Date: Tue, 3 Jul 2012 13:27:54 -0700
Reply-To: Scott Daniel - Turbovans <scottdaniel@TURBOVANS.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Scott Daniel - Turbovans <scottdaniel@TURBOVANS.COM>
Subject: Re: Brass Coolant Connectors = Failure?
In-Reply-To: <4ff2e550.c4c2e00a.6404.ffffe1a4@mx.google.com>
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lol.
let's just be logical and practical here.
get some brass barbed hose fittings from the hardware store or your FLAPS ..
put 5 of them in a pot of boiling water ..
they'll be fine after 5 hours of boiling at 215 degrees F ..
for gosh sakes, look up the melting point of brass.
I am sure it's in the many hundreds of degrees.
common guys ..
does anyone think brass can't take more than 160 degrees F ?
if that was true ...
brass would be melting everywhere constantly, just about.
how hot does a brass bullet casing get when it's fired ?
parts of it, a hellava lot hotter than 160 F briefly, I am sure.
no, I have never had a failure of a brass barbed fitting in a vehiclur
cooling system.
used 'em a thousand times.
I can't believe I am reading this.
METAL always outlasts plastic.
Yes, plastic is more resistant to corrosion than metal.
But plastic also deteriortes just with heat and age.
there are pieces of METAL recovered from burnt down buildings, car
fires, and the bottom of the ocean all the time.
Not so for plastic at all.
the advantages of plastic for an automotive materail -
1.. cheap to make. Once you make the machine to make the part, it can
churn out millions of them at a unit cost of next to nothing.
2. light weight
3. resistance to corrosion.
disadvantages -
1. generally deteiorate slowly over time. Easily degraded by sunlight,
heat, and some chemicals.
2. not nearly as structurally strong as metal, depending on the type of
plastic'.
advantages of metal ..
1. easy to form , generally.
2. quite durable,
3. not degraded by sunlight much at all. It would take like 2,000 years
for a lump of steel sitting on the surface of the earth to deteriorate
much at all, partiuclarily if kept dry.
4. quite recylclable. Aluminum, while expensive to make in the first
place is endlessly recyclable.
5. not particularily expensive in general , depending on type of
course. Mild steel is not that expensive, that's why millions of cars
have been made with it, including cast iron for engine blocks - durable,
ridgid, cheap.
disadvantages
1. susceptible to corrosion, Needs to be plated or painted or something
to prevent degradation due to corrosion.
and many more in these 4 catagories I'm sure people will think of.
Scott
On 7/3/2012 5:27 AM, Derek Drew wrote:
> The information throughout the Internet seems to be that brass barbed
> fittings are good to 160 degrees (at 2XXpsi).
>
> I called Dixon Brass and they said not to use the brass barbed Ts and
> pipe joining fittings for engine coolant where the coolant would go
> over 160 degrees (as it would in a car).
>
> This seems to imply that we cannot use brass in the coolant system,
> at least not the common barbed fittings, almost all of which, where a
> rating is given, are rated to 160F.
>
> So, I called McMaster and they said that you absolutely CAN use brass
> barbed fittings in the coolant system of a vehicle, and said the 160
> degrees rating was a sort of a mistake that keeps getting repeated
> over and over again, but that its source was originally from the
> rating of *hose* that was connected to the brass fittings, but that
> the brass fittings themselves will absolutely stand up to the needs
> of an automotive cooling system (210F?).
>
> Does anyone have any further info or experiences?
>
> Has anyone on this list ever had a FAILURE of a brass coolant system
> barbed fitting?
>
> The reason I ask is that there are some of these fittings in my
> coolant system right now, and I have to decide whether to go dig them
> all out and replace them with OEM VW plastic fittings, or Gates
> plastic hose fittings.
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Derek Drew
> Washington DC / New York
> derekdrew@derekmail.com
> Email is best normally but...
> PHONE: 202-966-7907 (Call the number at left normally)
> (alt/cell for diligent calling only): 703-408-1532
>
