Re: Braided Hose

["Keith Turk" <kturk@ala.net>]

And I tried so hard to stay out of this one...

All hoses are designed for different applications...  The blue stuff is 
great and holds pressures fairly well.  Not as good as the stainless.... and 
I'd never use a blue hose where it can chaff against something...  The 
stainless has some degree of armour protection... and the ability to poke 
the living hell out of your hand as your washing it.

The Stainless with the little dark colored dashes is designed for 
suction...( read vacuum systems and Dry sumps. )  I'm pretty sure the blue 
stuff can stand some degree of Vacuum, but I'm not sure how much.

The new black Kevlar hose is extreamly light weight and can be bent to the 
point of crimping without much difficulty... They would have to prove to me 
that it could be used in suction applications having played with it on the 
new motor.. I'm just not a fan yet... but it's expensive and easy to work 
with...

I guess my point is that each has some degree of merit... you'll often see 
blue hose on garden tractor's.... my front end loader has strickly 
stainless... helicopters and aircraft use stainless ...  Drag racers seem to 
favor the light carbon fiber stuff...  You get to pick the level of comfort 
required in each application as you design your car... knowing what each can 
and can't do is important.

All of them require cleaning after you assemble them.... and I've kind of 
set up a program in my shop of washing out a hose.... it goes something like 
this .... Parts washer.... chemical degreaser.... hot water ... then high 
pressure air from each side till it's truely dry and then I hang it up for 
the night if I have the time.

Keith