I've been lookine at what others have done. And it seems most people are running about 1.5in piping for the radiator lines. Is there a reason to use such a large pipe? The vanagons only ran 5/8in hose. I was thining on running 5/8 marine hose with an adapter at the ends to mate to the motor and radiator. I know the added benefit of running a metal pipe is the extra cooling you get just from the air rushing over it. But will the 5/8 hose work. I'm looking at something like this. http://www.jamestowndistributors.com/userportal/show_product.do?pid=578&f...

5/8" is only the heater hose, both Subaru and Vanagons use 1.5" for the main radiator lines, and really late Vanagons use 2" in plastic IIRC.

5/8" would not flow anywhere near enough coolant.

You can go abit smaller than 1.5", but I wouldn't get below 1 1/4"
The advantage of bigger stuff is it does give alot more coolant reserve.

ah. now that you say that. well guess I'm looking for some 1.5in pipe then. Wish i could find some stainless for cheap but will probably end up runing fence top rail like alot of other guys have.

That fencing pipe is pretty damn thick if it's anything like the stuff sold here.

Try going to a muffler shop, they wanted $5 a foot for 1.5" exhaust pipe when I priced it up a few years back and can bend it to whatever shape.

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I wnet to an engineering firm in Shepparton. one and a quarter inch S/S pipe (about 2mm thick) two lengths 2 metres long with a 90degree bend about 50mm from one end. The bend allowed me to place it near the transaxle up towards my ea81 manifold then flex hoses to pump and thermostat housings.

$50

A tip. At the front of my trike I purchased 2x Datsun 200B lower radiator hoses. fits onto pipe perfectly and has 4 x 90 degree bends each hose allowing you to have 4 bends if you need them, simply cut them off.

Well i found a guy that works for a big rig shop and said he could get me 1.25in silicon hose. Think that would work?

I used Mackay hoses too, just from supercheap.
They have the size printed on them, 38mm is 1.5" and is a really common size, I used a bunch of Falcon and Commodore hoses.

That Superbug of Scotts that Ian posted up had some real problems with his coolant lines being too low.

He actually busted one open just driving round a corner with a bit of body roll.

I used a heavy hydraullic hose with only a one inch ID.
Was concerned with the small ID at the time but hasn't been an issue. Chosen because the price was very right and I could run it through the tunnel without the noise of metal tubing.
Am running a electric water pump though.

Thoughts on using pex plumbing lines? Its rated 200f. Good bad dumb, what you think

cancel that one. it starts to break down after 200. no go. guess fence rail it is