At 11:47 AM 2/10/2013, Steve Williams wrote:
>Why did the leak generally NOT occur when I drove every day?  I just
>can't think of a mechanism where sitting idle would cause an initial leak.

The system still has full pressure in it when it shuts down -- if the
injectors don't leak it will keep this pressure a long time.   Once
it finally leaks down apparently it's allowing a leak to develop
which then takes a few minutes under pressure to close up.  Since
it's suddenly gotten worse, either ambient conditions have changed or
the hose-end is continuing to deteriorate.

Suggest if practical (not corroded badly) tighten the hose clamps on
the manifold (fuel rail).  You'll likely find the leak will stop and
you can arrange to deal with replacing hoses and clamps on a
convenient schedule.  If the metal band securing the cap on the rail
comes adrift the cap will fly off or otherwise give a huge
un-ignorable leak, so that's not your issue.  If the hose ends are
split then they obviously need replacing promptly.  If not you may
find that taking up the hose clamps is all that's needed for the
moment.  If US-sized fuel-hose clamps were used they likely could not
be tightened enough to begin with, as they have only a very small
adjustment range (this type of clamp has a solid band surrounding the
hose, and is tightened by a small screw that pulls two ears together
at the side.  If regular band clamps were used that shouldn't be an
issue, but they still could have been under-tightened to begin with.

The OEM clamps at the injector had no moving parts and simply
captured the end of the hose under a lip surrounding the hose
barb.  I've seen those weep a bit when the fuel rail was disturbed on
my '84 after I decided to leave them in place when replacing the
hoses the first time.  After that I cut them off and used standard
fuel-hose clamps instead (which came in the kit I'd gotten, I was
just intrigued by the OEM clamping setup).  I suspect that if I'd
used dealer hose for those connections the original clamps would have
continued to work as they did originally.

Yours,
David