Stainless steel braided hose, like Earl’s Perform-O-Flex hose, is finding its way onto more and more street-oriented cars. That braid not only looks cool, it also protects the hose from sudden death by abrasion, punctures, and tears. Perform-O-Flex hose is compatible with most fluids (brake fluid excepted), can handle pressures up to 1,500 psi, and endures temperatures from -40 to 300 degrees F.

Summit Racing’s hard line hose comes in two flavors—steel and stainless steel,—any of which is ideal for plumbing fuel line, nitrous systems, or other applications requiring hard line. For brakes, use only the steel or stainless steel line—no aluminum allowed. Summit Racing also has the required tube nuts and sleeves to finish the job.

AN Hose and Fitting Assembly Our sample braided hose and fitting were already assembled, so we borrowed some illustrations from the Earl’s catalog to show you how to properly cut braided hose. First, measure the length of hose needed, allowing for bends and fitting length. Place the hose in a vise, tightening it just enough to hold the hose in place without squeezing or distorting it. Wrap the area to be cut with electrical tape to prevent the braid from fraying. Use a hacksaw with a 32 teeth-per-inch blade, a Dremel-type rotary tool, or Summit’s handy Hose Cutter to cut the hose to length as shown. Keep the cut as square as possible to ensure a secure, leak-free seal with the fitting.

Put the socket end of the hose fitting in the vise; use aluminum jaw inserts to protect the fitting from damage. Insert the hose into the socket until it butts against the threads. Gently pull the hose out until there is a 1/16 to 1/8 inch gap between the hose end and the bottom of the socket threads. Mark the hose as shown with a black felt pen. This reference mark will show you if the hose gets pushed out of the fitting during assembly. Blow out the assembly with solvent and compressed air to remove stray bits of braid or metal shavings.

Lubricate the inside of the hose, the socket threads, and the cutter threads on the nipple part of the fitting with Earl’s Assembly lube or 30-weight engine oil. Remove the hose and socket from the vise, and put the nipple end of the fitting in the vise jaws. Push the hose and socket onto the nipple until the socket threads can be started. Carefully turn the hose until the threads engage. Stop when the assembly becomes too hard to turn by hand.

Use a properly sized AN wrench and finish tightening the assembly until there is no more than a 1/16-inch gap between the socket and the nipple. Check the mark you made on the hose to make sure it did not back out of the socket.

On to the hard line: First, measure out the appropriate length, taking into account any necessary bends. Cut the line with a tubing cutter, making sure to cut the end as square as possible. Deburr the cut end and slip a tube nut and sleeve onto the line.

Flare the line with the flaring tool. If using AN fittings, a 37 degree flaring tool is required to ensure a tight, leak-free seal. SAE-style fittings, like those used on brake line, have a 45 degree flare. This is what the end result should look like.

If you run hard line, you gotta have a way to bend it. This Summit Racing tubing bender lets you bend tubing up to 1/2 inch o.d. without kinking. It sure beats trying to bend line over your knee.

The Earl’s AN hose/fitting assembly is connected to the inlet side of our Holley electric fuel pump. The fitting in the pump is an Earl’s -8 AN to 3/8 inch pipe adapter. Hand tighten the fitting, then snug the connection with the appropriate AN wrench. A small squirt of oil or assembly lube helps things go together easier.

The hard line is connected to the outlet side of the Holley pump, using the procedure outlined in the previous step. Once all the connections in the system have been made, check for leaks, fix as necessary, then congratulate yourself on a plumbing job well done!