After many trips to NAPA I can't find a lower radiator hose that will fit my application without buying two and splicing them together. I think I'll try building one out of metal tubing with short rubber connections to the pump and radiator. Any advice on what kind of tubing to use? Tailpipe bends etc. I can mig but have no access to tig so need to stay away from stainless. Any ideas appreciated.
I have seen lots of 1-1/4 or 1-1/2 copper used, done with thought it looks very good Fittings, pipe, soldered, polished, some times chromed after
Copper? Might bend easily and will help keep things cool. I was reading an article (I think it was in R&C) about a car that had the coolant run through the steel tube frame rails to the rear of the car where the radiator was. They mentioned that it would eventually rust out, which you would think the copper would prevent.
I have used copper tubing and fittings in the past. The nice thing is the tight bends without restricting the flow.Just paint it black. It won't rust like exhaust pipe.
i usually use stainless , but have used regular mandrel bent exhaust bends with no problems. if you don't want to tig stainless you could use a straight piece of it and use 45 and 90 degree rubber bends
Did this in an O/T engine swap (427 in an 80 pickup). Used chrome plated brass from the local hardware store, think kitchen sink drain. Cut the ends of the radiator hose for the angles and then the drain pipe for the straight run. Never failed in the 12 + years I ran the truck & pretty traditional too
a lot of guys do it , but i've never been fond of just cutting the tube and slipping the hose over the end with a clamp. i suggest you try to find someone who can put a bead on the end.
Ditto, On my off topic '78 truck I have an after market radiator. the factory hose would no longer reach. I ran up to Lowes and bought a 12" piece of sink drain. I also bought 4 new clamps while I was there. I cut the pipe for the straight run and put the screw part of the clamp on the underside of the hose. It all poloished up nicely and has run fantastic for years. not a single drip.
I almost always have do this on every car that I build, I have a good supply of stainless sanitary tube to use or i use steel alot of times and have no trouble. Put an additive in your coolant system to prevent rust to help..
Maybe this will work ............... http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=137944&highlight=lower+radiator
I've used exhaust tubing in the past as well as the nice chrome sink drains from the hardware store. I tried my best to find a nice molded hose, spent many a long hour behind the counter of my local parts houses trying to match something up. I finally gave up and went to the hardware store. Here is my latest, also from the hardware store, its a 1 1/2 rigid conduit 90 degree sweep. (it will get painted engine color the next time I have the cooling system open) Bobby
Here on a different kind of car, made out of stainless and tig welded. Works realy wel, do it on most of the special cars. Of coarse it is possible whit copper, but as 36-3window said , make the beads at the end of the pipes to prevent the hose slipping off. The make of the hose ends i use is Samco, thy have them in about any size and bend. Wander.
Speedway has a wonderful selection of bends with the beads on them already. I think they are aluminum.
A way to put a bead on the end if you don't have a bead roller, is to wrap a piece of thick copper wire around the tubing about 1/4" from the end. Then use a torch to solder the wire to the tubing leaving a nice smooth fillet of solder on both sides of the wire. Silver solder works really well for that because it flows well. Just paint the flux where you want the silver solder to flow before you heat it up with the torch. Copper tubing or fittings should be fine for that. It can handle the pressure and it won't corrode, and you can get it with nice tight bends in the elbows. Regular steel might last longer if you clean it well and paint it inside and out with some good quality paint, like epoxy paint or something like POR 15. Brass tubing should work well too. If you use copper bends where one end fits into the next end, you can cut the outer part of the expanded part of the bend shorter if you silver solder it (silver braze) instead of using soft solder. With silver solder, you only need about 3/8" or 1/2" of overlap to make a good strong solder joint because silver solder is wayyy stronger than lead/tin solder.
I had never seen that type of set up before, pretty cool. I have an edge former that does it, but this one is cool.
On some of our dirt track cars over the years race damage has occured or we have swapped out stock radiators to aluminum, when we put the different radiators in we had different size inlet outlets from block to radiator. A simple fix was to get 2 hoses and find 2 pieces of steel tubing that fit each size, weld the 2 pieces of tubing together and now you have your adapter. Lasted well through the life of the race car. For a street car you could probably make it to where the adapter is all the way inside the 2 pieces of hose and the only thing on the outside of the 2 is your hose clamps. Then you would not have an unsightly piece or have to answer as many questions. The adapter would hold up for more then likely quite a few years as long as you use thick enough tubing and is no worse then your iron/steel block rusting out.-Weeks
Just in case you guys want to search through the parts store hoses for the one you need, go in and grab a length of the preheat hose first. That's the tubing that goes from the heat stove to the air cleaner on 60-80s cars. You can bend it to the shape you need easily, and it will hold the shape.
FYI, NAPA has radiator hose reducer bushings that range in size from 1 1/4 up to 3" in 1/4" increments NBH-900 NBH-901 NBH-902 NBH-903 NBH-904 NBH-905 These little guys can be a real headache reducer Bobby
Right, Antifreeze contains rust inhibitors that will keep plain 'ol exhaust tubing in good shape for years.
I had a circle track car ... SBC to a Olds radiator ... I used rubber bends from stock SBC hoses and steel exhaust pipe. Over 3 years which included a lot of idle time there was still no corrosion of the pipes. If I were to do it again I would use the rubber bends and stainless tubing.
I would not use exhaust tubing, generally it was spare roll-cage/support bar tubing. Exhaust tubing is for exhaust, its just a cheap and easy fix with what is laying around handy.-Weeks
I used aluminum had it at the house, my boy was working at a muffler shop and bent it but it was off enought that I cut it in have and re heliarced and polished it up . Ed
if you cant tig weld just buy some stainless wire for your mig and mig weld the stainless bends together.
I just did this to my new engine. It's stainless and goes into the hose about 2 1/2 - 3 inches on each end
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