Quote:
Originally Posted by notsolo
I am going with a 3/8 hard line up the passenger side on my pickup, charcoal canister and carb fitting are on that side. Hope I don't need a loop.
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That's probably the way to go. I looked at using aluminum line, and a lot of people feel that's not a good idea because of potential chafing and damage. Car makers may have done it, it was thought into the design, it's protected and well supported.
Steel line is not too hard to form, but can rust, and if you need flare fittings, they're harder to form.
Copper/nickel line is better than aluminum or steel, still needs to be well supported, and if you still need flares, can be difficult.
Stainless is ideal, but more difficult to form cleanly and to flare.
Straight copper line is an absolute no-no. All hard hard line needs to be supported every 20" with proper rubber coated clamps, and additional supports at any critical points.
Anything on a roll needs to be straightened first. There's 3 different techniques I've seen. Floor rolling, pulling it through a wooden block, or a proper straightening tool. A good size-specific tool is around $100, a multi-size tool is $200+. Some people have built them out of scrap box steel stock and sliding glass door rollers, but with the time and money invested in that, you may as well buy one.
"Difficult" means not having the correct tools, or having enough experience to do it right the first time. It'd suck to get down to the last fitting, mess up the flare, and have to put an extension or all new line in.
For me, since I've already got stainless braided rubber AN line installed, it's just a matter of replacing it with PTFE line and new fittings, so that's the more logical for me. If I were starting from scratch, I'd likely buy a couple 96" sections of straight stainless with fittings, and plumb it so that I'd only need to flare one end.