In early spring, I had a call from Ted Schumacher of TS Imported Automotive (TSI) asking my opinion of a Stainless Steel Braided vacuum hose. He had been so successful with the braided oil pressure hose that he thought this idea would also sell well. However there is one big difference between the two products. The oil pressure line replaces the old brittle plastic lines that were prone to breaking and dumping hot oil all over your feet. This vacuum line has more of a "bling" function...........but "bling" is good too. So I collected some measurements for various ways to route the hose and Ted sent me the first version for a test fit. It was the perfect length but............the wrong hose size. Too small. I shipped him back the hose along with a bunch of pictures showing various measurements and clamp orientation problems and a few weeks later version 2 arrived. This time we had a perfect fit. I ran it behind the valve cover and around the heater valve pipe but under the valve itself. The hose is strong enough to support its own weight so you no longer need a clamp on the valve cover to hold the hose. Another advantage is that the valve cover can be removed without having to disconnect the vacuum hose. Nice product and it looks very cool.
NOTE: Braided SS hose is very abrasive so one of the things I did after posting the original pictures below was to get a length of clear heat shrink tubing to cover the hose. The last thing I wanted was for the hose to somehow damage the battery.
| Here you can see the heat shrink tubing I used to cover the hose |
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| Nice SS Braided hose with clamps |
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| Very cool clamp design |
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| Rubber hose under the braid |
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| 28 inches long |
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| Clamps pull off so you can turn them around if necessary |
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| Tape keeps the braid from unraveling |
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| Here's what it will replace |
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| Connected on the manifold side |
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And the servo side...... the arrow points to the way the clamp needs to oriented. There's not much room between the M/C and Servo as the clamp fitting is thick. |
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| It's long enough to go behind the valve cover and around the heater valve pipe. |
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| It's strong enough to support itself without the need for the valve cover clamp. |
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| One last look at a nice "Bling" addition. |
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