When it came to dressing up our engine, we knew from the very beginning that we wanted the look of stainless steel braided hoses under the hood. Thanks to Spectre, we were able to achieve our goal.In fact, we got true 304 stainless steel braided hoses for all of our underhood applications. Since the radiator hoses were specific to our truck, we purchased the hoses from a local auto parts supply house and sent them to Spectre to be braided. Apparently it’s pretty difficult to install the true stainless braided hose and get it to look perfect unlike the Magnabraid product which simulates the look of stainless.
We did have some hiccups in the process. We sent the hoses to the main office while unbeknownst to us, Spectre was in the process of moving to a new location and the sales manager we were working with failed to let us know before he left the company. It took a couple of weeks but the folks over at Spectre were able to find our hoses and get them braided for us. We finally received a box with our radiator hoses covered in beautiful braided stainless as well a couple of rolls of braided fuel line, braided vacuum hoses, braided heater hoses and all of the necessary Magnaclamps to complete the installation.
Cutting the braided hoses can be very difficult to get a good clean cut and not end up with the braiding getting caught, twisted and otherwise deformed. We discovered a method that made cutting the hose and the braiding very clean and simple. Using a length of, we wrapped the location to be cut with about four wraps. Then using a pneumatic cut off tool, we simply made a clean cut through the silicone tape and the braided hose. The silicone tape holds the braiding very tightly in place so the strands cut evenly and do not stray while cutting.
We started with the fuel line installation first. This was the logical choice since the engine had just been set on the chassis and there was little else to work with. Using our Made-4-You T-Clamps, we ran the hose along the inside of the frame on the driver’s side. The connection to the Transfer Flow fuel tank was a snap using the adapter T.F. supplied. We then terminated the fuel line just past the engine’s cross member where a fuel pressure regulator was to be installed. Next, after the cab and front clip were put in place, we installed the braided heater hose and we used a couple Made-4-You double T-clamps to keep them aligned.
The hard part was getting the hose clamps as concealed as possible which sometimes entails using very small screwdrivers or a small wrench to tighten them down. We saved the radiator hoses for last since we had to come up with a custom water neck for the intake manifold due to the onboard air compressor. The vacuum hoses were very simple to install. They don’t use clamps, the end pieces just slip over the hose and the hose is then slid over the vacuum port. There was not enough room for the Magnaclamp on the transmission vacuum module so we just used another piece of silicone tape to keep the braiding from coming unraveled.