‘66 tri power fuel line at front carb
 

I’ve noticed two different style lines used,but not sure why. One style has a rigid aluminum line that wraps around the the rear half of the front carb air filter. The second style has a short section of rigid fuel line, then rubber hose that wraps around the rear half of the front carb air cleaner. Was this a ram air pan clearance issue? What specific application were these two styles used for?

Rubber one is for Ram Air Pan clearance.

Long line is 1:st design, short line and rubber hose is second design.
RamAir uses a special lower brass fitting and rubber hose to filter.

1966 Tri-Power fuel lines
 

This is another topic I’ve studied/followed for 40+ years. The debate goes on.

I have numerous magazine test articles from the mid-60s and plenty of old photos of unmolested GTOs showing what I believe.

FWIW,

There were two types of feed lines from the fuel filter to the brass distribution block in ‘66.

The host catalog says (1st design w/long feed line) ...... I disagree.

1) Test articles are done with “New Cars“. Several ‘66 GTO test with 3x2s has the wrap around “Rubber” hose clamped to a “short” 90 degree rigid line going into the front carb brass fuel block.

2) The other style “wrap around” feed line was Steel, not aluminum.
This looped “long” Steel line was part of the full set of Steel fuel lines (3 total) that were OEM.

The aluminum lines offered from various suppliers are much easier to construct (bends, flares) than Steel lines.

My research on the Steel wrap around feed line shows that vast majority came from the “Fremont Plant”.
All the ‘66 WV (smog cars) built at the California Fremont plant that I’ve seen came with the full set of Steel lines.

Also my Fremont built YR GTO came with the full set of Steel lines (last photo).
I think it has something to do with the Fremont plant. All photos below are BF cars.

The reason for the ongoing debate, is there are other ‘66 cars out there with Steel lines that were built at the other plants.
Who knows?

As far as the Ram Air pan clearance.
Very simple, turn the brass distribution block 180 degrees (like a 64-65) so the feed line comes in from the bottom with your inlet fitting.

Feed line
 

Vintage test article.

1966 feed line coming in from the bottom so the Ram Air pan has clearance.

Chris.

‘66 tri power fuel line
 

I want to minimize the use of rubber fuel line, so I’ll go with the repro rigid line. No plans to use a RA pan on this car.