Universal steel rad hose any good?

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71Scamper

71Scamper

Mopar runs thru my veins!
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So I had my initial firing of the 340 last night in the garage. It was a great start and break in. As the temp nears full operating temp, the lower hose blew off the water pump. One thing I forgot was to leave the cap off and put my no spill funnel on the rad neck. I'm using one of those universal corrugated steel tube rad hose kits that you bend into place and install rubber connectors on each end. My question is, are these universal rad hoses known to be inadequate, or was it due to the burping of air pockets in the system that couldn't escape?
 
I always figured the corrigation hindered, not helped, coolant flow. Ugly, too.
 
it was probably due to the lower hose clamp failing or not being tight. At 16psi blow, the cap should have vented way before a tight radiator hose would let loose. And getting the motor hot enough to blow a hose in 20 minutes sounds like there was inadequate cooling. Was your fan hooked up?
 
It's not a factory radiator setup so I figured the universal hose kit would be the ticket. My fans are hooked up and work. My temp sensor is a 195 on. The gauge was reading 160 when the hose blew.
 
71Scamper said:
It's not a factory radiator setup so I figured the universal hose kit would be the ticket. My fans are hooked up and work. My temp sensor is a 195 on. The gauge was reading 160 when the hose blew.
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Not to freak you out or anything but I'd be questioning a compression leak into the cooling system based on the information given.
(Especially if you are pretty sure that hose was tight, but I'd bet it wasn't)
As stated the cap should have bypassed it before a hose blew off.

On another note, I don't know why everyone doesn't take advantage of drilling an air bleed hole in their thermostat.
It's WAY better than having to fight a cooling system that's burping the coolant back out from air pockets.

Also universal hoses add a crapload of turbulence to the coolant flow and none of us needs that.
 
I'm almost positive I tightened that clamp. The radiator cap is new and I checked it after this situation to be sure it was releasing at 16. The stat I'm running is a high flow, there's no room to drill a bleed off. I'm convinced its the cheap universal hose. I think I'm just going to go to parts store and find a lower hose that has the right shape. I can't risk dumping 4 gallons of coolant on my garage floor again.
 
I have used them for years without failure. I took them off, and went back to rubber hoses. The part I don't get is you putting coolant in the engine on initial startup. This is the very reason I don't. Water will cool the engine fine, until you sort it out, then put in coolant.
 
So I ended up just buying a rubber lower hose. This time I took furyus2's advice and only ran water. Got up to temp cooling fans kicked in and stayed between 185 and 195. Very exciting to hear this little monster bark.
 
71Scamper said:
So I ended up just buying a rubber lower hose. This time I took furyus2's advice and only ran water. Got up to temp cooling fans kicked in and stayed between 185 and 195. Very exciting to hear this little monster bark.
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Sweet!

I'm coming up on that moment before long here also.
My car runs now with a mostly stock 318 but I have a 5.9 with EQ Magnum heads and a nice cam coming for it, and I'm already getting exited to hear it run.

My Daughter said she's pretty sure she'll see me sitting out in the driveway in a chair just listening to the car idling.:D
 
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