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Coolant hoses

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sparkydave

sparkydave

Jedi Knight
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Hello all! Been away for far too long, hope I can rejoin and contribute some more, I've missed this place. At the moment, I'm pulling out some hair on the myriad of coolant hoses. I had put in a Weber DGEV a couple years ago (underwhelming), and since I found the repair kit to fix the leaky dashpot O-ring on the Zenith Stromberg, I've repaired the Zenith and put it back the way it was - almost. Coolant leaks everywhere! I'm scratching my head on how BL ever intended some of these hoses to seal properly when in some cases the hoses have to go between two different sizes of hose fittings. It just seems like hoses fit great at one end, but the smaller end you just have to crank down on the hose clamp and hope it doesn't leak. Right now it seems to be coming mostly from the fittings on the intake manifold. Any suggestions, short of going to the hardware store and seeing if I make a reducer to go from one size hose to another?

Someday I'll have the coolant leaks fixed, right? In 13 years almost everything that can possibly leak coolant has been replaced. :highly_amused:
 
Did you check the fittings to make sure they are still round? If you have a flat spot on the fitting, it's going to leak no matter how much you crank it down. That was the issue I had with a heater return line.
 
A issue I have run into before is people take a razor knife and slit old hoses at fitting to remove them.
This puts a deep scratch into the fitting and when refit may not leak until there is pressure applied.
 
sparkydave said:
Hello all! Been away for far too long, hope I can rejoin and contribute some more, I've missed this place. At the moment, I'm pulling out some hair on the myriad of coolant hoses. I had put in a Weber DGEV a couple years ago (underwhelming), and since I found the repair kit to fix the leaky dashpot O-ring on the Zenith Stromberg, I've repaired the Zenith and put it back the way it was - almost. Coolant leaks everywhere! I'm scratching my head on how BL ever intended some of these hoses to seal properly when in some cases the hoses have to go between two different sizes of hose fittings. It just seems like hoses fit great at one end, but the smaller end you just have to crank down on the hose clamp and hope it doesn't leak. Right now it seems to be coming mostly from the fittings on the intake manifold. Any suggestions, short of going to the hardware store and seeing if I make a reducer to go from one size hose to another?

Someday I'll have the coolant leaks fixed, right? In 13 years almost everything that can possibly leak coolant has been replaced. :highly_amused:
Click to expand...

Just re-read this and I am perplexed - you describe coolant leaks but every hose you describe is a fuel line?

IIRC, when I still had my ZS carb, the fuel line from the tank was not the same size at the fuel pump end and the carb end - I got the proper size for the smaller of the two (Pump I think) and then used hot water to stretch the hose on to the carb. (BTW I also ran the fuel line behind the heater to keep it cooler)

In terms of the manifold - yes, this is cooling - I just bought off the shelf hose no problems - same size at both ends. Without looking at the car, it seems there was also another barb on the manifold that went to the automatic choke on the carb (I put in a manual choke) I just put on a short piece of hose with a bolt clamped in the end.

good luck!
 
Thanks all, no, I mean the coolant hoses JPSmit. No problems with any of the fuel lines. The barbs at the water choke aren't the same size as their mates on the T-fitting and the return pipe, and the ones on the manifold passage aren't quite the same as the one from the water pump and the T-fitting. Nothing's bent or scratched that I can tell, but I've been busy and I haven't had a chance to look at it since Sunday. I just remember after a brief test drive I still had coolant dripping off the side of the engine, and as near as I can tell it was coming from either the rear hose barb of the manifold or one of the return pipe fittings.
 
Does the 1500 use the same kind of "Y" hose where the heater return line hits a hose going from the radiator to the water pump that the 1275 does? I know my Y hose split on the hose part -- too much forward pressure from the return line from a heater core hose that went between the core and the return line that was too long. Have the correct length on the heater return line is critical -- as is having a high quality "Y" hose. As I learned, the cheap ones don't hold up very well.
 
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