Changing the aluminium coolant pipes to rubber

[Dan 6511]

Hi everyone,

All the rubber hoses has join up the aluminium coolant pipes could do with being replaced on my car again as a few are starting to weep even though I've nipped up the clamps. The ally pipes may also be deteriorated on the ends, will see when its apart.

Anyway it got me thinking about a picture I saw somewhere online years ago that I had saved on my phone, not sure whos car it was....

They had run rubber pipe all the way from front to rear, eliminating a load of joints. So I'm thinking of doing this to mine at some point. Does anyone know whos car this was? Or can anyone think of any reasons why this would be a bad idea? I wondered if the ally pipes are used to dissipate some of the heat? But I doubt they would have much of an affect without any fins on them.

GTCN7824.JPG (72.67 KiB) Viewed 2059 times

[dmc4087]

I was thinking about this recently too, interested to see if you find anything...I'm fed up with drips here and there.

Current plan is to replace all rubber hoses (again), clamps and the front metal pipes at least

I saw some subaru engine beetle conversion that used full length rubber hoses to a rad in the front which got me thinking.

[Rissy]

Rubber has better heat insulation properties as you've suggested. The surface area for cooling will be limited to that of the radiator without the additional loses through the lengths of aluminium piping, so you may find that the cooling fans come on quicker as a result of the thermal insulation properties of the rubber hosing. The question will be, does your cooling fans and/or road wind blowing through the radiator provide enough forced air cooling to override the increased thermal properties of the system. I think the photos you've presented are those taken by Bill Robertson in the US of his car. I'm not sure where in the US he is, but considering he drives his car year round, you'd think that the swap out would be ok given that he's proven it already. Probably given that the UK has lower temperatures again than typically the majority of the US, it's probably a safer bet here even more. The proof will be in the pudding. If nothing else, the use of rubber hoses instead of the aluminium piping running up either side of the petrol tank may result in cooler fuel reserves compared to that typically experienced.

Let us know how you get on. Nothing ventured nothing gained eh.

[bandit]

I can’t imagine the small sections of alloy hose make any real difference to the coolant temp Dan & getting rid of all the joints can only be a good thing eh.
I can’t remember but the only issue I can imagine you may come across is if there are any potential ‘kink’ points where rubber may not want to follow the path the hose takes, other than that give it a go.
The worst that can happen is it overheats & then it’ll be like every other Delorean out there

[Dan 6511]

I might give this a go then. I need to give the car a good going over, it needs a new rad as its still on its original one! Somehow it made it to Hamburg and back on that!

Interesting you say that photo is of Bill Robertson's car. I must have seen it on facebook or maybe dmc talk ages ago. Do you know if there is a thread about it anywhere? I've done some searching but can't find any mention of it.

[Rissy]

Interesting you say that photo is of Bill Robertson's car. I must have seen it on facebook or maybe dmc talk ages ago. Do you know if there is a thread about it anywhere? I've done some searching but can't find any mention of it.

I think it's discussed at some point on one of his YouTube channel videos.

In fact here it is here: https://youtu.be/NZh8fUm53HE

[jamesrguk]

You can buy those hoses off the roll normally so you really could ditch all the joints, interesting idea, I think there are only a couple of sharpish bends, but you could always make some external guides to try and negate any kinks.

[A Van]

It’s a very interesting idea, and could change things if it works out !


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[DMC1983]

I cant see why this wouldnt work. Where would one buy a length of hosing?

[MikeWard]

I cant see why this wouldnt work. Where would one buy a length of hosing?

https://www.autosiliconehoses.com/rubbe ... black.html