plumbing is proving to be another hurdle.

I have two inches from the end of the bottom outlet on my rad to a chassis rail and the 2m of coolant hose ive bought to do it all with in an afternoon (HA!) wont bend that tight.

does anyone have a good source for various hoses? or any interesting shapes left over from their build?

would a convoluted(?) hose from halfords do it if you can't find anything else? they sell bendy rubber hose in all diameters

the hose ive bought can bend, but not tightly.

have you used the convoluted tube blake? how tight can it bend?

Also it wont hold its shape, so it will relax until its resting against the chassis rail - im guessing a big nono due to chaffage

erm, no not used it. i've seen it though lol. they come in 12" or 18" lengths i think but any photos of where its to go? what shape you need etc?

There is this thing (very technical term) I have seen in burton power. It is a spring with a steel backbone that goes over the hose, and you bend it. The spring keeps the hose from kinking.
I`ll try to find the catalouge.
Darren

you can see the problem area in this picture, bottom left:

http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/LNSrcbdrRoqBB4z2QjwF9w?feat=directlink

click the magnifying glass just above the top right of the photo to zoom in

I wont post the actual picture because it needs to be big to see properly.

That diagonal chassis member is directly in front of the outlet so the pipe has to attach to the rad then go straight upwards and over the steering column.

sounds interesting Darren, let me know

called unicoil, ranges from 12mm od to 36mm od hose in 7 different sizes, page 61 in current burton power catalouge.
Ebay Link Burton power is about half the price
Darren

I had a similar problem, so I bought a 90-degree bend in brass or copper from somewhere, connected it to the bottom of the rad with an inch or so of hose and 2 clamps, then ran the hose up from the other side.

Not pretty, but it's worked for 4 or 5 years so far...

I can upload some pictures, if you want (I'm sure that I've still got some filed somewhere).

pictures would be really useful David.

Just to add, although I could still move the rad upwards about half an inch, that wouldnt change the situation!

That looks good Darren, but not sure how much coil I could get on the rad side of the bend.. tempted to try it out though

[Edited on 13/10/09 by cd.thomson]

On my celica engine swap i used some generic heater hose. To stop kinking i got some larger hose cut down the middle.
Put it in the ouside of the bend and used cable ties in the same way as the spring coils to keep the hose round, as a kink has a larger circumference than a round hose.
Darren

Can you not use a 90deg bend from Rally Design or Merlin or similar?

The bottom hose on my Indy/Polo rad was v.clsoe to the chassis rail, but a tight 90deg bend just fitted in OK, then linked to the next piece of hose with an ally joining piece. OK for nearly 4k miles so far.