vehicle.
To be able to transport it...
To be able to transport it safely to the fuel cell we have installed this steel tubing that the fuel line passes through that will protect the line from any type of cut or fuel spill inside the driver compartment.
Now the line has come out...
Now the line has come out at the rear of the vehicle near the rearend. We need to keep the line as high as possible and out of the way of the springs and the travel that the rearend will experience.
That should do it, notice...
That should do it, notice how we didn't go directly to the fuel cell area, we did this so that we could just get a little bit more fuel in to our vehicle. By doing so we were able to add close to 4 feet of extra fuel line in the car.
Now we are into the fuel cell,...
Now we are into the fuel cell, notice how we have gone from the fuel cell into an in-line Peterson fuel filter. Once it passes through the filter the only place left for it to go is the fuel pump. Now we need to attach our fittings on the other side of the firewall and then the fuel line will be finished.
We have cut our line and blown...
We have cut our line and blown it out extremely well. Earl's has an excellent video online that shows the best way to cut a fuel, water, or oil line. Go to www
.anplumbing.com/installation.html. Any time you cut a fuel, oil, or water line, take an air gun and blow out the hose. This is especially critical for the line that runs between the filter (fuel or oil) and the motor. If you fail to clean the hose you might allow trash to pass through the line. It won't get trapped by the filter because it's on the outlet side. You can see here that we have attached the base of the fuel filter and slid it over the hose. It's a tight fit but to ensure that the fitting isn't pulled away from the hose, wrap some tape around the hose to where it butts up against the fitting's base. When you tighten up the fitting to the base, the tape will show you if the fitting has pulled off the hose.
Oil Lines
For the oil lines we used Earl's Perform-O-Flex Hose. The hose is a steel braided line, which can withstand 1,500 psi. The lines we used that run to and from the oil pump to the dry sump tank are 16-gauge line. We used steel braided line here because these lines run extremely close to the driver seat and compartment. If one of these lines were to rupture it might pose a problem for the driver. And unlike our fuel line which had the steel tubing to fit it through the driver compartment, the oil lines connect to the dry sump tank behind the driver seat, going through a gusset and into the dry sump container.
The oil lines can be crucial because if they're not run correctly then they can cause huge problems with your engine. For instance, try to avoid using sharp angle fittings as much as you can because they cut down on the flow of the oil, which can lead to a blown motor. We recommend that you always use "high flow" hose ends or as Earl's calls them Tube Hose Ends. These fittings serve to transistion the change in direction of the oil more efficiently and that helps to maintain oil pressure and flow, and reduce cavitation.
Water lines The water lines are going to be steel braided also just so that if we ever get in an accident involving the nose or the radiator we can try to avoid being knocked out of the race because one of the water lines ruptured.
Here, the fitting is attached...
Here, the fitting is attached to the base, notice how there is no gap between the fitting and the tape. This means that the fitting is attached correctly to the hose. The fuel pump is on the other side of the engine so all we have to do is run a line along the firewall to the fuel pump and the fuel line is done.
We have measured out the length...
We have measured out the length of hose we'll need for our oil line and now we're going to cut it using the bench cutter. Remember to tape up the area where you want to cut to help create that clean cut that you're looking for.
Notice how when it is not...
Notice how when it is not taped the steel braid tries to unravel and creates a lot of sharp edges.
Conclusion
Most people would view the plumbing of a race car as mundane and just something that needs to be done. But if you look at it as something that can make your car faster, or more long-lasting, then you have a lot to gain. Everything we did when it came to plumbing this car was for a reason. We put more fuel line in the car so we could go longer on the first tank of gas. We used a lighter fuel line to save weight. And we used sturdy oil and water lines so that in a front-end collision we won't have to worry about the lines getting crimped and rupturing, which would put us out of the race.
The entire point of plumbing your car is to get the fluids to the desired point as quickly and safely as possible. Just like your home, you can avoid a bunch of trouble by taking a little more time and do it correctly the first time. This will also help you avoid that expensive repair bill that could come your way if the plumbing isn't done correctly.
We put our fitting on the...
We put our fitting on the oil line just like we did before with the fuel line. But notice how the fitting pulled away from the tape on this one. The little amount that it did pull away might be a small concern so we went ahead and pulled the fitting back off and started over to get a better connection.
Now we have to connect our...
Now we have to connect our line to our external oil pump. From the oil pump we want to go to the oil cooler and then to the filter. That is extremely important, if we were to run from the pump, to the filter, to the oil cooler and then to the engine we could have disastrous results. With it set up that way, any piece of aluminum or debris that comes out of the oil cooler will not have a filter to stop it from getting to the engine. The correct way to run the oil lines is to make sure the filter is the last thing the oil goes through before entering the engine.
Also another area not to forget...
Also another area not to forget about is when you're attaching the oil lines to the oil cooler you want to set it up just like a hot water heater. When the oil is heading into the oil cooler you want to have it entering on the bottom of the oil cooler and when it is leaving the oil cooler have it exiting from the top of the cooler. This will help you avoid getting any air bubbles in the oil lines.
Going to the bottom of the...
Going to the bottom of the engine, we run these angle tubes that are extremely durable and pretty standard when it comes to plumbing the water lines.
The water lines we're using...
The water lines we're using will be filled with distilled water. Remember, never put tap water inside your radiator. Tap water has a low amount of chlorine in it that will erode your radiator and cause rust to form inside of it. Distilled water is much more pure. We'll also be putting a product called Water-Wetter in the radiator. The distilled water and the Water-Wetter will allow us to run cooler and that means we can now run more tape on the nose of the car.
The engine, all finished up,...
The engine, all finished up, with all the fuel, oil, and water lines run.