Ethanol or hose failure?

I vote for Ethanol but thought I would share this. Wednesday night I was driving home from our local Cruise night and after sitting at a red light for a long time I started rolling and my car starting surging a bit so I start scoping out the gauges and noticed the fuel pressure dropped to 3. Backed out of the throttle and it slowly started to climb but was still fluctuating. Luckily I was only a few miles from home and made it.

Next day I start searching for the cause. I pulled the fuel pressure regulator and the problem still existed, not as bad but fuel pressure was all over the place so I figure either the pump might be acting up or the pickup screen in the tank could be clogged (really hoping it's the pump lol)

I decided to try a stock high volume instead of getting a replacement chrome high volume pump that I currently had from Jegs. I went with this one so I could use 3/8" #6 AN fittings and steel braided lines. I picked up a new fitting to adapt the 1/4" threads on the new pump to my existing lines and started.

Turns out the 9" double lined (race quality?) rubber line I picked up at the local speed shop last year to attach the metal fuel line on the frame to the pump was the culprit. The inside split in several places acting like a severely clogged artery in the human body. My best guess is our wonderful ethanol fuel deteriorated the inner lining as there was no visible signs of a hose failure.

I'm extremely thankful this happened now and not next week since I'm making our yearly 400+ mile round trip for Thanksgiving to the Daytona Beach area for the Turkey Rod Run and dinner with my folks. Certainly would have been a real nightmare to try and do this without the right tools and work space.

Bottom line, Ethanol suxs!!

Thanks for sharing the experience Eric.  THe pix are good too!  Oh if we could just get the gas at the pump we used to back in the 60s! Rick thanks for you post too, because you answered the question that came right into the mind - what hose can you use then?  Ethanol is all over the place, sometimes whether you want it or not.  Glad to know there is something that is suppossed to hold up to the stuff.  I am surprised though that Eric bought hose from his supply houseand even got race quality hose and it didn't hold up.  Was it marked like Rick mentioned?