Club 80-90 Forums

need to make up some custom coolant pipes for my engine conversion

seems to be lots of options

ie silicone hoses - straight and flexi and various pre formed bends
rubber hoses , straight / flexi / wire reinforced etc.
alloy pipes and bends etc.

need to join two 28mm OD outlets from engine to rad feed and one 38 mm OD inlet to engine from rad return (needs to go from front of engine round side to rear and connect to rad feed and return) as well as connect up the expansion tank somewhere

anyone recommend what type of hoses i should be going for?

S.

Have you found the http://www.carbuildersolutions.com/uk/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; website yet? Lots of different coolant hoses and joiners on there.

yeah had a look at them - the problem is 25mm OD seems to be largest equal T anyone does

engine has 2 28mm od going to rad and one 38mm return

seems to me if i join the 2 28mm flows with a 25mm T then its gonna reduce the flow to the radiator too much? or does that just increase the pressure?

may have to fabricate something

had another look - i can get a 38mm unequal T with a 25mm ID spout in silicone - may be able to stretch that over the 28mm OD outlets from the engine

will order one and see if fits

I looked into this for a project that never got finished, one of the silicone hose manufacturers I think it was sfs said that if I could put together a hose that fits made out of bits of old hoses then they could make a former from that.

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from what i can tell silicone is tougher than rubber and handles higher heat / pressure but is harder to get a good seal on a join as its less flexible

oh and it looks very nice as comes in all sorts of bright colours

sfs silicone stuff looks pretty good - i suspect it would be mighty expensive to get something custom made though

will probably try fabricating something in mild steel first as its easy to work with but then will have to worry about corrosion

painting the outside would be easy but not sure if necessary on the inside if using decent quality coolant?

From what I've seen rubber coolant hoses can be very durable, the 26 year old ones off both my vans are still perfectly servicable. OTOH silicone doesn't seem as tough, and can split and tear more easily. The fact that car manfacturers use rubber does suggest it is superior.

The fact that car manfacturers use rubber does suggest it is superior.

or could be its a good bit cheaper for them , i admit though it does seem to do the job pretty well on most cars out there, my vans hoses are starting to look suspect in areas but then it is 32 years old! Shame you cant seem to get rubber in the same assortment of bends / tees / reducers etc as you can silicone.

I suspect the custom builds out there use silicone for the look (variety of bright colours) as much as anything.