Steel Tubing Radiator "Hoses"

[toobroketoretire]

About 5 years ago I did away with my long radiator hoses and fabricated steel tubing "hoses" to virtually eliminate any possibility of a blown hose. I will have to admit it was a very lengthy job to make them because of the multiple angles and MIG welding involved but in the end they came out perfect. The top "hose" uses two short pieces of 1-1/2" heavy duty straight hose and the bottom "hose" uses two very short pieces of 1-3/4" straight hose. I used 14 gauge exhaust tubing in their construction so they will last virtually forever. And for the 3/4" bypass hose I reduced it to 5/8" and am using heavy duty 5/8" heater hose that will also last a very long time because it is so much tougher than the pre-formed bypass hoses. This is an old picture of my top tubing before I fabricated my Ram Air and the new tubing is a lot lower and doesn't have the dent. As soon as I get my camera battery re-charged I'll take a picture of my new tubing because I know you're dying to see it. And as the bottom tubing is so hard to see I'll skip trying to take a picture of it.



I'm sorry this ended up getting posted twice so please forgive me. Old age I guess. Just click on the duplicate post to see some breathtaking pictures.

 

[toobroketoretire]

Radiator Hose Failures

Several years ago I started my '82 in my garage and let it run for about 15 minutes when all of a sudden my top hose burst open. When I say "burst" I'm talking about a 5" spiral split which sent coolant over my garage rafters. That's what I don't like about preformed hoses as when they go they often REALLY go. Lucky it was in my garage and not out in heavy traffic. The odd thing was the hose really didn't look all that bad. It was swollen some but not enough to concern me.

 

[Antz81]

Several years ago I started my '82 in my garage and let it run for about 15 minutes when all of a sudden my top hose burst open. When I say "burst" I'm talking about a 5" spiral split which sent coolant over my garage rafters. That's what I don't like about preformed hoses as when they go they often REALLY go. Lucky it was in my garage and not out in heavy traffic. The odd thing was the hose really didn't look all that bad. It was swollen some but not enough to concern me.

I had something similar with a heater hose on my 81. The hose didn't completely burst, it just ended up with a large split. Like yours my car hadn't been running for long. Maybe 5 mins. I was doing some checks on the other side of the engine bay, when I noticed the steam coming up. I walked around to the other side, and there was a jet of coolant coming out of the hose and onto one of the tubes from the header. Strange that it happened in the garage, but it was the best place for it.