OIL GAUGE FEED PIPE

[Dave Wortley]

The same goes for petrol pipes, silver solder only. You don't want a fractured petrol pipe nor a fractured oil pipe.
Cheers,
Dave.

[Duncan Grimmond]

Having dismantled a few petrol tanks to re-use original fittings such as breather, filler neck, pick up pipe etc. I can report that in every case these were all soft soldered.
Further, every oil pressure feed (including new ones) I've seen has also been soft soldered.

[David Stepney]

I have used soft solder on the occasions that I have had to fit nipples too various pipe work, including both oil and fuel lines. Not had a problem yet.

[dickie65]

I seem to remember that in the bad old days Solder was not just Solder.
There was Plumbers Solder with more lead and a higher melting point.
There was Tinsmiths Solder with more tin in it and a lower melting point.
And a few different compostions of the lead tin alloy I have a feeling Antimony was is some solder but can not be sure.
I would never use the horrible lead free solder on my car plumbing.

The Advantages of Antimony in Solder Alloys Antimony has demonstrated several advantages when used as a doping agent in solder alloys. When used in tin-lead solders in the 0.3% - 0.5 % range, the alloys exhibit better thermal fatigue resistance than alloys that do not contain antimony.

I just found the above on the Web.
It seems I was paying attention in my metalwork class Got the GCSE to prove it.

[Bob Culver]

Lead/tin soft solder fatigues rapidly under any cyclic loading and there is a lot of vibration at the oil pipe. Unless the load is spread over a large area (as in long telescoped section), the strength has to come primarily from the mechanical fit

[Parazine]

I have to say, I've soft soldered (with plumbers solder admittedly) fuel and oil pipes for the last 45 years. Not had a problem yet, despite some high mileages, especially in the early days. It's not that I don't have the wherewithal to silver solder the pipes, just hasn't been necessary. I believe the factory soft soldered them in the day......

[Stuart Giles]

Impossible to say whether the numerous gnarly copper oil and fuel pipes with silver soldered nipples I have come across were installed by the factory, but I've never seen a failure of a joint in one.

By comparison, I have seen several soft soldered joints to nipples that have failed, that's why I wouldn't soft solder one of these joints. Each to their own.