Should I reuse this old fuel hose?

Below is a photo of the original fuel hose on my 140. It has copper sheathing which looks great and is more period correct than the stainless steel replacements available. However, it is a fuel line and failure would spray gasoline all over the engine compartment. It appears to be flexible and doesn’t make any nasty cracking noises when I bend it around. What is the common wisdom? Should I use it, or replace? Is anyone else using the original?

Only you know the condition of it, so test it by switching on the fuel pump and watch it for awhile before you try to start the engine.
That and the oil pressure braided hose are two things I always carry a spare with me.
I once had the oil pressure hose break, not the braided kind, an older one with a plain hose, and I left a trail of oil for a mile back to my house.

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Looks like you could remove it easily for a pressure test? I would then fill it with clean fuel, let it sit, then see what comes out a few days later. Discolored fuel, no bueno.

Bob,
It’s not an original XK140 fuel hose so if in any doubt replace it, with either a NOS original, if you can find one - not easy. Or a new reproduction which is functionally new, and no worse re authenticity, than what you now have.

Do you have any photos of an original? They are probably one of the least photographed parts on the car.

This was on my Mark V when it came to me in 1969. The crimped sleeves are marked TCH.

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Bob,
Here are a couple of pictures of the fuel line on my 140.


It may be the original fuel line, and still doesn’t leak. It has two metal tags of some sort wrapped around it.

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Ok, so I went back out and removed one of the metal tags from the fuel line.

The tag appears to be made of thin brass sheet, and is stamped

ENOTS 5/16

Mine had a metal tag on it as well, but it came off when I cleaned it and I did not preserve it. The hose I have is impressive in its quality. Copper sheathing, brazed on brass fittings and very flexible though it is at least 40 years old and probably older. If it is not original, it is the only hose on the entire car which was replaced before we bought it in 1979.

ENOTS = Benton & Stone of Birmingham, purveyors of hose clips (etc.) to the motor industry throughout the 1950s.


Chris T.

Bob,

Gary’s photos look spot on as an original XK140 Fuel Line - and they did vary a little over the 1940s/50s so this being 1955/6 original is your best guide.
Sme years ago now I made a big effort to put together a complete/original XK140 Minor Replacement Outfit which was put together by Jaguar and supplied with certain new XK140s as a ready source of consumable spare parts, and these kits did include a new FLEXIBLE PETROL PIPE - see attached label cut from an original box…

And sorry about poor photo (what was sent to me when negotiating my purchase price), but all I had handy, see next photo of parts of the original kit that came with that Label - see both the Petrol Pipe and the Oil Pipe (and two valve springs and two of the three hoses, plus various Lucas electrical parts). Guy I bought this from had repackaged his original partial MRO as the box was falling apart, but he cut out and kept label with the original parts…
But still shows what a new/original Petrol Pipe looks like…

Contents2

ENOTS stone backwards!

Yes all the originals had this sort of tag I have a couple flexible brake lines seemed to also have them.
In fact the wiring harness components also had brass tags on each piece with part number

Note the bottom water hose has been corrected to 2 and the pencil on right I believe is a siganature which some of these boxes seem to have?
There is a whole subject on these sorts of things which started at least from 1946 and the ASS211 to at least ASS308 the SD1057 etc etc. Steve Kennedy Denver was doing research on these for a book

Isn’t Grace’s Guide fun! Clearly the Jaguar connection had advertising value.

I found some oil pressure flexhoses, two with ENOTS tags and steel braid, two unlabeled with cloth braided hose.


My XK120 and Mark V have oil pressure flexhoses with copper braid but no tags.

There’s no way of knowing how long these things will last, nor when they are about to blow, so I always carry a spare and tools.

Rob:

You are quite right in saying that one never knows when these things will let go. I recall driving many years ago quite far from home when I was panic stricken to notice that the oil pressure gauge was not showing a reading! Pulling over I lifted the bonnet and discovered that the flexible oil line had sprung a leak. Not carrying a replacement, I used a pair of pliers to pinch off the tubing coming out of the filter housing shutting off the flow. Shortly after this episode a friend of mine called me very late one evening from Sudbury in Northern Ontario in a panic because the same thing had happened to him in his XK150. I suggested the same remedy and it got him home to Hamilton, Ontario.

Chris.

My reference to Gary’s original XK140 Flexible Petrol Pipe, and my NOS example part of an original XK140 MRO, was a directly relevant response to Bob’s original Thread Title pertaining to his XK140.

I actually do have a couple of ENOTS catalogues from the 1940s and 1950s fully detailing the extensive range of flexible and part-flexible fuel and oil pipes, that may well help identified these unknown origin/age hoses, and indeed the relevance or otherwise of Mark V and/or XK120 hose examples shown… what is in an XK140 originally is not necessarily the same as was in an XK120 given the evolving detail/materials used by Enots…, with the black/cotton/braided hoses an alternate/earlier manufacture which I have a nice original one still fitted to my ‘museum’ standard 1951 Mark VII engine

Rob, You second photo of the oil pressure hose with copper sheathing appears to have a brazed coupling. Is that the case? My “mystery hose” appears to have a double layer of copper sheathing with brazed fittings on the end. It is a well built piece. That is what caught my interest in the first place. My oil pressure hose has a fabric sheathing with a blue stripe woven in. It is stiff and definitely showing its age. Not nearly the same quality.

Roger, what type of metal is sheathing made of in the minor replacement kit?