Look at the interior of the hoses - they deteriorate from the inside going out. You don't say what year hoses or rad you're working with, but basically those are extremely well made hoses - last just about forever. The hoses that suffer the most are the ones at the top of engines, where the coolant coming out is hottest , or where engine heat is greatest. I wouldn't'' dream of replacing vanagon radiator front hoses unless there was an obvious reason too. Not sure what the price in the aftermarket is on those these days, but they can be very spendy hoses anyway. I have *never* seen one fail in any way that I can think of, in hundreds of vanagons worked on or owned. Or another way to think about it is : "that's not the weak area." Scott www.turbovans.com -----Original Message----- From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf Of neil N Sent: Friday, November 23, 2007 10:41 AM To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM Subject: Best way to inspect coolant hoses? Hi all. This in regards to my engine conversion process. I'm busy pulling parts. Even took off the dash! (kinda makes me wonder why I bothered modifying the air dist. box on my air cooled westy...... ;^) Whats the best way to visually inspect coolant hoses to get a general idea of condition. i.e. the 2 hoses coming from the rad? They don't feel "crunchy" when squeezed. Rubber looks ok but they had what look like the original clamps. (the kind you squeeze) These clamps are prevelant throughout the van. Makes me wonder if these are mostly the original hoses. I know there's no guarantees in life, but what's the best way to tell if these hoses are worth reusing?
Thanks, and Happy Thanksgiving! Neil. -- Neil Nicholson. 1981 Air Cooled Westfalia - "Jaco" (Bustorius) http://web.mac.com/tubaneil Engine swap beginings: http://musomuso.googlepages.com/home |
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