I'm not sure I'm going to paint it. The PO had it for about 10 years and it was by a lake so that might be why. I just found it odd it was only in that one area. I've got a lot of plans for this car but right now I'm just trying to make sure it is reliable and roadworthy; so fixing the fuel lines were needed for sure.

 

My project was part necessity after a fuel line started leaking, its spiraled out of control since, lol

 

Haha, well I'd love to let it spiral out of control, and it will, just not yet. :3

The front mount wasn't as bad as it looked so I'm probably going to let it slide for now. It was so easy to drop the subframe that now I'm not scared of having to go back to fix something later. I am going to do the pinion snubber "mod".

Is there a way to clean the fuel tank out without dropping it and taking it somewhere? Or anywhere to buy a fuel sock/filter for the pump w/o buying a new pump?

The fuel filter looked ancient and judging by the inches of dust on the fuel pump cover; it hasn't been touched in a while either.

 

look through the cover I bet the inside of the tank is clean. if there is sediment at the bottom you can actually reach your arm in there and clean it up with some rags.

 

I guess I can do that first thing tomorrow while I'm trying to decide what to do with my fuel lines.

I've lost three inches of height so I can barely see in to the fuel tank with the car on jacks though, rofl.

 

I had to crawl into the rear to get at it.

As for your filter sock question, rockauto.com

As always, be careful around fuel. If the tank was drained recently the fumes are more dangerous then the liquid.

 

Yeah, I've had a convertible fc catch on fire and almost burn my house down a few years ago. I take fuel safety pretty seriously. (knocks on wood).

Edit: I typed a lot of things out that didn't really matter.

Is it safe to remove the charcoal canister and just let it vent at the check valve that is near the tank? Just leave the line open from the valve instead of running that line again?

(My engine is completely stripped so I'm not even sure if the charcoal canister was hooked up correctly to begin with."

 

You can't really see much but I ended up going with stainless steel hard lines. I ran it for a little bit in neutral to make sure there weren't any leaks before I put everything back together.
It seemed alright. Also, the lines aren't held on by zipties; I used the original brackets but I used zip ties to hold the lines together while I was checking fitment.

Anyway, this was way easier than it looked when I was reading about it. I didn't even have any trouble getting it back in. I do have to bolt the calipers/swaybar/driveshaft back on but other than that I'm finished.

 

That's just how I felt after doing it.

 

Pat yourself on the back!

 

did you replace the line from filter to tank? how did you end up connecting them- this is the information that helps other people

 

Good thread. Also doing a bunch of this in the near future. Will post if I have any questions or learn anything lol.

 

I replaced all of the line. Even ended up taking the intake off so I could get rid of the rest of the vacuum spider. I used high pressure rubber line from the tank to the other side of the tunnel so I didn't have have to bend the steel line again.

I underestimated how much length I'd need on the steel line, so I'd recommend leaving yourself quite a bit extra to work with. I ran the steel lines both to just under where the fuel filter stock location is and then just ran rubber hose from there. Oh, and make sure you flare the line before bolt it in. I made the mistake of bolting it all up and then realizing I still needed to flare it.

Really, it is an easy job if you take your time.

 

Alright guys, I'm going to start on the side molding now. Its an s4 and quite a bit of the door molding is coming off; the passenger side has some rust behind it so I guess I'm going to try my hand at body repair too!

For now though, I'm just removing the molding and cleaning everything up. I don't have any money to do anything else.

Any tips?

 

Yes. Don't gouge or scratch the paint any more than you have to, or else you'll have more work later. And paint thinner or pro strength adhesive remover to remove the goo.

edit: maybe a new thread on the topic was/is in order lol.

 

when the moldings are off the car make sure they are always stored perfectly flat, they can develop waves in them that are impossible to remove.

 

That isn't *entirely* true... I've successfully straightened out some pretty gnarly looking S4 door moldings in my time... Careful, patient heat application (heat gun) to soften the strip where it needs it.. bend and hold while (somehow) managing to rapidly cool it back down with ice water. Sometimes it takes a few tries.

One of mine legit had a weird vertical bend in it.

 

Why not just replace the hard lines with Ss braided line?

 

More expensive, perhaps?

Certainly, it can be done and I've seen it before but discounting the cost factor, I'd still probably opt for hard line (even though I can't say why).

 

I had read, on the forum, that rubber hose would end up being more problematic and would end up having a lower life span than the stainless steel lines.
This is just one thread i had bookmarked

https://www.rx7club.com/3rd-generati...lines-1029221/

Karrack stated it and I trust pretty much anything he posts.

Also the cost is way higher for SS braided hoses. Just a small price comparison; I paid $25ish for a 25 foot roll of the coated stainless steel lines which was all I needed to run the two fuel lines from the tank. I set up something for the charcoal canister line.
However, most of the prices for SS braided lines were 10 dollars a foot or so.
I would've needed at least 10 foot for each line so it would've cost around 150-200 dollars. Rough estimate.


Mine are completely flat other than a weird vertical bend on one from where it had came off; probably a long time before I owned the car. Just a little bit of it was off though so for w/e reason it was at like 110 degree angle. I'll worry about it when I get to it. I have to fix the rust behind the trim first; it is pretty bad. I'll post pictures later.

 

Heat gun, left it out in the sun, still had a wave in it.
I know how to work with it i kind of do this stuff everyday, but im also very picky.

Just saying store them flat to avoid any of that.

 

It is certainly frustrating to try and fix the strips. I've found doing it in small increments works better than trying to bend the bend out of it at once. Patience and a brain, itll work. :-)

 

(Starting the fuel line replacement - will be slow progress, not much time to work on her)

Drained the fuel tank. Most know the tank has a drain, but syphon the tank from the fuel filler first until nothing else comes out, then use the drain.

I'm not very smart sometimes. Drove it till it was really low, then went for the drain straight away. Ended up with maybe 8L of fuel (two oil drain pans), and then had to pour it into a gas can. Nevermind the fact that I didn't have my big funnel. If you syphon it first, it'll be less hassle, IMHO.

 

i let it drain into a bucket, having another bucket handy. If you put the cap back on the fill it slows the drain down alot.

I think you guys have a different level of whats acceptable for that molding then I did.
I left it in the sun for a few days, had a few halogen lamps on it, heat gun and cooled it a little at a time and no matter what it just never looked perfectly straight to me. Too many lines in that S4 trim to throw it off.

 

Alright, I really don't want to make a new thread for something little like this but I had a pretty big vacuum leak; bad enough that I could hear it sucking below 2,000 rpm. I hadn't really drove this car much since I put it back together, I've just been fixing things.

So, I could tell it was coming from the driver's side of the engine bay. I had my brother start it for me and I sprayed around with starting fluid. Right now the car won't idle on its own but within a few seconds I found the spot and the idle shot up. So I started to zone it out and found the leak, I thought, was a spot where the dynamic chamber? Or w/e it is called on a s4 mated to the intake runners. So I pull the intake off and it is the OE gasket. However, there isn't any visible tears or even a spot where it is uneven.

I have all of the rat's nest removed so I'm not sure what else could be causing a vacuum leak on the driver's side of the engine bay. I'm going to replace it but I was wondering if anyone knew of something else that could cause a leak on that side.

tl:dr driver's side vac leak, intake gasket looked fine, everything is removed. What could be causing it?