Braided Steel Lines

[napatiger]

Which lines on the engine would benifit from braided steel lines.

I am taking out the engine for a rebuild next month and would like to replace lines for performance, durability and looks..

Also, any websites / venders would be helpfull.

[patgizz]

only ones i can think of are the ones from the frame over to the fuel rail - the rubber ones get brittle with age, my sister's car had one burst and she was extremely lucky the car didnt blow up as the whole hood insulation soaked up the spray without letting it get on the exhaust manifolds

[pocket-rocket]

Has anyone found any sites or anything? I have someone I know interested in something that is going to need smaller diameter steel-braid flex hose. Small diameter being like for something like N2O, so not as small as the steel-braid that hooks up to the brake calipers, and in about 15' lengths or so.

[napatiger]

web site for steel lines

I found a site that has tons of braided steel lines..
the problem is I don't know what the names of the adapters and connectors are...

https://www.anplumbing.com/shop

want teflon for all lines?

tirerack.com has a steel line set for the brakes for $123

[smilinguy99]

Here's the guideline:

The original reason for external metal mesh over any fluid-carrying line is abrasion resistance. Got an abrasion problem? Use braided steel.

sg99

[Streetrodder83]

No you don't wnat teflon on the lines, the only thing that could possible need teflon are the pipe threads because the threads do the actual sealing. Otherwise on all other fittings the flare seals the connection. If it leaks you have an improper fit and the fitting should be redone, not band-aided with teflon. For the most part braided lines in the automotive industry are purely a cosmetic thing. Although somethings do benefit from the use of it.

[Lyle's GTP]

Hey man stainless braided lines. Excellent idea, anything containing pressure is an excellent idea, power steering, brake lines, fuel lines, even heater hoses (I wouldn't worry about rad hoses just make sure they are in good shape). As far as vacume hoses just go with a silicone hose. There are a couple confused people replying in here. Stainless braid is not only for abrasion resistance. If that were all you wanted a spiral wrap loom would work better. It's purpose actually holds the pressure in. And as for the teflon, what is meant by teflon is the type of hose, the hose its self is actually made of teflon and then braided with stainless steel. This type of hose is the best, because teflon is extremely heat resistant and is good to something like 400 degrees F nominaly. ("hint," they use it on your frying pans) and the stainless resists corrosion, heat, abrasion and extreme pressures. This type of hose handles like 4000psi nominaly and 12000psi momentary. Any hose company can make these but your only problem will be fittings GM uses some odd fittings. But this hose is pretty cheap. But definatley do your vacume lines in a silicone hose (vibrant makes good silicone hose), won't collapse and handles extreme temps, stock hoses all crack with time, this stuff will all last probably 2-3 times longer or maybe more.

[smilinguy99]

There are a couple confused people replying in here. Stainless braid is not only for abrasion resistance. If that were all you wanted a spiral wrap loom would work better.

No, you are confused. If it were for containing pressure it would be wound into the carcass of the hose. That way it would begin bearing load as soon as the pressure within the hose began to rise.

The braid on the outside doesn't begin to bear load until the hose is well on its way to its pressure containment limits and all the other parts of the hose system are getting pretty stressed. By then it is kind of late.

But really, all that is irrelevant. The real reason most people use it is because of how it looks.

sg99

[Streetrodder83]

There are adapters available to go from standard or metric fittings to an A/N style fitting. Doing stainless looks cool, but there is a huge expense involved if you get crazy with it the fittings are quite expensive. I forgot about the teflon lines, most any time I hear teflon mentioned, it's in reference to putting teflon all over the threads on fittings that seal with flares. If you're looking to do just brake lines out of it, it will firm up brake feel somewhat because the hose won't be allowed to expand as much as the stock rubber hose. Really, unless you're doing some high dollar custom car, I wouldn't use it.

[brian89gp]

My experience on the matter. I have melted, cracked, and dry rotted out so many hoses in the past year because of heat. Also everyone here will understand how difficult it is to take a hose off and how you usually end up tearing it up to get it off.

Teflon hose is nice and all, it is usually a smaller OD then rubber hose, and the fittings that it uses DO NOT LEAK. I have had plenty of leaky hoses just cause the hose clamp either ate through the hose or didn't have enough clamping pressure.

The -AN style hose ends found in Jegs and Summit are a screw in compression fitting, there is no way in hell that it is going to leak. Also seing as the end is screw on I don't tear the hose up trying to get it off, and lastly I have yet to have a SS hose with Teflon liner melt.

I added it all up and the total cost I spent on replacing the rubber hoses so far is more then it would have cost to just do SS hose with -AN ends in the first place. Your right, a lot of people use it just for dress up but when you need it there just is not an alternative.

[Lyle's GTP]

Hi, just responding to sg99. Didn't mean to insult, but its not a normal rubber liner its teflon. so it doesn't crush like rubber does and the braid is always to contain the pressure weather it be steel, stainless steel or fiber, that's it's purpose. But anyway, normal hydraulic line has rubber on the inside then steel braid and then rubber again (and some times up to 5 layers like this for extreme abrasion resistance). But it's not stainless steel so it will rust, therefore the outer rubber jacket is required and also helps resist abrasion (rubber is cheaper than stainless). The outer stainless braid on the teflon line will not rust, so the outer jacket is not required. Even if you did have one it would defeat the purpose. Because a rubber outer jacket can't with-stand the temps. It looks cool, but only as a bonas though. It was designed for industrial use. I don't think caterpiller cares how shiny there hoses look on a V-16 diesel generator, But rather that they don't melt or rust off.

[Lyle's GTP]

One more thing, if you do use stailess braided any where that that hose can rub metal, put some loom on it hose shops have the stuff and it's super cheap. Because any time you have vibration (even slight) and metal is loosely touching metal it will wear right through. Trust me I've just seen it on a diesel generator I repaired. There was deisel all over, because the fitting was rubbing the chassis and it wore right through.

[Juglenaut]

Well I used Stainless steel braided hose on large equipment pumps and for a Microfluidics homogenizer emusification. Your team found that braided stainless steel on the outside lasted longer and held comparable amounts of pressure. We found that repeated use and steam steralization of braided core hoses break up the core bond holding into in the core and was useless to use in a sterile way for steam as the core began to degrade the internal structure of the hose upon several full load uses and sterilazation processes.

External braided was in this case better because the braids were able to breath and expand better and didn't degrade the hoses wall.
Our sterilization equip was capable huge amounts of internal pressure couple this with a heat sterilation proccess the internal core braided didn't last. The sterilization tepm is about 240-250 degrees F

[Lyle's GTP]

Ya thats what I'm tlking about. The standard internal brain is not good for heat at all. Only hydraulics which must be relitivly cool any way to function properly. The stainless braided teflon is the best for heat and is actually recomended for steam and vertually any chemical. I believe the working temps are -73C to +250C those are good numbers at 3000psi and a momentary of 12000psi.

[smilinguy99]

Hi, just responding to sg99. Didn't mean to insult, but its not a normal rubber liner its teflon. so it doesn't crush like rubber does and the braid is always to contain the pressure weather it be steel, stainless steel or fiber, that's it's purpose...

You are correct sir. I am the confused one. It would help if I read the entire thread. A bow in your direction.

I had some teflon hoses for brake lines on a car I once owned. The stainless was a fine mesh that served to reinforce the teflon inner. Also used it for a cowl-mounted fuel pressure gauge. The hose was exposed to the elements.

Profuse apologies,
sg99