Re: High Performance Hoses

[Richard Welty <rwelty@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Tue, 25 Mar 2003 12:58:34 -0500 RThefarm@domain.elided wrote:
> I am thinking that he is asking about the woven metal jacketed ones
> usually used on muscle cars and such to basically dress up the engine
> compartment.  Im sure they do have some advantage - I hope - but mostly
> they look cool..

there are a couple of different things that have metal braid on the
outside. some are just for show, and some have real advantages.

the original metal braided hose was developed for aviation applications at
the beginning of WWII; the AN system for hoses, hose ends, and fittings was
developed as a standard was needed. this system is based on traditional
english thread systems, and uses a 45 degree flare for fittings and hose
ends. Aeroquip is one of the best known of the original manufacturers.

this system was designed to be assembled with simple hand tools. a hacksaw
and some wrenches are about it. a properly trained high school drop out
with some measure of mechanical aptitude can assemble this stuff reliably.
the whole point was that folks maintaining aircraft on remote pacific
islands would be able to deal with it.

in the 50s and 60s, during the peak of the cost-plus era of defense
contracting, surplus aeroquip was easy to come by. there was a vendor in
southern california named Earl who sold lots of surplus, and he was located
very near George Bignotti's (i'm sure i spelled that wrong) shop.

subsequently, cars prepped by George showed up at Indy with surplus
aviation hose instead of traditional automotive hose. shortly thereafter,
everyone was using it -- it was easy to work with and when correctly
assembled, much more reliable.

when cost-plus ended (part of the McNamara reforms), surplus Aeroquip dried
up, so Earl decided to make his own stuff. he improved on some of the
designs, and his racing hose became popular in its own right.

>. Anyway the best ones I am awaire of are made by Earl's
> Performance Plumbing - I think they have their own web site, but I know
> they are sold through Summit Racing - which is a mail order catalog
> mostly for Hot Roding American muscle cars.  Here's their web address:
> www.SummitRacing.com

what you need to do is figure out what you're looking at. a lot of the
stuff sold to hotrodders today is for looks only, it's not any better than
black rubber hoses. hose clamps hidden inside of anodized aluminum shells
are no better than exposed hose clamps (although i have one of these on the
spica pump on my alfetta race car; the nipple on the pump couldn't be
swapped out so it was the only way to make the connection to the -6 Earl's
hose.)

i suspect that Earl's makes both appearance and "real" stuff these days,
the appearance stuff is too popular to ignore, and probably has excellent
profit margins.

and aeroquip, after first blowing off the automotive market place, now does
market to racers.

if you're interested in using the "real" stuff, it's important to read up
before you start. Carroll Smith covers it nicely in his _Nuts, Bolts,
Fasteners and Plumbing Handbook_ (see http://www.carrollsmith.com/).

richard
--
Richard Welty                                         rwelty@domain.elided
Averill Park Networking                                         518-573-7592
              Unix, Linux, IP Network Engineering, Security
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