I got my headers on and mounted the starter back up, the steal cooling lines for the tranny are wedged between the 2, im not too sure I can bend them as much as they need to be bent. I was thinking about taking them off, cutting them, then using a steel braided hose off a few inches of line, and mount it someplace away from the headers.

You could also use rubber tranny cooler line and hose clamps.

I was thinking of running stainless steel braided lines all the way from the trans to the radiator and running them through the frame. Is there any reason not to do this?

I'm running Earls ultra lite hose thats plumbed with all black anodized AN fittings. I mounted BM's largest tranny cooler in front of my radiator. I ran all the line out of the trans and into the frame. The lines exit the end of the frame horn and up in front of the core support were they attach to the cooler. Super slick, can hardly tell whats going on, the line are far away from any heat or wear, and my trans stay very cool. smile.gif

The stainless hose would probably work but its very stiff. The Earls ultra lite stuff is woven on the outside with a tough nylon which is resistant to abrasion but is pretty soft and flexible. I will say that the cooler, hose, and fittings was about 450.00, but it looks damn good .

Score a tubing bender. Take a trip to your parts store, buy some straight runs of tubing (steel brake line tubing) they come flared with fitings on the tubes. Bend your own, run them where you want them. Tubing is CHEAP. A bender can be had for a few bucks. After you have it fabbed up, and need to have a "cut end" double flared, take a trip to any brake shop and have them flare the lines. They will charge next to nothing to flare a few tubes for you. Ever see trans fluid spray down some nice hot headers? I would never run rubber hoses for a cooler install. Braided steel would do the trick, but with the fittings and hoses it will get spendy in a hurry. Try your hand at running the tubing / bender, take your time and you will end up with a nice install for less dollars, and it will last for ever.

The hose that I used is designed for this type of application. Most all Nascar use this same hose in the exact same applications (oil coolers/water hose). This stuff is as tough as steel braided hose , but is very workable. I would never attempt to run just rubber hose for a tranny cooler. The working temps and pressures on this hose far exceeds anything it will ever see. I like this type of install because in keeps the header temp away from steel lines that are nearby. The only downside to this is the cost, but after this install I would'nt go back to steel near engine and headers.