Jakerx

hey guys,

i was just browsing AJ USA and was wondering about the kevlar or the stainless steel brake lines. i'm debating which ones to get in my 951 brake upgrade. any ideas? also, are the ones from AJ good quality? thanks

Manning

They're probably just the same Goodridge lines that everybody else sells.

Jakerx

so are kevlar lines better than ss lines?

jc22

The real question is are either ss or kevlar better than new stock or are they just cheaper? Too many race cars using factory rubber for me to consider them a performance upgrade. JMHO

Sam Lin

Kevlar is superior to SS as it's more resistant and lighter. However, as jc22 says, there's no reason to go to anything other than stock lines, there's no benefit.

Sam

83na944

I had SS braided lines on my 944. I replaced the rubber lines because I was afraid that the original rubbber lines might be rotted from age. When I removed the rubber lines, they were not brittle but retained the installed shape.

I couldn't tell any difference in the performance of the SS lines and the stock rubber lines. They did look good, though.

BigRed

There you go...

TheRealLefty

Just one guy's experience, but my 85.5 NA definitely benefitted from stainless steel lines. Before the SS lines, the pedal had about 1/4 inch of spongy give before bottoming and had little feedback...now it is steady and stiff all the way to the threshold. Perhaps my OE lines were very used up before the swap but the difference was quite dramatic.

Now I enjoy Super good stiff pedal and great autoX/track day braking with plain old single pot calipers. Like my new carbon/kevlar gold pads, too. A little noisy on the street and you gotta pay attention to the first cold stop of the day, but great stopping power with little drama once they get some heat in them. Jason at Paragon recommended them since Pagid makes no application for my NA.

hosrom_951

Doesn't SS or Kevlar lines better than rubber lines?

The stock hoses could expand....SS and Kevlar eliminate this right?

TheRealLefty

That is certainly the big stated benefit, along with a bit of a protection layer that may decrease the chance of complete failure, but I suspect it would be hard to tell the performance difference (if any) between a fresh factory rubber line and an SS/Kevlar sheathed line.

My advice (worth exactly what you paid for it is that an SS line is a good cost effective choice if you are replacing old brake lines, but not high on the list of performance mods if you have fresh OE lines now.

Zero10

I replaced my stock lines on my 86 with SS lines from 944online. When I removed the stock lines, I found they were just riddled with cracks. The SS lines were free with a kit I bought, and I really like the look of them. I noticed absolutely no difference in pedal feel from my rotting stock lines to the SS lines, but they were free, and they look good. I feel they are an acceptable substitute for stock lines, but I wouldn't pay more for them than I would pay for stock lines.

Skip

In my own experience, the rubber lines seem to "keep a bend" while the SS lines do not - at least not nearly as much. It occurs to me that the rubber lines harden and resist movement well prior to the SS lines. With over 4 years on my current set of DOT-type (sheathed) standard SS lines, they still move quite freely and show absolutely no signs of wear. I would be worried about internal and external cracking on standard rubber lines, especially on a track car where temps are much higher. I'm not sure where the Kevlar on these lines are located, but they are not on the very inside (incompatible with fluid) and they should not be on the very outside (very poor UV performance). Is suspect the Kevlar may be somewhere in the middle.

Sam Lin

Skip, I'd start worrying at 4 years about internal cracking and breakup of the Teflon liner in your SS lines. One of the reasons I prefer stock is they outlast SS lines, and failure can be predicted with stock lines, whereas SS it's invisible until it happens. Kevlar is a hybrid blend and is on the outside, you can see it on many race fuel lines now - there's minimal UV in most locations where it's used, and the inner liner will almost always fail before the outer jacket anyway.

There's no performance benefit to SS or Kevlar, you'll find that many racers have tested and the percieved "improvements" have been due to the good fluid flush and bleed that's done when the lines are replaced.

Sam

Z-man

My biggest issue with SS braided lines is that it is far more difficult to inspect the lines for wear. The SS sheathing prevents you from inspecting the tube itself.
-Z.

inactiveuser92616

yes, the inspection problem seems to be the biggest one. a few years ago I asked my employer (owner of a very good race car prep business) where I could get all the fittings to do SS lines on my car. He told me that it should never be done on a street car, because failure can be sudden rather than gradual.