braided steel flex hose and AN fittings

Is it possible or adviseable to use flex hose for ATF fluid lines to a cooler? My transmission cooler has these HUGE connectors that look like they'll need those AN fittings. That in addition to the fact that I am going to have to make custom lines anyhow due to having the cooler in front of the radiator and changing out my C4 for an AOD makes me thing I should get some braided steel hose as opposed to bending and flaring my own hard-lines. Opinions on this idea?

Cool thanks! I was worried that the lines might have too high a pressure in them or something. Guess I'll have to take my cooler down to the local store to make sure I get all the right fittings.

Well, since I now have an AOD in her, where would I buy my hard lines from, or rather, what parts should i request? The ones for a 67/C4 would fit the car but will they fit the tranny? The ones for the 91 Mustang will fit the tranny but not the car...

Anyone?

Thanks for the replies fellas. I gave up on trying to figure out what to order and how to assemble this myself and for the first time consulted with the sales reps at Summit and Jegs. Unfortunately they couldn't help either, so I am turning to the collective intellect and experience here with a couple more questions.

1.) I have a stock gas tank and a carb. From what I can tell all of the braided steel hoses require AN type fittings, which is fine for me, I don't mind the additional expense at this point and I've always liked the apprearance. But since my stock tank and the carb are not already configured for a high-pressure fuel system like an EFI would be; the connections are not what it needed for an AN fitting. So, how do I replace my hard fuel line with a braided hose and more specifically connect one end to a stock fuel tank and the other to my carb?

2.) My ATF cooler has these huge connectors that are quite different from a stock radiators ATF connections. I was inspecting them and found them to be very much like a compression fitting for a gas dryer, so I grabbed a brass peice out of a gas dryer connection kit and it fit! This might actually not be as much of an issue for me since I beleive the AN type fittings follow the same principle. So the end that connects to the cooler is easy (right?), but what about the other end? I have a TCI-AOD which uses factory type connections for the fluid lines. SHould I just get a roll of that universal hard-line and make my own like DPMAZ suggested? I like that idea, cheap easy and good-looking...nothing wrong there! But if my cooler REQUIRES an AN connection I'm in the same boat as with my fuel line, meaning how does one adapt a small hard-line (the type that takes a rubber hose with hose clamps like the factory fuel line) to a braided hose or an AN fitting?

I'm sorry to have to ask what seem to be rather basic questions, but neither Summit nor Jegs could give me a parts list so maybe it is not THAT easy after all. I wish we had a local speed or pro-shop here, but Austin is like the politically correct capitol of Texas and even driving a gas powered car is frowned upon. I'm guessing that if there were a speed shop it would be picketed by the greenpeace types that control the city

Anyhow, throwing this out to the Stangnet community for help. Anyone?

Good advice, I'm sold on a hard line for the fuel, the stock one is gonna have to come out though. I found that I wont be able to get up to much less over 400fwhp with the small ID line But it can stay in there for now until i get the car started and sorted out.

The question still remains for how to adapt a hard line to a braided one though. My trans cooler seems to require AN fittings, and if I have to make my own lines for the ATF how to I convert?

I have to flare two hoses, hate the idea of buying yet another tool that will only be used once or maybe twice. Can these tools be rented at a parts-store?

ozstang65 said:

I've been doing some research for my own fuel system recently, these sites migth be of some help:

Click to expand...

Great post OZ, a wealth of information there, thanks!

For about the millionth time...THANKS TO THE GURUS OF STANGNET!


My mechanical fuel pump and my transmission cooler both use 3/8NPT fittings, so I can buy the NPT-to-AN adapters.

I still have two questions left to finalize my plumbing...
Does anyone know what size fittings I need to connect my fluid lines to the AOD?
Second question; will 1/2 inch tubing be too large for ATF lines? I know the stock ones are thinnner (3/8 or 5/16), so will larger lines flow too much fliud and mess up the pressures?

Whew! $300.00 later I've got an order on the way. ABout 20 fittings and three types of hose/tube. Will post a write up for the install.