oil lines to external thermostat
 

Has anyone ever cut the old rubber hose and crimp collars off the hard lines and had new hydraulic hose crimped on to the hard lines? I'm rebuilding a '79 930 and making a list. Mine are weeping at the crimp collars and I shutter at the price of OEMs. Maybe just buy the aftermarket lines and not mess around with the old ones?

I don't see why not. I've taken several lines to a local hydro hose shop and have always been pleased with the work and the price. Good luck.

You can order all the stuff you need to make you own lines from Elephant Racing HERE , way.... cheaper than buying oem.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/suppo...s/beerchug.gif

I did this a year or two ago. Bought some new hose & crimp collars from them. I can't remember what I paid, but definitely cheaper than buying new. You could also probably send them to Chuck @ Elephant and he could replace everything for you too...

Tom

BoxsterGT here on the forum also does custom oil line fabrication - a quick search will bring up lots of nice examples of his work.

Thanks for the replies. I'm looking at Oetiker clamps. Forget it if you're doing concours or are concerned about how they look but they will definitely do the job. Buy a few feet of SAE 100R5 or MIL6000D hose and you're good. You need the crimper tool (Knipex 1098) but that is what a crimp at a hydraulic shop will cost. You have to make sure you use the right size clamp though for the hose. A single ear clamp will hold 30 bar, install two with the ears at 180 deg and you're good for about double that. The clamps come in zinc plated carbon or stainless. I'll be replacing all my fuel lines also so I think I'll go this route.

I went the hydraulic shop route for this some years back. They did it in an afternoon while I ran some errands. They did some cutting and brazing to get the right grippy ends onto the steel parts, so their hose with crimp collars fit correctly. Wasn't expensive, and was convenient.

I'd certainly not go OEM, though a guy might consider welding dash (-12 or 16) steel fittings on both ends. I did that with a race motor over where the oil comes out from the pump on the left side, and even with my crummy welding technique it has worked fine and never leaked a drop.

Probably done many times, but can one replace with good results the hard oil lines with the lightweight oil hose sold by the foot on ER website? The factory external tstat would need some support I would guess.