Engine and Transmission Tech

Looks like I need to reroute my heater hoses. I had the one to the water pump running between the block and alternator pulley but found the hard way I hadn't tied it to keep them away from the alt pulley. On my way home from a drive this afternoon, the pulley cut through the hose.

Engine is ford 302. Water pump has the heater port at about 10 o'clock (as viewed from front of the engine) and it has an elbow pointing down. Looks like the set up in this pic...



So two questions...

First, anyone know of a standard hose/pipe combination intended to be used with this water pump configuration?

Second, can the 90* elbow fitting be turned (without removing the wp) so I can use a pipe that go between the head and carb?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/20/2011 07:21PM by rficalora.

Only thing I can suggest is to determine the donor vehicle (Explorer, Mustang, etc) and use the correct OEM hose arrangement. If your WP is a typical Ford product, then the heater hose return and the t'stat bypass tubes are not removeable and cannot be re-oriented.

Hey Rob,
to me it looks like you have a few options.
Like Graham says, determine the application for the pump and get the corresponding hose. I haven't seen a ford with the 90" fitting before so I can't help there.
Another option is to make up a "hard line". Soft copper tubing works well. Bend to fit, flatten for clearance if required and couple to the pump fitting with a short piece of hose.
If necessary the pump fitting can be turned. They are epoxied and pressed in place. You will need to heat the pump housing to soften the epoxy and then turn the fitting. This can be done on the car but would be much preferred if the pump was removed.
My personal choice would be to remove the pump, pull out the nipples and thread the holes for AN fittings. Looks good, works good and you only have to do it once.
Cheers
Fred

Rob, I had good results routing my heater hoses around my engine compartment using standard copper plumbing pipe and fittings, just had to position things where I wanted them and solder the connections. Used standard copper support straps soldered in place to use as attachment brackets also. The only problem was adapting the GM 5/8" hose to the 1/2" pipe but soldering a union on the hose end enlarged it enough for the hose to clamp on firmly.

Thanks guys. I emailed Vintage Air to see if they have an OEM reference since the pump came with their Front Runner kit. If I don't hear back by the morning, copper it'll be. Hopefully I can buy it by the foot at Ace... Seems the stuff has gotten expensive!

Rob,

What size of copper do you need? I have a bunch of scrap copper at the warehouse.

I'm with Fred on this one. Take your pump off, twist out your pipe stubs with a large pair of channel locks, Thread the hole for AN fittings. This is what I did with my pump, in the end it looks very good. I haven't had any problems with it for 3000 miles so far.

Thanks for the offer Calvin. I think I have it set - too late to fire it up tonight w/o upsetting the neighbors (and probably my wife too) but my son & I just finished working on it. I used a combination of a preformed heater hose I found at Napa and a piece of copper. I'll likely switch to AN fittings when I have more time; this way it's back on the road without waiting for pears and with the copper painted black, it looks ok. We'll test it out in the morning - then off to see King Tut; he's visiting Houston so can't pass up that opportunity.

Oh, and since the radiator was just about empty, we pulled it and the fan so we could get a socket on the balancer nut so we could find TDC. Interestingly, I was only about 1* off when I used the "feel the piston with a screwdriver" method vs. with the piston stop this evening.