The outlet valve should be on the top of the bearing so you don't get any trapped air in the system. Just like on brake calipers - keep the bleeder valve as close to the top as possible.
Your tilton instructions (if you have them) should give you a tolerance range for the closeness of the actual bearing face (which hits the pressure plate fingers) to the pressure plate fingers and you'll need to probably remove and install the tranny several times to get this setting as close as possible. Depending, of course, on what kind of room you have under the car - which likely isn't much. Sometimes a small mirror and good flashlight can assist in seeing what you need to see through an opening in the scattershield/bell housing.
Have the new clutch and pressure plate in and buttoned down secure and properly aligned so the tranny will slip in and out easily. Then in and out with the tranny, checking each time how close the t.o. bearing face is to the pressure plate fingers. Use a mirror and flashlight to do this or also put markings on the hub (stationary part) of the t. o. bearing to use as a reference point while testing the actual bearing for travel. You'll need someone to push the pedal carefully while you are under the car checking the t.o. bearing movement.
You may have to actually pull at least one of the lines (inlet perhaps) off of the stationary part of the t. o. bearing so you can adjust it, depending on the style of t.o. bearing you have.
I just spent several days doing this in a friends Cobra - 427 so, with toploader and his t.o. bearing assembly was a "screw on" style that has a locking shoulder bolt to keep the mechanism from moving. This type of t.o. bearing has to go one full turn at a time in it's setting. So, I had to remove the inlet ss line, turn the stattionary part of the t.o. bearing how ever many turns I thought it needed to be, reinstall the locking shoulder bolt, reattach the inlet line, put the tranny back in and secure it and then have someone push the clutch pedal so I could reflect an image with a small mirror and tell what was happening with the bearing and the clutch fingers.
After doing this multiple times, we finally reached a point where the bearing while disengaged from the fingers was as close to them as it could be (within a turn) without riding on the fingers.
The clutch now works fine.
We also made good and sure that the clutch pedal does not over extend the travel of the t.o. bearing. (you don't want the bearing to be pushed out of the stationary housing that it rides in.) Using an adjustable pedal stop usually takes care of this concern.
If your bearing assembly has adjustment posts (like 4 posts that position the bearing in or out from the tranny) then you may not need to remove the inlet line, since you can do the positioning of the assembly simply by using the adjustment posts (bolts). That would save you some steps from what I had to do. (on the one I just did, the outlet line didn't need to be disconnected since it was not secured to anything on the free end and that allowed it to spin with the bearing mechanism as I screwed the mechanism in or out to adjust it).
It's a pain at first (trust me on that ) but once you have your "system" worked out, it's not too hard to complete.
If you have the screw on t.o. bearing and need any pics, I can send you what I took of the one on the car we just did.
And yes, by all means, make SURE that when you are done and everything is buttoned down, both inlet and outlet lines are well secured AWAY from any moving parts inside the scattershield. A spinning pressure plate will wipe out a ss braided line in less than a block. Also make sure nothing is going to be snagged by any shifter linkage movement or anything else on the exterior of the scattershield.
With either inlet or outlet braided ss line, sometimes just a simple half twist of the line outside of the scattershield can cause it to move in one direction or the other, on the inside of the scattershield. Such movement could easily place it near the spinning internal parts. So after everything is done and secured, double check to make sure those lines are still as clear as they can be from the internal spinning parts.
As far as hard lining either inlet or outlet line? That might work provided you don't have to keep disconnecting them each time you try to move the tranny. Maybe a short hard line leading out of the scattershield that then connected to a flex line - that might be a concept? (would possibly avoid the risk of internal line movement that could hit a spinning component). I might look further into that if I ever do another one.
Good Luck.
