Replacing radiator hoses with copper tubing???

G

Garys 68

Well-known member
Joined
Sep 22, 2008
Messages
476
Anyone replace their rubber radiator hoses with copper?
I've got some odd, tight bends to fit my cooling hoses around the LSx motors fan to the Griffin radiator. I thought I could solder together some 1 1/2" copper plumbing tubing. I figured radiators are soldered, so anyone done this or see a problem with it?
 
I have a basic L98 engine with a LT1 induction on top of it....part of the adaption was to TIG weld some bungs in the top/either side of the mani....to that meant a 90 out of brass plumbing, and then a sweated on nipple from 3/4 to 1/2 same thing on the remote t-stat housing near the radiator....

in various setups on this vette over some 15 years, I have had various copper sweated up arrangements....the old L98 setup had a heater pipe up front to get a nice relaxed angle on the hose...

some of this does not look so neat, in fact the engine compartment is almost a mess, but it's a clean mess....show car quality work has NEVER been a hallmark of mine....ask Tim, he knows...

:bounce::clobbered:
 
Stainless pipe (I think it was 2") but do use some flexible couplers, I used silicon hoses here.

249bfa989b325d.jpg
 
The use of steel/brass/copper/alum tubing with short hoses dates back to 1908 and before. It worked fine then, and still does.
 
When I was racing speedway cars years ago, I ran a radiator in the stock position up front and another where the rear windscreen used to be. I joined the whole system with copper pipe and it worked just fine. Like the others have said, I put flexible couplers in...
 
Great. I actually only need a couple short pieces to make a sharp turn to get around the fan, and to adapt the SBC radiator to the LSx motor.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top