whats a good source for flexible transmission cooling lines? id like to route the lines a little further away from the headers and id rather not mess with bending steel lines. at the same time, id also prefer not to spend 100+ dollars on steel braided lines. is there somewhere in between?
I would recommend spending the money and making the proper stainless braided lines. Then you would not have to worry about anything failing or leaking on you.:TU:
I'm gonna take a bunch of crap for this, but I've used 3/8 rubber fuel line many times...only had one problem...involved a header.. I don't want to get into it, it's too painful. Brass barbs at the tranny and a cooler at the other end...
Jim Weise offers a complete line kit for re-routing the lines because of headers, etc. It's not cheap though. I used it last year when I did my headers, and it works great, running the lines thru the frame.
I am taking my trans in and out, trying other trans enough that I have decided to go with the barbs and hose as well, for part of the system. I mean, there is hose at the auxiliary cooler end anyhow. So why not use some elsewhere in the system, within reason. I ran steel lines from right behind the radiator back to the firewall, then 90degrees to a couple inches past the exhaust tubing, then angled down with a barb. Rubber from there to the transmission barbs. Maybe a combination of steel and rubber is your answer.
Mine looked like crap the way I had them bent around the headers and such adn it always bugged/worried me, are they bent too much-restrictive??. Picked up a set of braided lines already made up from a member here and they took abot 10 minutes in route and install. They are no where near headers now and they have nice smooth bends. I guess thery are expensive to build up new, have you priced it out? check around for a used set. I had a temp rubber set up on my 70' monte I used to have and one line sprung a leak because from friction/fibration a hole was worn into the line-it sucked just about trashed my trans FYI
Steel braided hose only cost allot when you use AN fittings. I went with stainless steel braided hose but used regular brass hose barb ends and hose clamps. The pressure in the cooling line is not great like inside the trans. Plenty of holding power. Cost less then $100 with plenty of hose for an exnteranl cooler and a few ft left over.
Cost $60 for 25ft of 3/8 steel braided line from jegs, think summit was a bit cheaper but they didn't have the 5gal jug of RP tran fluid I wanted.
part # 865 29425 http://www.jegs.com/webapp/wcs/stor...ageId=-1&quantity_1=1&ddkey=http:OrderItemAdd Picked up the hose barb ends at the hardware store in the air line fitting section. They use the same threads as the trans n rad, standard NPT fitting. 3/8 was also one size larger then the stock trans lines. I only got a small cooler so I still use the stock one in the rad. But do belive it was cheaper at summit but they didn't offer 5gal jugs of RP ATF. No way I would of kept my stock lines, factory they were less then 1/2in away from the Y pipe, both lines were nearly touching it. Had a pop can shoved between them for years for a heatsink.