Thursday, February 13, 2014

Bottom Radiator Hose - Almost There!

A week or two ago I jumped on eBay after selling a few spare RB25 Coilpacks and ordered up what was the closest I could determine to the required hoses to make my bottom radiator hose.


The first to arrive is a 5 ply, 90 degree 38mm bend in black. I got this particular hose because the overall dimensions and bend looked suitably tight for the location I needed it to fit. This is of course all guess work. There were plenty of 90 degree 38mm or 1.5" ID bends to choose from on eBay.


Scarlett has been insisting in recent weeks that we really must "build Daddy's race car" - as ever, she's keen to help out.

This is a rough idea of where the first hose will sit.

The second hose has since turned up, this hose was much more difficult to track down, despite having being named (rather obviously) 1.5" inch to 1.77" inch 90 Degree 38mm to 45mm Silicone Pipe Coupler Hose/pipe. The reason I need this hose (a reducer) is because I've got two very good/almost new EA-ED Radiators which have a 44mm outlet and no EF/EL or AU radiators (which use 38mm outlets on both top and bottom hoses).

Because I'm running the serpentine belt setup on this engine, the water pump has a 38mm outlet. In my falcon, I'd just made do with a very old (read: soft) lower radiator hose with the anti-crush spring removed, and doubled up on hose clamps to prevent leaks. This worked sufficiently well for a long time however there was no easy way to modify a falcon lower hose for my uses this time around as the bends in them are too lazy for the space available.


Some trial fitting later, and what you see is the aftermath of the small amount of modification required to make it fit snug.

Pictured here to demonstrate with electrical tape holding the two pieces together, I've measured and need a 38mm/1.5" aluminium joiner with an overall length not greater than 50-60mm. Most on eBay were 76-100mm or longer; because I have no room to increase the gap I need the shorter joiner. After much deliberation (there were eventually only two I could genuinely choose from) I picked this one.

In the meantime, I think I will get a piece of 38mm tubing/pipe just so I can get some water in the car and try and sort out the (currently extremely rich at idle) fuel mixture.

I'm also probably going to re-do the top hose at some point; what I've got will work for now but ultimately I'm not confident I can rely on it for track use as it's an old BMW hose and only barely goes onto the barbs  at each end. Back to eBay to try and find the right 50mm clamps to hold the whole shebang together, and a long enough 38mm 90 degree bend to cut down for the top hose.

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