Speaking of this inlet pipe, I just took mine off(231k) and in innards look pretty good, but then the van spent most of its life in Arkansas. I do have some exterior rust forming on the bypass tube near the thermostat. I will deal with that before reinstalling.

The mods I made to it were to deal with a shade tree installation of my coolant temp senders for both the Haltech ECU and the VDO sender for the dash gauge.

I ground a radius with a big file after cutting a black pipe 3/8" npt union in half and got the radius pretty close for the Haltech sender. Used a Vanagon lug nut for the 14x1.5 threads on my 150C VDO sender and did the same radius job on it. Took the pipe to a local old school welder and after drilling the holes(one is on top of the bend and the other one near the water pump but left of the bypass nipple) . He gas welded them on with silver solder and it's not the prettiest job in the world, but he =said he used $9 worth of silver rod and charged me a total of $20. NO distortion to either of the threads and he didn't burn through the pipe as it's much thinner than either the lug nut or the black pipe. He liked the way the silver solder wicked through to the inside to fill in the gaps......me too.

My biggest question with all this is when I was checking to see if the inlet pipe was grounded to the motor(clipping 12vdc test lamp to alt terminal and using the pointy end to scratch the powder coat on the pipe), I got no light and the volt meter also read zilch. Could the stainless steel bolts and the O ring be preventing the pipe from grounding? Obviously the other end is connected via rubber to the plastic thermostat housing. I raise the question simply to make sure the VDO sender is grounded properly so the gauge will read. The Haltech sender has a ground wire on it.

The old set up was cobbled with brass T fittings with barb ends on them and spliced into the skinny hose that runs up into the coolant loop under the engine lid. I'm hoping that the inlet pipe will be a more accurate reflection of what the coolant really is running. I found no way to modify the temp 2 sender to where it would hold the Haltech sender and still seal with the o ring and clip.

I'll reprt back when I get it all back together, which will be after I finish the contro arm busing/front end rebuild I've been promising the Millennium Falcon III now for over a year.

TIA

DM&FS