Flexible radiator hoses

I'm talking about these things:

Anyone have input on them? I have some weirdness i need to route around in ZE Escort of Doom and these could potentially make it easy.

How well do they hold a bend? Can they go pretty tight? Any brands to look for or avoid?

.... can i get them in purple?

http://www.coolflex.com/cfm/welcome.cfm

they should hold shape, and yes, you can get them(at least this one) in purple

I used them when I put a much bigger radiator into the wife's Mustang at the time. The original hoses wouldn't have worked anyways, as the radiator used 1.75" ends compared to the 1.5" OE ends.

I hate those things, they scream "I hacked this thing together" to me. They're not nearly as reliable as standard molded hoses. In MOST applications, you can find a hose that will get the job done. This requires going to a parts store that uses BOOKS....they can open their (Gates, Dayco, etc.) catalog and it has hoses sorted by inner diameter, typically, and also lists overall length and has a picture of each part. Find one that looks about right and is at least as long or longer than what you need. They can look up the number and see if they have it in stock. Clearly, this works best at parts counters with not-idiots (again, a book is typically required) and also a place with some inventory on hand or willing to order in several without pre-paying.

Sure, a little more work, but in the end you'll be way more satisfied, your swap will have you looking like a pro, and it will last longer.

Bryce

That's my complaint with these things as well.

However... i need to make a 90 up, a 90 to the left, and another 90 to the back all within less than a foot.

i could hack together something using parts store hoses, but i'd need like three, and some joiners, and a E36 M3load of clamps.

I agree, I think those look a bit "hack" to me and they seem prone to leaking eventually where the segments join together, especially if you bent them sharply. I'd even do silicone elbows and straight beaded pipe before I'd do the flexy hose.

andrave wrote: I agree, I think those look a bit "hack" to me and they seem prone to leaking eventually where the segments join together, especially if you bent them sharply. I'd even do silicone elbows and straight beaded pipe before I'd do the flexy hose.

Oh just to clarify... the "segments" are only to keep the hose shaped. They're smooth rubber inside just like any other hose.

Silicone elbows is where i was going prior, but that was going to get monstrously expensive and be a big pain in the ass i think.

I haven't decided on these things really... just wondering if anyone has used them and had good results, and if they would hold the bends i need.

I've had good luck with just the cheap dayco flex hoses. All the "soft" plumbing in the Wartburg is done with them and it's held up fine. Not the prettiest solution but they work well.

I have had good luck by going to some of the farn & fleet stores where they still hang hoses from racks and you can then go around and look at what may work. Some auto parts stores may allow you to go 'in the back" to look at what they have in stock as well.

I would bet that at worse you should be able to get the shape you need with no more then two pieces of hose with one joint.

To clean things up on the hose clamp side trying using these clamps:

http://www.mcmaster.com/#standard-hose-clamps/=kdlveq

Guys, i appreciate all the input on the best way to do this.

Now that said, i'm asking about these hoses in particular. I know i can go at least two other different ways at this (And even posted another thread last week about one of the other options), but at the moment i'm simply trying to learn if, looks aside, the hoses i was talking about in the original post are really all they're cracked up to be.

As in:

1) Will they hold tight bends?

What brands people have used or can recommend?

Are they available in purple? (Yamaha gets a brownie point)

If they all leak like crazy and are just generally the worst things on Earth, i'd appreciate those anecdotes as well. I'm just trying to figure out if they're viable for the situation i've found myself in vs. spending a bunch of time trying to hack together something using hard pipes and a ton of couplers that i'd have to cut and bead roll, or using a bunch of hacked up parts store stuff.

I have those metal hoses on my race car. 9 race weekends including a couple of 90 minute features and no issues with leaking or vibration cracks to date. I like them.

I can't answer your question, but I would be interested in what you learn. Keep us posted.

I spent 20 minutes in the back of a NAPA searching for a hose when I did the radiator change on the Abomination. Something like that would have been a whole lot easier to do.

You can get the coolflex stuff in black too.. personally, I like the stuff, but have never had anything equally as nice to put them in. Maybe once I get the fiat done

92CelicaHalfTrac wrote: 1) Will they hold tight bends? What brands people have used or can recommend?

1) I duplicated this hose with what you wanted above.

I used whatever Scummit had at the time, and not the Scummit brand like there is now, which ended up being like $150 for two hoses.

some small exhaust tubing, a welder, and a couple of short pieces of hose would also be a viable method of accomplishing what you want..

I'm guessing a canoe got nuked?

Either way... here's what i ended up with. (And you can probably see why i needed this.... the motor is pretty close to the radiator support.)

Rent a cooling system pressure tester and pressure test that before your first trip. Those hoses were on a modifed car I bought some time ago. They didn't hold up well.

amg_rx7 wrote: Rent a cooling system pressure tester and pressure test that before your first trip. Those hoses were on a modifed car I bought some time ago. They didn't hold up well.

They held just fine for the 5 minutes that that particular motor survived.

Swank Force One wrote:

amg_rx7 wrote: Rent a cooling system pressure tester and pressure test that before your first trip. Those hoses were on a modifed car I bought some time ago. They didn't hold up well.

They held just fine for the 5 minutes that that particular motor survived.

I don't think I know that story.

i've had great luck with samco hoses, they have a wide variety of bends and shapes, are available in purple!

I needed an upper hose on my eclipse, and the store didn't have any in stock (middle of a road trip.. so I needed it now) I bought a cheap flexi hose, stainless braided outside, fake AN looking ends..... it has been on there for about 100k miles now... no problems.

tuna55 wrote:

Swank Force One wrote:

amg_rx7 wrote: Rent a cooling system pressure tester and pressure test that before your first trip. Those hoses were on a modifed car I bought some time ago. They didn't hold up well.

They held just fine for the 5 minutes that that particular motor survived.

I don't think I know that story.

Do you like my cam?

^that looks like some interesting custom machining...

amg_rx7 wrote: ^that looks like some interesting custom machining...

How did that happen?

Failed to check my buddy's work when he installed the cams in my freshly rebuilt line-bored heads that come from factory with conveniently stamped/numbered cam caps, because who could possibly berkeley that up?

My fault. Nobody touches my motors anymore. Destroyed about $1000 worth of parts initially, rebuilding is going to be about $4000. Expensive learning experience.