The factory setup my Mini had a single 1/4" fuel line for the carburetor. With the new EFI turbo setup, I needed to route three (bigger) fuel lines from the tank to the engine bay - Feed, Return and Tank Vent. To match the Rover Mini EFI tank outlet sizes, I chose to use 5/16" (8mm) for the feed and return, and 1/4" (6.35mm) for the tank vent. 8mm line should be more than sufficient for the fuel flow the 4E-FTE engine needs.
I fitted the Rover Mini EFI tank in the boot and chose a position where the fuel lines would pass through the boot floor. I purchased a fuel line grommet for a Rover Mini which allows the three fuel lines to pass through the boot floor so I cut a hole in the boot floor for it.
The problem was that feed and return lines at the top of the tank pointed to the side of the tank. Using some small diameter steel rod inserted into the lines (to prevent any kinking), I carefully hand bent both lines approx 35-40 degrees.
Before :
After :
The feed and return lines now face more towards the rear seat so the rubber lines can be routed directly towards the front of the tank rather than stick out the side of it.
The shell was then put on the rotisserie and flipped upside-down to make it easier to make the fuel lines.
The 5/16" (8mm) and 1/4" (6.3mm) lines I purchased were supplied in the usual small and tightly wound roll and I unrolled it by hand but it's hard to bend out into a dead straight piece. I have previously made a hard line straightener for my small 3/16" brake lines (https://mearcat.blogspot.com/2011/07/rear-subframe-brake-lines.html) and this produced quite straight lines, but since these lines ran under the car and would be mostly hidden, I didn't bother making two more straighteners for these two fuel lines sizes. I straightened as much as I could by hand and then put a C-Clamp on the edge of my workbench and slowly made my way back & forth along the length of the lines, bending/straightening a small section at a time against the clamp. Each ~2.5m length took me about 20 minutes until I was happy with how straight(ish) it was.
The fuel lines were carefully bent to go up and over the rear subframe and pass through the rubber grommet in the boot floor. The short line in this pic below will connect to the outlet of the fuel filter, which is mounted to the rear subframe. Note that the shell is upside-down in all of these photos.
To hold the fuel lines in place, the factory metal tabs (spot welded to the shell) are normally bent over the single fuel line. This would not be suitable for the three EFI lines so I planned on making some custom clamps from a sheet of HDPE. I tried to make the first few clamps with a hand saw but the cuts were just not accurate in the small 40mm-long pieces so they were binned. I found and purchased a cheap secondhand mini-bandsaw for $50 which made the job easier and more accurate for cutting and trimming the HDPE sheet.
The first clamp design was a one-off to hold the lines in front of the rear subframe. I made two L-shaped pieces and once clamped together, the fuel line holes were drilled at the join of the two halves. A hole for a bolt was also cross-drilled and countersunk.
I welded a M5 nut to the floor and the clamp was screwed to that.
The other clamps were made to hold the lines against the floorpan.
On the firewall I made a longer clamp to hold the lines evenly spaced, leaving space for the rubber lines. The ends of these fuel lines on the firewall were angled at 45 degrees away from the firewall and I also formed a bead on the ends of the feed & return lines. The vent line does not need a bead as it is not under any significant pressure and a simple clamp will hold it on okay.
There was little room for error when making all the bends so I ended up using quite a few small lengths of fuel line for test bends. This was to ensure that I had the bend angles and positioning spot on before bending the proper line. Each fuel line was bent as a single piece so if I had stuffed up one of the 5/16" lines, that would have been ~$35 worth of line in the bin.
The end result :
The final fuel line piece to make was a short one from within the boot to the fuel filter. I was concerned about the lines rubbing on the boot floor so I made a small clamp for that too (small black block in the photo below).
I then a clamp to hold the fuel lines in place in the boot. Note the beads on the end of the feed & return lines.
I fitted the steering rack to confirm that the lines did not interfere with the boots however the rack boot did touch the lines slightly. FYI, the dip in the panel directly under the boot & lines is a large dent so I couldn't simply bend the lines around the boot - this dent will be beaten out at a later time.
To solve this problem the rack had to be moved away from the lines, but only by a few mm. I made a 3mm thick plastic spacer ring on the lathe and cut/shaped it so it fits snugly within the steering rack U-bolt.
This spacer now gives just enough clearance so the boot does not rub on the lines.
The other clearance issue I had was with the front subframe. The part of the subframe that is close to the firewall had to be modified to clear the fuel lines against the firewall. I cut away part of the subframe and replaced with a piece of angle to make a channel for the fuel lines.
By working slowly and carefully, the process of making the lines, clamps, spacers etc was extremely time consuming and I'd estimate somewhere around 30 hours that was put into it. I binned about three times as as many clamps than I ended up using during trial and error figuring out the exact spacing of the holes required in the clamps.
I fitted the Rover Mini EFI tank in the boot and chose a position where the fuel lines would pass through the boot floor. I purchased a fuel line grommet for a Rover Mini which allows the three fuel lines to pass through the boot floor so I cut a hole in the boot floor for it.
The problem was that feed and return lines at the top of the tank pointed to the side of the tank. Using some small diameter steel rod inserted into the lines (to prevent any kinking), I carefully hand bent both lines approx 35-40 degrees.
Before :
After :
The feed and return lines now face more towards the rear seat so the rubber lines can be routed directly towards the front of the tank rather than stick out the side of it.
The shell was then put on the rotisserie and flipped upside-down to make it easier to make the fuel lines.
The 5/16" (8mm) and 1/4" (6.3mm) lines I purchased were supplied in the usual small and tightly wound roll and I unrolled it by hand but it's hard to bend out into a dead straight piece. I have previously made a hard line straightener for my small 3/16" brake lines (https://mearcat.blogspot.com/2011/07/rear-subframe-brake-lines.html) and this produced quite straight lines, but since these lines ran under the car and would be mostly hidden, I didn't bother making two more straighteners for these two fuel lines sizes. I straightened as much as I could by hand and then put a C-Clamp on the edge of my workbench and slowly made my way back & forth along the length of the lines, bending/straightening a small section at a time against the clamp. Each ~2.5m length took me about 20 minutes until I was happy with how straight(ish) it was.
The fuel lines were carefully bent to go up and over the rear subframe and pass through the rubber grommet in the boot floor. The short line in this pic below will connect to the outlet of the fuel filter, which is mounted to the rear subframe. Note that the shell is upside-down in all of these photos.
To hold the fuel lines in place, the factory metal tabs (spot welded to the shell) are normally bent over the single fuel line. This would not be suitable for the three EFI lines so I planned on making some custom clamps from a sheet of HDPE. I tried to make the first few clamps with a hand saw but the cuts were just not accurate in the small 40mm-long pieces so they were binned. I found and purchased a cheap secondhand mini-bandsaw for $50 which made the job easier and more accurate for cutting and trimming the HDPE sheet.
The first clamp design was a one-off to hold the lines in front of the rear subframe. I made two L-shaped pieces and once clamped together, the fuel line holes were drilled at the join of the two halves. A hole for a bolt was also cross-drilled and countersunk.
I welded a M5 nut to the floor and the clamp was screwed to that.
The other clamps were made to hold the lines against the floorpan.
On the firewall I made a longer clamp to hold the lines evenly spaced, leaving space for the rubber lines. The ends of these fuel lines on the firewall were angled at 45 degrees away from the firewall and I also formed a bead on the ends of the feed & return lines. The vent line does not need a bead as it is not under any significant pressure and a simple clamp will hold it on okay.
There was little room for error when making all the bends so I ended up using quite a few small lengths of fuel line for test bends. This was to ensure that I had the bend angles and positioning spot on before bending the proper line. Each fuel line was bent as a single piece so if I had stuffed up one of the 5/16" lines, that would have been ~$35 worth of line in the bin.
The end result :
The final fuel line piece to make was a short one from within the boot to the fuel filter. I was concerned about the lines rubbing on the boot floor so I made a small clamp for that too (small black block in the photo below).
I then a clamp to hold the fuel lines in place in the boot. Note the beads on the end of the feed & return lines.
I fitted the steering rack to confirm that the lines did not interfere with the boots however the rack boot did touch the lines slightly. FYI, the dip in the panel directly under the boot & lines is a large dent so I couldn't simply bend the lines around the boot - this dent will be beaten out at a later time.
To solve this problem the rack had to be moved away from the lines, but only by a few mm. I made a 3mm thick plastic spacer ring on the lathe and cut/shaped it so it fits snugly within the steering rack U-bolt.
This spacer now gives just enough clearance so the boot does not rub on the lines.
The other clearance issue I had was with the front subframe. The part of the subframe that is close to the firewall had to be modified to clear the fuel lines against the firewall. I cut away part of the subframe and replaced with a piece of angle to make a channel for the fuel lines.
By working slowly and carefully, the process of making the lines, clamps, spacers etc was extremely time consuming and I'd estimate somewhere around 30 hours that was put into it. I binned about three times as as many clamps than I ended up using during trial and error figuring out the exact spacing of the holes required in the clamps.
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