Cooling system grief
 

Hi guys. I guess this is really aimed at Grant, but happy for anyone's opinion.


I have the bonnet off & radiator out of my late pre HE due to a weep, but I most of the cooling system joins have furry edges, so a full cooling system overhaul is needed.


There are 2 steel tubes that are clogged and rusted. One goes from the heater to the bottom of the expansion tank and the other from the neck of the expansion tank to the atmos tank in the wing. The expansion tank is stainless steel so the previous owner spent a few dollars there.


Both tubes appear to be NLA from the usual suppliers, so my choices are to try & fabricate replacements from copper, bundy or stainless, depending on what I can get in the right sizes, or just delete the tubes and fit longer lengths of rubber hose.


Any opinions or advice on which option to go for?
Thanks
Scott.

Scott,

The heater return pipe down the LH inner guard could be anything you can lay your hands on. The size is 5/8". The "T" directly under the stainless tank is possibly a tad sad also. Copper would be my choice.

The pipe/hose TO the atmospheric tank is 8mm, and I use that clear braided compressor hose for that one. Then you can SEE the coolant in that line, and if there is coolant in that line the system is FULL, so no need to lift the cap and introduce air.

There was once a steel pipe actually AT the grommet where the hose exited the engine bay on its way to that dumb tank. That was made of standard "bundy" and rotted out quite quickly, and blocked regularly. I delete that nonsense and simply run that braided hose all the way to the atmospheric tank.

If that "T" under the tank is rotted, brass are sometimes found on the HQ onwards Holdens if you hunt around. Or simply use an EFI plastic one in 5/8".