I am going to dive into my first AN fittings and just wanted to see if people have found staying with the same manufacturer/brand for both the AN fittings and hose is needed. It is not clear whether it is just marketing to say "recommended to use with" to keep you purchasing the brand or if that is sound advice because of slight variations in diameter that will inevitably compromise the seal.

Thanks.

 

This obviously doesn't apply for all brands, but my AN line is Summit brand, and my fittings are Earl's I believe. No issues.

 

The cheapest branded AN fittings and hoses I will use is Mocal and you can get the best prices for those fromBat Inc. Now I use exclusively Aeroquip that I get from my local hydraulic shop. They are a bit more costly, but quality wise is a good bit higher then other brands.

I have used most of the various other cheap brands eBay, earls, ANFittings Direct in the past and I have had leaks and other various problems. For peace of mind spending extra on good fittings and lines is worth it.

I would suggest looking in your phone book for a local hydraulic shop. Mine has 95% of the fittings I need in stock, and if they don't have it they can have it on Thursday. They also assemble all my lines for free.

 

It is important to have high quality fittings and hose. In -AN fittings the sealing surface is between the nose/cone of the male fitting and the seat of the female fitting. They need to be machined at the correct angle and have a good surface finish to mate together.

The -AN fittings referred to by most automotive brand manufacturers are really just the industrial JIC fittings and SAE ORB fittings that are made out of pretty anodized aluminum. If they were actually to the -AN standards and tolerances, they would be many many times more expensive.

 

FWIW - I started w/ Summit hose & fittings, then went to Earls, now I use Aeroquip hose & fittings exclusively.

YMMV

 

We only use BMRS hose and fittings at work on the racecars. But, that's likely out of the average budget.

 

For hose ends I've pretty much always used Earl's Swivel-Seal and never had any problems with them. You really need to buy the hose and the hose ends that are designed to work together. Simple adapters like AN-to-NPT, tees, etc are a lot less critical.

--Ian

 

I really do not like taper threads at all. NPT, BSPT, etc. If you want it to leak and be a pretty much one time use fitting, use a taper thread. They rely on deformation of the threads to seal.

Sorry, off topic.

 

Thank you, all. That is great information and I'm glad I asked.

 

Ah, Bat? Wow, that guy was awesome. Totally walked me through and helped me put together a system that should work for what I need. For a newbie with this stuff it was invaluable. Thanks for the referral!

 

Yeah Bat INC has always been good to me when I needed stuff in the past. Give them a call back and ask to get all your lines covered in fire sleeve. It is surprisingly cheap, and will keep stainless lines from rubbing through everything and prevent fires if a line breaks.

 

If you want local then go to OFSCO, no questions asked. They can get you everything you need.

You can probably shop harder and beat their prices, but for something that you can't figure out they are awesome.

They let me buy like $250 of AN fittings when I was trying to make up my oil drain line. And then let me return $200 of them when I only needed 2.

 

Going local for lines really is the best. I agree it will be slightly more, but the convenience is worth it. I love going in one day and getting a fitting attached to roughly the length of line I need. Taking it home that night and measuring then marking exactly the length I need it, then bringing it back the next day for them to finish the line. Perfectly fitted lines that I know are built correctly.

 

No need. It was already part of my plan. I love high quality fire sleeves and think they are totally worth the extra $. The amount of wiring and hoses that could benefit from sleeving in any given engine bay is staggering.

 

Alternately, when you buy the hose and the Earl's parts, you can make it yourself, on the weekend, while you're working on your project, and without having to stop. It'll still be perfectly fitted (measure twice), and it'll be built correctly as long as you don't screw it up. Making hoses is easy.

--Ian

 

Yeah, I am going to build the hoses myself since I am not exactly sure what the final length will be. Bat is going to clearly label for me what is what (-AN to -AN and BSP to -AN, etc....sounds like autocross race categories). They threw in some nice heat resistant tape with the order to secure the heat sleeves once all is assembled.

Oh, and speaking of heat sleeves, I have one on my whole self since what I am up to is a oil filter relocation You know, with -6AN lines....ha!

 

I use Earl's pretty much exclusively. Mostly because they're 15 minutes down the street and love it when i bring them stupid puzzles to figure out. I've never had any of their stuff properly assembled leak.

 

I use Red Horse fittings. Because i get them cheap and I like them

They work awesome.

Not worried about pressure drop with an6? Thats some small *** line.

 

I've had no issues with the aeroquip socketless fittings and hose with oetiker clamps. I don't remember them being all that much more than other cheap options.

 

You mean oil pressure is something I should have considered?

No, I went with -10AN and I think I can do all straight hose ends. The angle the oil will have to travel will be within the adapters. I am going to run a oil pressure sender at some point, too, since keeping eyes on such things would be nice. I need to research where the best place is to monitor oil pressure from on these 1.8L before diving into that.