Fuel Leak Fun

[DniveK]

Well 6650 has been leak free for almost three years, until today. Up until today I have never had a idle problem either on cold start. Today changed that too, bogging down on acceleration and running rough. After it warmed up it was fine again, but I found it odd since it never did that before. I took it about 8 miles down the road to a Walgreens to get some glue. When trying to leave Walgreens the car refused to start or even try to fire. I could hear the fuel pump priming when I turned the key to ON, so I checked for fuel leaks right away.... Huge puddle under the car streaming from accumulator. Ended up calling AAA to flat bed me back to the house, that was a blast. I must have waited for them for two hours. After getting the car on jack stands back at the house I confirmed the fuel leak from the accumulator. This is the second one on the car, I replaced it back in 1998 after redoing the whole fuel system. Probally got a NOS part back then from Delorean One. I assume that lead to this failure from age of the part and the ethanol in todays fuel.
I am now seriously considering going to EFI.+

[kings1527]

When K-jet is working well, I think it's a pretty reliable system. In my case, it didn't take a lot to get things in order. Pretty simple system. I just replaced my accumulator the other day and it's not a very difficult job. I don't know how cost efficient it'd be to get rid of K-jet just because of a bad accumulator.

Have you had other K-jet issues besides this?

[DavidProehl]

Ditching the whole fuel system due to a 15 year old part failing seems drastic. I assume there must be more going on here. I would agree with the previous post, a well tuned K-Jet system works well.

[OverlandMan]

Ditching the whole fuel system due to a 15 year old part failing seems drastic. I assume there must be more going on here. I would agree with the previous post, a well tuned K-Jet system works well.

+1. The Ferrari 328 V8 also runs a K-Jet and I don't think I've ever read about one of their owners converting to carburetor or EFI. I'm not saying this hasn't happened. Maybe those owners are more purists.

[DMCMW Dave]

Ditching the whole fuel system due to a 15 year old part failing seems drastic. .

Exactly. I don't get installing a $1000-$2000 EFI system to replace an $8 hose. Especially when the EFI system will continue to have hoses in it.

There are very good reasons for going to EFI, but this doesn't seem to be one all by itself.

PS take a look, I'll bet the hose was dragging on the shift linkage from the prior installation and now has a hole in it.

OR (as was common back then) the original hoses were not replaced at all and the original 30-year-old Teflon hose finally let go.

[Rich_NYS]

Just a couple days ago, Jon said: "man, what is it with these hoses this month?"

[Rich]

+1. The Ferrari 328 V8 also runs a K-Jet and I don't think I've ever read about one of their owners converting to carburetor or EFI. I'm not saying this hasn't happened. Maybe those owners are more purists.

Good point.

To go a bit further let's remember that not only Ferraris but also millions of Porsches, Benzes, VWs, Volvos, Bimmers, Renaults came with 4/6/8 cyl versions of K-Jet for >20 model years. It was the go-to system well into the '90s.

[DniveK]

Yes, I was indeed contemplating doing EFI before this happened. This just gives me a better excuss to start it now since I need to work on fuel anyway. I certainly didn't base doing EFI soley on a new accumulator and some hoses. The hoses were indeed the teflon ones, I remember soaking them in hot water to install them back all those years ago. I also remember how much it sucks to work inside that little rabbit hole under there too. This replacement although ideally easy enough a task is still much dreaded. :banghead:

[SS Spoiler]

Has anybody ever moved the accumulator to a handier spot?

[DMCMW Dave]

Has anybody ever moved the accumulator to a handier spot?

No, but we don't use the Teflon hoses anymore. With the rubber hoses the change is pretty easy if you don't take the accumulator out of the car.

In normal real-world use I believe the accumulator has close to a 15-year lifespan. Maybe more, I don't recall that we have ever changed one that wasn't original. Probably not worth redesigning it, although it could be anywhere in the fuel line between the pump and the engine (but you need to have the return bleed hose too!). In a contemporary Ferrari it's about an inch from the fuel tank. Of course the fuel tank is less than a foot from the engine so everything is pretty close.

[David T]

No, but we don't use the Teflon hoses anymore. With the rubber hoses the change is pretty easy if you don't take the accumulator out of the car.

In normal real-world use I believe the accumulator has close to a 15-year lifespan. Maybe more, I don't recall that we have ever changed one that wasn't original. Probably not worth redesigning it, although it could be anywhere in the fuel line between the pump and the engine (but you need to have the return bleed hose too!). In a contemporary Ferrari it's about an inch from the fuel tank. Of course the fuel tank is less than a foot from the engine so everything is pretty close.

If I was redesigning it I would make a combo unit of the fuel filter and the accumulator. I would size the filter so it would last 100,000 miles or about 10 years. I would probably put it where the fuel filter is now. So much for dreaming. It isn't like you change the filter OR the accumulator often and the car was designed and built to be cared for by professionals, not DIY'ers. For all of the effort and expense the way I see it, it is much easier to and cheaper to get the K-Jet going well. It isn't like installing EFI is going to get you more performance. As for more reliability, you would have to do a very professional install to get it as reliable as a good running K-Jet system. Then there is the documentation and who is going to trouble-shoot it when it develops a problem?

[jawn101]

Just a couple days ago, Jon said: "man, what is it with these hoses this month?"

No kidding!!! LOL... another one?? I decree 2014 the "Year of The Accumulator Hose"