User 52121

I learned this weekend that there is a difference between the cheap Summit Racing -4 AN hose fittings, and the much more expensive Aeroquip -4 AN hose fittings.

-4 hose fitting, Summit Racing, $6.99
http://www.summitracing.com/parts/sum-220490

-4 hose fitting, Aeroquip, $11.99
http://www.jegs.com/i/Aeroquip/023/F...ductId=1350709

The Aeroquip fitting has a nice wide, tapered mouth where you insert the hose end. Makes it MUCH easier to attach to a braided hose (where you might have a little bit of fraying of the SS braid). The Summit fittings do not have this. I don't how how the F people even assemble hoses with the Summit fittings.

I spent probably TWO HOURS trying to assemble ONE 12" section of -4 hose this past weekend, fighting with the damned Summit fittings before I realized the Aeroquip ones I had were different. Using the Aeroquip fittings, the stuff went together in like 5 minutes. I've NEVER fought with assembling braided hose before like this.

So my advice to you all - spend the money, buy the better Aeroquip stuff. Your thumbs will thank you for it. I bought my Aeroquip ones locally and paid $18/ea... and it's still worth the money.

reno808

Russell is good too, but yeah your right

User 52121

Very possible. I have always used Aeroquip in the past (for no real reason, really...) but this time I did the Summit stuff.

If Russell has the same tapered ends, then you should be good with that stuff too.

Sucks because I have a pile of Summit fittings that I'm not going to use. Guess I'll give them to my son to play with. They're neat looking, if anything... but then anything anodized aluminum usually is.

reno808

I ran into the same issue, but i thought it just like a bad batch or something.

URG8RB8

I only use Earl's, made right here in the USA!

reno808

^ Yea thats good toooo

car_slave

I've been buying old NASCAR crimp fitted ones from ebay. The BMRS (Sometimes called Icore) Pro Gold are really nice. You just have to wait until the right length and fitting combo comes around.

tman

Another good one is Fragola, I get mine from RacePartSolutions.com. Local company.

Adonay

The weird thing is that the expensive fittings are not always better . On my friends compressor NSX we used Earl's and aeroquip fittings and hose.
The quality of those Earl fittings were not even close to the cheaper siliconeintakes fittings.
After snapping a fitting we gave up and changed them all for the last Aeroquip fittings and hoses and used silicone intakes stuff on the rest.. The Earl`s was also harder to ajust and mount than the rest.

Lemming

I used mostly summit fittings on my track car with no problems. Did you use a good hose cutter to make your cuts?

User 52121

I wonder if the Summit ones are special made for Summit by Earl's... because I just looked through the trash and they all came in Earl's packaging.

I used a high-speed cutoff wheel, Lemming. I've done a bunch of braided stuff in the past and never had problems with fraying. I didn't have any real fraying this time. It's like the Summit/Earl's fittings were the size of the rubber tube, they left no room for the braiding...

Lemming

When using a cut-off wheel, I usually wrap the hose with electrical tape and cut in the middle of the tape, that helps keep the fraying to a minimum.

User 52121

Yup Already do that.

Cutting without tape just makes a giant mess of things.

URG8RB8

You should try the preferred method by Earl's tech reps, a big sharpened cold chisel and 3 lb. sledge from HD. Place hose on top of 1" thick aluminum block and 2-3 hard whacks. Clean cut, no fraying, no tape adhesive mess, bonds braid to hose outer. They have very good how to videos on the Earl's home page. I have never had any issues when using this method and proper lubricant.

mclarenno9

Don't know about SS, but for the nylon braided hose, I use a large branch trimmer/shears to cut and it works the best out of all the methods I have tried.