Help needed! I am totally confused by a lot of conflicting information on the size of piping for the fuel and water systems. It doesn't help that where I came from, pipe sizes were measured by the internal bore but US piping is measured by outside diameter! As far as I can make out, fuel system piping is 5/16" OD, and water is 3/8" OD for pressure side and 1/2" OD for the non pressure side. Can someone who knows a lot more than I do confirm or correct these sizes. Also, what OD pipe size should the oil pipelines be?

Thanks

Jeff

Jeff
There is pipe and there is tubing.
You can get either in just about any type of metal you can think of.
Tubing is mostly measured in OD dimensions. Starting around 1/16 OD, the copper tubing you should be using starts in 3/16-1/4-5/16-3/8-and ½” OD
Standard wall thickness from the building supply is 0.032 You should not use this stuff. Go to a commercial pluming supply and get wall thickness 0.049. Also consider using double flaring joint. After flaring heat and anneal the end. Most commercial supply houses stock 50 foot coils up to 200 feet. From McMaster Carr you can get much smaller length.
I am not sure of all the diameters used on the R, on the early cars the oil line was 3/16 the fuel lines was ¼ inch and all the water lines 5/16
The steam line from the throttle was ½ OD steel. Most cars today I see Stainless steel tube down to the pipe size superheater. And pipe back to the engine.
On the H configuration pump drive there was an odd size tube used between the two water pumps, now no longer available, I believe 3/8 is now used
Rolly

The attachment Drawn_seamless shows both tubing and pipe size dimensions

Thanks Rolly, looks like I may be on the high side for what I was thinking and I could downsize. What do you mean by a double flare joint? The ones I am familiar with are when you use a flare tool to bell out the end to fit over a tapered surface on the fitting. Then the other is what we called a crox fitting which put a raised ridge around the pipe just back from the end. This allowed the pipe to enter the bore of the fitting and then the nut compressed the ridge back onto the end of the fitting. I was planning on using the single flare, mainly because my crox tools do not fit US pipe and I would have to make some new ones!

Jeff

Jeff
First you need a flaring tool with the dies for doubling the flair.
The die is used first to roll the tube inward some what then you remove the die and flare the tube as you normally would, this leaves a double wall thickness on the flared end.
[www.princessauto.com]

there are also some you-tube videos of how to do it.

Rolly

Jeff
If your going to use ½ OD stainless steel for the steam pipe off the throttle the best way to make the Flare is with an orbital flaring tool. You can do it by heating it cherry red and working quickly. Some times it takes a few times.
Rolly

[hilmor.com]

Thanks Rolly, I had no idea there were so many ways to flare pipes!

Jeff