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I spent the entire afternoon in the Garage Mahal and while my experience is still fresh, I thought I'd post. Today's project was to replace the rubber vacuum tubing under the hood with brightly colored (I went with Fluorescent Blue!) Silicone Vacuum Hose (SVH).
I ordered the SVH from HoseTechniques.com. The prices were reasonable, but it took UPS a week to get the order to my door. I think the package hitchhiked from California to Florida. Guess I'm spoiled by the 2 or 3 day service I get from east-coast outfits like Sobstory. The box finally arrived on my birthday! :>
Before ordering, I did a little research here on TSN to see how much I'd need. At several places, including on the performance board, I saw people kick around these numbers for a 900 turbo:
15 feet of 3.5mm SVH
10 feet of 6.0mm SVH
...so that's what I ordered. Silly me! In the immortal words of John Belushi, "You (fouled) up; you trusted us!"
Now I've got to order more. These numbers are WRONG. I can't figure out how anyone came up with them. I'm kicking myself for not going out and estimating the job myself before I ordered. I put too much faith in TSN, I suppose.
Let's start with the 6.0mm stuff. I used it in four places. There are three hoses coming out of the APC solenoid: one to the intake pipe, one to the turbo housing, and one to the wastegate controller. Each of these is less than a foot long. The other place I used 6.0mm SVH was the line from the throttle body to the ELCD. Leaving plenty of slack around the air filter and intercooler, it was still only about 2.5 feet long. Thus, I used just a hair over 5 feet of 6.0mm SVH, and have a 5 foot piece left. So why did I order 10 feet? Anyone know where the rest of it goes? (Anyone want to buy a 5 foot piece from me?)
The 3.5mm stuff is everywhere. I routed lines to my hooter, fuel pressure regulator, distributor advance, and valve cover vent. I was glad I did it, as a couple of those lines were very hard and brittle, even though they weren't leaking.
After putting these pieces on, I looked at what I had left and realized I wasn't going to have enough to finish the job! There's a line that goes the width of the engine compartment over to the vacuum canister behind the right front wheel. Another line runs from the manifold into the cockpit to the pressure transducer and vacuum/boost gauge. Yet another goes to the cockpit from the cruise control.
And what about the windshield washer line? It does get brittle from the underhood heat, but it's not critical to the engine running better. That hose goes from the washer reservoir up around the top of the radiator and then along the underside of the hood... it's over 6 feet long!
So what do people do? Skip the cruise control and vacuum canister?
I did a few calculations, and here's what I came up with. What I SHOULD have ordered is:
6 feet of 6.0mm SVH (gives you almost an extra foot to play with)
30 feet of 3.5mm SVH (without replacing washer hose), or
37 feet of 3.5mm SVH (if you want to replace windshield washer hose, too.)
So now I'm going to order more SVH so I can finish the job next weekend.
If anyone is contemplating doing this, I'd advise you to do a little estimating before you order, and decide which lines you're going to replace.
Also, getting to the hoses from the APC solenoid and hooter is something of a pain -- I ended up taking off the hood (only takes a couple of minutes) and removing the pipes from the AMM to the turbo and the turbo to the intercooler. That made the job much easier.
While I was replacing lines, I tested each one (before and after) with my MityVac handpump tester. In the process I found that my ELCD valve is leaking again, so when I replaced that 6.0mm line, I plugged the end of it until I can get a new charcoal canister. I think it's a good idea to test each line as you go. Heck, you're in there anyway.
Oh, yeah... bottom line, it looks great and should be the last time I mess with vacuum lines (knock wood!) in the Beastie again. I think it's worth doing... just make sure you order what you need.
- = M = -
'87 900T 175K
posted by 208.63.21...
, Sat, 18 May 2002 00:04:00
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