Fabbing Coolant Lines
 

Currently my turbo is plumbed with hose barbs for the coolant inlet and outlet, attached to rubber hoses. I can't get them to bend how I want so one of them rubs against the engine and is starting to wear through. I was thinking of making hardlines for this with short rubber sections attaching to the mixing manifold and thermostat.

What kind of fittings will I need? I figured I could flare one end of each to secure the rubber hose over, but how would the connection to the turbo work? Do they make female AN fittings that go on double flared hardlines so I can just attach to a male AN fitting on the turbo? Will aluminum hardline work fine or do I need steel?

Also, what are those bracket thingies that go over fuel/brake lines that secure the lines to something called?

i dont have any diameters or anything to give you, because ive never done this. i have seen it done before on a few cars. MY only concern would be, what happens when the coolant expands with heat? there would be less give with the hardlines. i realize there is an overflow tank, but you dont want to max it out all the time. just watch for that when you are fabbing it up.
i wouldnt personally reccomend it, but if you are gonna do it, keep that in mind.

EDIT: i take this back... didnt realize it was just on the turbo...
I would think aluminum hardline would be fine... stay away from steel, as it may rust from the coolant. I would get other input, because i would think the aluminum would be safe, because it cools itself, being that it is a COOLANT line... but, i havent messed with aluminum near that kind of heat. someone else on here may know of special goodies to use

What is the thread on your turbo? straight metric? BSPP? BSPT? NPT? straight sae? Figure that out first, then you can decide what type of tube conneciton you want. Some of those are easy and cheap in compression, sae flare, and an flare, some are only cheap in an flare, and some are impossible.

M14x1.50

So you want to use 8mm or 3/8OD tube with that, and compression and AN/JIC should be fairly cheap. I'd go with the AN/JIC with 3/8OD low pressure annealed stainless. You'll need to rent (autozone has them I think) or buy a 37* flare tool. And I would use a real adapter when going from the tube to the rubber hose rather than just flare it and clamp. But it's probably not at all necessary as long as you roll the end of the tube.

Awesome, so a couple of these: AN6 An 6 Female to 3 8" 0 375" Aluminum Fuel Hose Tube Straight Fittings Adapter | eBay

Attached to some of this: http://www.amazon.com/Stainless-Stee.../dp/B000PEJAM0

Fitted to a couple of these: AN6 An 6 Male to M14 P1 5 Straight Fittings Adaptor | eBay

Now we're in business. Any reason to go stainless over aluminum for the tube?

Make it all out of swagelok. Should only be $300-500

Not sure what the first one is for. You need the tube and the last one and a -6AN nut.

Something like this? An 6 AN6 9 16" UNF 6AN 3 8" Hardline Tube Nut and Sleeve | eBay

That first one I linked was for the end of the hardline to attach to the male -AN6 going into the turbo. I can get away with just the nut I linked in this post? I just need to flare the end of the tube right?

Yes something like that. I suggest you buy all your parts from one supplier though and use a good brand.

Any recommendations? It seems that AN fittings are worth their weight in gold at a lot of places...

Steel AN fittings are much cheaper than aluminum. Also known as JIC fittings - they are interchangable with AN.

When I converted my Miata fuel lines to AN in the engine bay, I bought fittings from these guys- JIC Fittings | JIC Adapters | 37 Degree JIC | Parker Fittings by HydraulicsDirect.com

The prices are cheap, but it took about a week to receive them.