It was finally time to plumb the engine and add fluids for the first time in over a year. I measured and bought this hose at the local parts store, intending it to be used on the lower radiator connection. This is not the hose I ended up using.
The lower port on the radiator was a different diameter than the matching port on the engine. This hose has the same inlet and outlet sizes and thus was a looser fit on one side than it should have been. It was also too long, causing it to not only kink at the engine side connection more than it's corrugated design warranted, but also rest on the engine frame rail.
This is the correct upper hose though. Again, cheaply purchased at a local parts store, it did fit properly.
The lower engine side port was a bit difficult to get to, but not impossible.
Both hoses installed.
Not being happy with the fitment of the lower hose, I returned for a shorter one. Surprisingly, it turns out the shorter one had different inlet and outlet sizes, which matched my engine and radiator perfectly.
Again, it's not impossible, but you can see the mess that you have to work around in order to install the lower hose. It was worth the work though, as the hose no longer kinked at the neck, nor completely sat on the frame rail, nor was the wrong size connection at one end with a high potential to ultimately leak.
I spent less than 3o$ on these hoses and had them in my hand and on the car that day. I was originally going to order 2 silicone hoses online and have them shipped in, but was having trouble finding ones that I knew would fit my swap. Also the ones I did find were either unnecessarily more expensive, the wrong color, would have taken a while to ship, or a combination of the three. The nicer silicone hose I did buy is on top, while the corrugated one sits unassumingly below, out of view. The lower tube would have also been harder to get in silicone at a parts store due to the multiple bends and lengths of sections.
I got a few bottles of 1oo % radiator fluid and started mixing with distilled water, 5o/5o, filling and capping off the new radiator, the cap of which I stole from my old radiator because the new one didn't come with one.
The lower port on the radiator was a different diameter than the matching port on the engine. This hose has the same inlet and outlet sizes and thus was a looser fit on one side than it should have been. It was also too long, causing it to not only kink at the engine side connection more than it's corrugated design warranted, but also rest on the engine frame rail.
This is the correct upper hose though. Again, cheaply purchased at a local parts store, it did fit properly.
The lower engine side port was a bit difficult to get to, but not impossible.
Both hoses installed.
Not being happy with the fitment of the lower hose, I returned for a shorter one. Surprisingly, it turns out the shorter one had different inlet and outlet sizes, which matched my engine and radiator perfectly.
Again, it's not impossible, but you can see the mess that you have to work around in order to install the lower hose. It was worth the work though, as the hose no longer kinked at the neck, nor completely sat on the frame rail, nor was the wrong size connection at one end with a high potential to ultimately leak.
I spent less than 3o$ on these hoses and had them in my hand and on the car that day. I was originally going to order 2 silicone hoses online and have them shipped in, but was having trouble finding ones that I knew would fit my swap. Also the ones I did find were either unnecessarily more expensive, the wrong color, would have taken a while to ship, or a combination of the three. The nicer silicone hose I did buy is on top, while the corrugated one sits unassumingly below, out of view. The lower tube would have also been harder to get in silicone at a parts store due to the multiple bends and lengths of sections.
I got a few bottles of 1oo % radiator fluid and started mixing with distilled water, 5o/5o, filling and capping off the new radiator, the cap of which I stole from my old radiator because the new one didn't come with one.
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