Replacing radiator hoses with copper tubing???

[Garys 68]

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?

 

[mrvette]

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:

 

[010752]

Have used exhaust pipe sucessfully many times.

 

[Twin_Turbo]

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

 

[turtlevette]

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

Are you becoming a restorer? You post more and more pictures of your work on other peoples cars.

 

[DeeVeeEight]

I used one of these on my universal alum. rad. installation. The lower hose was a problem but this took care of it and looks good too.

http://store.summitracing.com/partdetail.asp?autofilter=1&part=MRG-11013C&N=700+115&autoview=sku

 

[big2bird]

The use of steel/brass/copper/alum tubing with short hoses dates back to 1908 and before. It worked fine then, and still does.

 

[saudivette]

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...

 

[Garys 68]

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.