Inspection of faint fuel smell under the hood...found it

[Dabizzo1]

I noticed a faint smell of raw fuel under the hood today...VERY COLD out...and from past posts, the infamous fuel line going from the pressure regulator to the passenger side fuel rail had its couplings totally loose...I could turn them with my hand...I simply tightened them down, in addition to any other couplings in the area and voila...smell gone. You gotta love thermal constriction. All of my lines by visual and touch inspection feel firm structurally with a supple surface (no cracking at all, especially at the ends), but at 120K (100K now), I'll pull the plenum off again and replace all of my lines to be safe. There was no seepage of gas anywhere I'm glad to say. One quick question though. When replacing a fuel line, I was planning on depressurizing the system as instructed with FI replacement. When I remove the line, will there still be enough fuel in the lines and injectors tp hydrolock? I know most of the fuel will be burned off by letting the car kill with the fuel pump fuse out, in addition to cranking afterward 3 times or more. I just want to be sure. Input would rock. Thanks guys. Boris P

[maxnix]

De-pressurizing and turning without fuel pressure will eliminate most of the raw fuel in the lines.

[Q451990]

No danger of hydrolocking while you're replacing the fuel lines. The only time you have to worry about hydrolocking is when there is a chance of getting fuel or another liquid in the cylinders.

So if you're removing an injector, or there's a chance of getting water in the intake (driving through high water, etc) then it's a concern.

The worst you can do if you don't depressurize while replacing a fuel hose is getting gas all over the engine bay or in your eyes!

Heath

[Dabizzo1]

Thanks fellas...I'll depressurize anyway for the sake of procedural safety. Thanks for the quick reponses as well. Boris P

[ceningolmo]

I noticed a faint smell of raw fuel under the hood today...VERY COLD out...

Just for curiousity... what is VERY COLD for you?

[Dabizzo1]

42 degrees for us in 100% humidity is a very wet and biting cold, HOWEVER, AARRGGH Laddie, we be all kinds of panzy woosies down here in Nawlins when it comes to the cold. Chicago feels a lot of the humid cold like us but only MUCH worse. It still gets cold enough to manifest fuel line constriction though. I'm just glad I found it, with the help of you guys once again.

The last time we had anything even close to real snow here was in 1990 and the city shut down over frozen roads and sleet---and given drivers down here already suck, it was funny to see so many people slide into each other at less than 5mph--embarrassing. The mentality here was, " Oh, there's no traction, I'll just accelerate and abruptly lock my brakes up to stop....wait a minute?----meet Mr. Guardrail Boris P.