WARNING!!! 3vze Headers and Melted fuel line
 

just a word to you guys...

Joe's 4runner is an 88 with the 3vze and Doug Thorley Headers..

had a near disaster yesterday when it started dumping gas from the passenger's side from a melted fuel line.

being that I am paranoid, I thought I took every precaution when we reassemble this thing with the addition of the headers. knowing full well that a fuel line (did not know that was what that was at the time) and 2 runs of wires were going to pass right next-to, if not, against, the passenger's side header, I had wrapped them in several layers of heat shield and also had tied the wrapping with wire to make sure it never came off and had pulled (I thought) them away from the header so it wouldn't touch.

apparently not well enough!

fast forward to yesterday....

spontaneous moment of "lets go for a hike"....we(Joe, myself and my youngest son) were headed to a local state park less than 5 miles away....we were only about a mile or so away from home and I / we could smell gas. a motorcycle had just passed us in the other direction and I thought to myself "boy, he's running rich..", but the smell persisted and even got stronger. country roads and nowhere to pull over and still thinking is was not us, we kept going for about another mile....1st though was maybe I never put the gas cap back on when I filled it up a few days ago.

but as the smell persisted, my next thoughts...honestly were of MIGHTYMOUSE (search it, his truck burned up) and we pulled over at the next available spot. got out (Joe was driving, so I was the front passenger) and could see the front passenger's side mud flap was wet and actually running wet with gas and the wheel well was all wet with gas and gas was running out of my wrap-job that I spoke of earlier.

fire extinguisher ready (although it would have been worthless) we popped the hood and thankfully no fire and it was dry under the hood.

we commenced to trying to figure out what had happened and then just got ourselves a safe distance away.

being that we live in the middle of nowhere, the nearest house was a few thousand feet away, but fortunately (and unfortunately) it is someone I know and he has his own rollback. Joe walked to the house and they were not home. so he started walking home to go get my truck....now, about a 2 or 3 mile walk.

within a few minutes, someone who is a complete stranger to me pulled up and asked if we needed help. I was not going to call a tow truck because a tow truck is well over an hour away. but this guy asked if I thought Joe (who was now a small figure off in the distance walking home) would accept a ride...I said "I trust you won't kill him" and the guy went off to retrieve Joe.

blah-blah-blah and Joe came back driving my truck and we towed it home with my truck.

the autopsy shows that the header had melted the heat shielding. the wrap-job had lasted this long and apparently my failed attempt at securing the wire looms and fuel line away from the header was no good anymore.

this could have ended very badly. his truck could have burned up or we could have been hurt or killed.

I am very thankful that we are only inconvenienced and not totally devastated .....or dead.

on with the pics...

this was my view for a while.....I thought I could hear banjos playing...

http://i670.photobucket.com/albums/v...828_163705.jpg

and den....Joe towing me home...that is about a 1/2 mile hill....I'm impressed and surprised my truck was able to do that and didn't blow it u too.

http://i670.photobucket.com/albums/v...828_170122.jpg

this is the fuel line

http://i670.photobucket.com/albums/v...nner/001-5.jpg

this is what the wrap looked like when I removed it...

http://i670.photobucket.com/albums/v...nner/003-5.jpg

and this pic, I was trying to get a pic of the hole, but between the lighting and the tight squeeze, I succeeded in only getting a pic of how it apparently came to rest against the header.

http://i670.photobucket.com/albums/v...nner/002-3.jpg

so...now the search to figure out part #'s and how in the hell to fix this commences.

MAK92-4rnr this is for you too. make sure to check your stuff.

found a BEFORE pic of just how much I had wrapped all that stuff....even had it tied fast in a few spots with wire so it could not come undone. It melted through several layers of shielding. the shielding is rated for "400 degrees direct and 2000 degrees radiant", so in thinking that I had pulled it away enough, i thought we would be safe. not realizing that it had actually been laying against it.

should have been more vigilant.

this is why I am issuing this warning to everyone.

here's the old pic

http://i670.photobucket.com/albums/v...l162011103.jpg

here's a pic of the evidence on the mud flap. the 4runner is super clean so this was merely dust on the flap being washed down by gas

http://i670.photobucket.com/albums/v...829_084119.jpg

and here's the remnants of gas on the lower portion of the header. this was still all wet even when we towed it home.

http://i670.photobucket.com/albums/v...829_084415.jpg

this is a pretty good reminder of just how lucky we were.

Had the exact same thing happen to a guy in a 2nd gen 3.4 swapped 4Runner this week.
"I wondered why I used 1/2 a tank of gas going home."

No, I did not do the swap. He did some work to the motor and put the flipped fuel lines next to the crossover. Duh.

Glad yours didn't end in a blaze of glory!

:wabbit2:

Thank God that nobody got hurt. Gas is no joke...

Thanks for posting this up. Now everybody on here check your lines, EVEN IF YOU DON'T HAVE HEADERS!

you know how I am. I was very careful and meticulous in doing this rebuild and I guess that I got lazy in thinking that once I had it secured it would never move.

but just like any build or mod, there is a certain amount of checking and rechecking that should take place. this is certainly one of those things.

will be using some stainless zip-ties this time rather than just some wire. and will be wrapping those things with actual header tape rather than heat shield.

but in the end I will make sure that NOTHING can or will be touching the header.

you can all see in the pics that I went so far as to wrap the brake line and the starter. so I thought we were safe.

yes indeed!

even had a butt-pucker moment AFTER we were home safe and I reconnected the battery so we could power the windows back up and the negative cable gave a little spark. but by this time most of the liquid gas has evaporated and whatever vapor there was was apparently not enough to ignite. but definitely the vapor is more dangerous if not as dangerous as the liquid form itself.

Yep. The heat wrap we use is expensive and the SS zip ties. It is a must on the crossover on the 3.4 swap when you flip the fuel lines.

:wabbit2:

wow. Glad nothing burned up.

Curious to see the solution. You gonna run longer lines and route them further away or invest in better heat wrap or both?

yeh. that would been a wee bit bad.

like I said, thought of you immediately and before we even came to a stop.

even if it did catch fire there would have been nothing to do but stand back and watch it go. 2 1/2lb ABC extinguisher would have been worthless. and since Joe and I make up most of the fire department, it probably would have been a total loss by the time anyone got to us.


dunno.

might have a fuel line available from one of the PNW crew out in Washington.

being that it's about a 1'' section that is culprit, I also have the idea of maybe...just maybe, splicing a section in. not certain, was just thumbing through the JEG's catalog a few minutes ago.

I would love to route it totally away from there. a 2 foot section would be overkill but stainless fuel line comes only as short as that in their catalog.

for sure we will be wadding that area with header tape etc etc etc....

I no longer own the truck. but looking at previous pictures, my fuel line didn't even come close to the headers on the 4Runner? interesting that yours does. by the way, the pictures aren't working for me so i cant really see how yours is routed.

anywho, glad a disaster didn't occur.

weird, on both parts.

thought of you because it was your thread and videos I had used when we were getting excited about the headers.

probably a better fuel line design since it loops in a very roundabout way on Joe's.

hard to believe the heat shielding burnt through like that. I wonder if using header wrap would be better. X2 on the blaze of glory thing. :shocked:

header wrap is a far better product to use. heat sheilding is simply just padded tin foil. its highly flammable.

like i said, glad nothing happened. Time to reroute a fuel line!

Over the years I have had about a dozen vehicle fires with only minor loses.

Being around fires all the time they really just inspire respect more than fear and most always alone .

I learned not to panic put the fire out by what ever means and get it home.

First smell of gas I stop right where I am I don`t care just to check things out.:wabbit2:

I got to go check my fuel line shielding now. :scared:

header wrap, by far, will be better. 2000 degree direct contact and 4000 degree intermittent versus 400 and 1000.

messed around with it and it has to stay where it is. I am going to try to either splice in a section or use a double male barbed coupler like this----->>> http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/wcs/...a#.UD6VmqCd6So and if that gives me an issue, will just replace the whole line.

no fire....please. none. don't want any. not at this point in my life. don't have the time or money to mess with this stuff.

please do.

This is why I won't put headers on my truck~

MOST have had heat issues of one type or another with headers.

Glad all worked out ok!

so, just to kinda close-out this a bit.

did the repair. used that barbed air fitting coupler thing I had posted and used 2 hose clamps on either end. wrapped it all nice and heavy with heavy aluminum foil 1st and hose clamps and then header tape (which is not tape at all) that was 1'' wide and stainless zip ties. after all that.....I DID have it pulled away so it was not touching the header again. only so much you can do without reconfiguring the whole fuel line run (makes a huge wasteful loop for some stupid reason) and with the whole wad of heat shielding I did, it is up against the header again. I don't anticipate any future issues since the header tape is intended....well...for headers....so there will be no melting, no fire and hopefully, no future issue.

and then later on that day (1 week ago to be exact) had the truck for it's annual safety inspection and it passed without any problem.