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Ni-Copp Brake Lines


rdnkcpa

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I was wondering what the general consensus on Ni-Copp brake line material is. My left front caliper appears to be hanging up, so I'm going to attempt to rebuild it. And looking at the steel brakeline, as soon as I put a wrench on the steel fitting I think it is going to break the line. I also have a new brake hose on the way, just to eliminate the potential for them to collapse on the inside. I know it's faster and better to buy rebuilt calipers, but this is a learning experience, I want to take apart, inspect, clean, install new seals then reinstall. If the pistons are too screwed up, I'll buy a remaned set. I have the time and space, truck is not my DD, so I can tinker with it.

 

Anyway, like all Chevys from this vintage (2004), my brake lines look terrible. When researching brake lines, I stumbled across Ni-Copp brakelines, looks very tempting. They are a Copper, Nickel, Iron allow that is DOT approved. Easier to bend and will not corrode again.

 

Has anybody use the NI-Copp stuff, and if so are you happy with the results?

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Any line that claims to be easier to bend is also easier to kink. Nothing worse than buying the good stuff only to have to throw it out.

Never had any issues with stainless lines back in the day.

 

A tip for not breaking the line is to soak line in your favourite brand of penetrating fluid, then tighten the nut slightly before trying to break line free. If you cannot turn the nut to loosen with the line turning as well, just break the line free, the take the retaining clip of the flex hose, and pull the line down through the flex hose bracket, then hold the nut on the line, and spin the hose off the line. Once hose if off the line, take a torch and heat the nut till red, then more penetrating fluid and turning the back and forth from loose to tight directions. Nut will come free pretty easily this way, you just need to really watch the line and nut movement. Common error is thinking the nut is free from line, and it isn't. Only takes half turn with nut seized to line to screw the line up.

 

NOTE: Do NOT heat the nut up with the flex hose attached. It is very easy to get the flex hose melt shut and the brake fluid expands when heated, usually resulting in the flex hose blowing off the swaged on fitting, usually causing damage to the back of your head. My personal experience in this happened in Peterborough one winter on a Volare with the front fender full of snow. Line blew off causing me to snap my head backwards into the edge of the fender, cutting my head on the lip of fender opening, then dumping the fender full of packed in snow that had been thrown up on the past 2 weeks of heavy snow fall, and very cold temps. Only advantage from that was it did apply ice to the now bleeding and swelling up back of head.

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Ni-copp brake line is a Copper, Nickel, Iron alloy. It is in wide use on European cars. Porsche, Volvo and others. Regular steel brake lines, I think are rated to 17,900 PSI if I'm not mistaken. Ni-Copp is rated to 17,000. Ni-Copp is DOT approved.

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getting all mine replaced next week with the ni-cop. was looking at the preformed kits but the one from gm did not include all lines. mechanic told me they prefer bending the lines themselves actually saves time. dealer told me the same. anyway for the price i think it is a great deal. lines are 13 years old dont want to be braking when one lets go.

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Any line that claims to be easier to bend is also easier to kink. Nothing worse than buying the good stuff only to have to throw it out.

Never had any issues with stainless lines back in the day.

 

A tip for not breaking the line is to soak line in your favourite brand of penetrating fluid, then tighten the nut slightly before trying to break line free. If you cannot turn the nut to loosen with the line turning as well, just break the line free, the take the retaining clip of the flex hose, and pull the line down through the flex hose bracket, then hold the nut on the line, and spin the hose off the line. Once hose if off the line, take a torch and heat the nut till red, then more penetrating fluid and turning the back and forth from loose to tight directions. Nut will come free pretty easily this way, you just need to really watch the line and nut movement. Common error is thinking the nut is free from line, and it isn't. Only takes half turn with nut seized to line to screw the line up.

 

NOTE: Do NOT heat the nut up with the flex hose attached. It is very easy to get the flex hose melt shut and the brake fluid expands when heated, usually resulting in the flex hose blowing off the swaged on fitting, usually causing damage to the back of your head. My personal experience in this happened in Peterborough one winter on a Volare with the front fender full of snow. Line blew off causing me to snap my head backwards into the edge of the fender, cutting my head on the lip of fender opening, then dumping the fender full of packed in snow that had been thrown up on the past 2 weeks of heavy snow fall, and very cold temps. Only advantage from that was it did apply ice to the now bleeding and swelling up back of head.

 

Nothing like the voice of experience...

 

I've been soaking the line nut in PB blaster for the last week. I'm just preparing for replacement of the line. I will do my best to not break it, but Murphy seems to live in my garage.

 

I was helping my brother change the upstream driver's side O2 sensor on his Nissan Titan. That sensor is in the exhaust manifold in the engine compartment. YOu get at it by coming in through the front driver's side wheel well. After you put the socket on the sensor, then put an extension on it, the extension goes right through the middle of 4 brakelines. Nissan did bend the two middle ones out of the way so the extension could fit through. Nissan uses coated brakelines. They are all coated with the exception of the fittings and the coating stops about 1/2" from the end of the line. I put the ratchet on the extension and told my brother to hold the ratchet straight while I lefty loosyed and told him don't let me touch the brake lines. Well, needless to say, I BARELY touched the brakeline, and the uncovered part of the brake line immediately broke. So an O2 job turned into quite the brake line replacement job. His rig is an 2004 with about 170K on the clock.

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If you're replacing the brake hose anyway just cut the rubber line where it meets the nut and heat the nut up with a torch. Not hard to do, just got to be smart about it.

 

Personally, I would do this, except, I would wind the flex hose off of the steel line before applying heat. Take the holding clip off the flex line, drop the line through the hole, then hold the steel line nut, and turn the flex line. After line is removed, then heat steel line nut. Trust me, there is a good reason for doing it this way.

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GM makes brake line kits for these trucks now too. Nylon coated steel (like all trucks since 2007) and won't rust out, pre bent, flared and fittings all ready to go. The kit does not come with the 2 pipes that run directly on the rear axle from the junction off the rear flex hose. Just an option for ya. We've sold many of them to a variety of customers.

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ABS was a distant dream on the vehicles I used this stuff on. :D

 

We used to call the soft bumpers ABS bumpers. I mentioned ABS just to make sure people understood what goes on with the brake fluid line pressures when ABS is being used for the panic stop. I don't think many consider this when purchasing brake components. Some simply use the Raven or Crow doctrine, shiny is good

 

How long has this Ni-Copp been around? Seriously, never saw anything but seamless steel or seamless stainless for hard brake lines and braided stainless flex lines. At that time, only the most serious street/parking lot racers would use braided stainless flex lines on their pro street cars or gymkhana cars. Only bought hard line in 50 or 100 foot coils, and would purchase the most cost effective type. I preferred stainless, but I think at the time it was close to double the per foot price. Sometimes it went on sale for 15 to 25% off. Anything over 15% off would get me taking the seamless stainless.

 

Was this line the one that had a dull goldish tinge to it?

 

This thread has reminded me building my first pro street car. Hard to believe that personal pro street car was built 30 years ago. I am old. Stopped "getting" old a while ago, now it is just old.

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I use nothing but nickle-copper lines on any line I replace. Last set I did on my own vehicle is going on winter # 5. Turns green, but doesn't blow out with rust.

 

Stuff is a dream to work with. Just bend it with your hands as you go. Might not look as pretty as a factory line, but it's also 10x cheaper.

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........... mechanic told me they prefer bending the lines themselves actually saves time. dealer told me the same. ..........

I agree with that - fishing a pre-bent line through all the crap that's under vehicles these days is a royal pain in the ass! I can go much faster just bending as I go, and flaring the ends. Half the time I just reuse the old hardware, if it's not all rusted or rounded off.

 

And flaring this material is SOOO easy. My dies will last forever.

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We use the nickel copper line at my shop if we cant find factory lines. It's good stuff and id put more faith in it then plain steel line. It is very easy to kink so just be aware of that when you're bending it.

 

My first choice would be pre-bent factory lines but those aren't always available, in that case nickel copper is an excellent choice.

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I have to admit I never gave that ABS scenario much thought. I would think the companies selling the stuff would never take that chance on liability if it were to deform under ABS braking .. but you never know these days.

 

I've seen lots of variations of the stuff - all depends on where you buy it. This stuff here I got from the local autoparts store. Ran 9' or so down the back of my brother's D-Max 2500HD a few years back. He never had a problem with it.

 

NiCoppbrakeline_zpsa2e5a0f5.jpg

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I agree with that - fishing a pre-bent line through all the crap that's under vehicles these days is a royal pain in the ass! I can go much faster just bending as I go, and flaring the ends. Half the time I just reuse the old hardware, if it's not all rusted or rounded off.

 

And flaring this material is SOOO easy. My dies will last forever.

 

Any spec on burst pressure compared to OEM line? Using copper is not an option at all for brake lines, and listening to the comments on Ni-Copp makes me wary of the strength. If the line is that much easier to flare, have to wonder how easy to swell under extreme braking operations, like when the ABS kicks in on a high speed panic stop. The material would need to be stable under very high pressure loads being applied and released 100 times per second. That would test the tubing harder than just applying a straight on loaded pressure, and held for 15 seconds.

The ABS effect is better described as hammering pressure.

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ABS was a distant dream on the vehicles I used this stuff on. :D

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