Fuel Rails, Any alternatives? Options

[newdeal2]

Are there any good replacements for the stock FI rails? My stock ones look a bit crude.

These are on eBay but I think they are overkill...yes?

[Dave_Darling]

Just add one with a barbed T after the fuel pressure regulator .

Not with the stock FI setup... You want to T into something "downstream" of the fuel pump, and "upstream" of the pressure regulator.

Pressure regulator analogy time--
Picture a garden hose. Turn it on and watch the water come out of the end. There's some pressure in the hose, right, but not a whole lot because you're letting it out the end. Now, put your thumb over the end. What happens to the pressure inside the hose? It goes up. Now, let your thumb just a little tiny bit off the hose. You get a spray of water, of course, but what happens to the pressure inside the hose? It drops, by some amount that partly depends on how much of a gap you leave.

OK, now picture the water supply as being the fuel pump. The garden hose is the "high pressure loop" of your fuel system (including both fuel rails). Your thumb is the pressure regulator.

The regulator is a spring-loaded valve. When the pressure inside the rail is high enough, it pushes the valve open and bleeds off enough fuel to drop the pressure back down to the set amount. It's as if you moved your thumb to make a larger or smaller opening according to a pressure gauge on the garden hose. (The L-jet one has a vacuum diaphragm as well as a spring, and the fuel has to overcome the manifold pressure as well as the spring force in order to bleed off into the return line. But it's a very similar idea.)

--DD