So... stainless steel brake lines...

[HKYStormFront]

yes they work. despite the naysayers and claims of smoke and mirrors, my braking force is up without a doubt, not a lot but noticeably. i, unfortunately can't talk about where or who i got them from but they are the first set available for 2nd gens. they look cool (sorry no pics yet, working on that, been too busy honestly). they aren't perfect however, there is more pedal travel (just a hair really) before the brakes engage (the guy who is distributing them and i agree the inside diameter may be slightly different) but once they do they definitely have more force than before. this may be intentional on the part of the manufacturer to avoid accidentally putting too much pressure on the brakes at the top of the pedal, simulating a more progressive pedal. i hope to have hard data (before and after g-ratings) soon as well as some pics... just thought i'd (try to) share

[2WD_NISMO]

If it's from "him" he uncharacteristically shipped fast.
Anyway, it didn't firm up the pedal? That's what I'd be after.

[HKYStormFront]

yes it did, but there's a tad more travel to get to the firmness, i think it may be on purpose... either that or 3 rounds of bleeding weren't effective enough

[CT_Nismo]

I don't get this concept. Brake fluid is essentially an incompressbile fluid. It may be contaminated with compressable gases such as air or water (also a gas if heated). But this can happen with all brake lines.

How do stainless steel lines improve braking?

[tegrady]

Originally Posted by CT_Nismo

How do stainless steel lines improve braking?

Correct, physics 101 tells us that you can't compress a fluid. The idea behind solid or braided lines is that rubber lines may bulge a bit when the fluid is put under pressure, reducing the effectiveness of the system. The stronger lines would bulge less allowing more of the force to be used to move the brake piston instead of being used to bulge the line out.

Hope that helps

[ToddG]

From my understanding, all modern brake lines, even the ones that appear to be nothing more than rubber are actually lined and re-enforced internally with metal weave like belts in your tires.

From what I have heard SS brake lines are more for looks than function these days. In the old hot rod days with limited technology they served a more functional purpose, ie: replace crappy rubber lines with metal re-enforced ones. Not so today.

Am I wrong about this?

[bigdog]

Originally Posted by ToddG

From my understanding, all modern brake lines, even the ones that appear to be nothing more than rubber are actually lined and re-enforced internally with metal weave like belts in your tires.

From what I have heard SS brake lines are more for looks than function these days. In the old hot rod days with limited technology they served a more functional purpose, ie: replace crappy rubber lines with metal re-enforced ones. Not so today.

Am I wrong about this?

You are not wrong, your OEM brake lines are steel reinforced, and I assume the rubber house inside of hky's SS lines are steel reinforced too. One has to belive that more reinforcing makes them bulge less, but for me the question is whether or not that is a good thing.

I posted this on the other SS Brake lines thread new Brake lines
and basically is lays out the pros and cons for SS Brake lines and lists some other vendors that offer these for our trucks.

[2WD_NISMO]

Originally Posted by tomtom

You are not wrong, your OEM brake lines are steel reinforced...

No, OEM have a rubber outer and a stiff plastic inner, no SS reinforcment. I'm old and old school, so I could be wrong about late model vehicles, but that is my understanding.

[CT_Nismo]

Originally Posted by tegrady

Correct, physics 101 tells us that you can't compress a fluid. The idea behind solid or braided lines is that rubber lines may bulge a bit when the fluid is put under pressure, reducing the effectiveness of the system. The stronger lines would bulge less allowing more of the force to be used to move the brake piston instead of being used to bulge the line out.

Hope that helps

I am with the others on this board who have pointed out that brakes lines are re-inforced. Even if there were a bulge due to hose expansion, the braking force would not be attenuated. There would be more pedal travel to achieve the same hydraulic pressure but it should be very small. Hydraulic pressure is constant throughout the system. Multiply this by cross sectional area of the caliper's slave unit and you get braking force.

[zoomzoom]

OEM rubber brake lines is a misnomer as there is a inner tube typically made of some polymer. The rubber is merely a coating to protect the inner tube. So our oem brake lines are not just a rubber hose. The usual teflon tube in stainless lines is said to 'stretch' less than the polymer oem tubes which gives that firmer pedal feel.
When pressing the brake pedal, the ending pressure of the brake fluid at the caliper/rotor is going to be the same. Just quicker with stainless b/c none of that pressure is lost to the slight expanding that oem lines will do. And by quicker that's a fraction of a second. These lines are only relaying the brake fluid and have no effect at the caliper/rotors. The lines themselves do absolutely nothing with regard to braking force. You would need to upgrade all braking components- rotors, pads, calipers to actually make a difference.

The fact that the OP has slightly more pedal travel before engaging is dangerous IMO. If anything these lines should allow you to engage brakes a hair quicker since little of braking pressure is lost to expansion.