Date:         Fri, 25 Jun 1999 09:15:11 EDT
Reply-To:     JKrevnov@AOL.COM
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Rico Sapolich <JKrevnov@AOL.COM>
Subject:      Re: Air cooled to Water cooled
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

In response to an inquiry regarding the installation of a water-cooled engine
into an air-cooled van, Larry wrote:

<<Next, get a couple
lengths of 1.25" electrical thin-wall conduit (EMT), a tubing cutter,
and a conduit bender. Use these for coolant lines from the engine
compartment to the radiator. >>

There are two shortcomings in using EMT for this application.  Firstly, the
bending radius of 1.25" EMT is quite large (about 9").  When the occasion
arrived to replace these lines, I planned to use stainless and twist my own,
I obviously NEVER wanted this whore's nightmare to occur again.  But, none of
the job shops I approached had the tooling required to replicate the tight
radii of some of the factory bends.  Before common sense set in, I toyed with
the idea of buying tube fittings, doing the fit-up myself and then having the
whole mess tigged together.  Unless you have worked with this material
before, do not fool yourself into thinking you will simply heave on the
handle of a manual bender and this relatively soft metal will yield to your
desires.  Even guys who work with this stuff daily will use1/4 bends and
couplings if they do not have access to a hydraulic bender.  The 1.25"
designation is a nominal size, the actual O.D. is about 1.5".  Also, any
bender made for field use will flatten the EMT thus changing its
cross-sectional area.

Secondly, I think there is the potential (no pun intended) for a galvanic
reaction between the dissimilar metals brought into proximity with the use of
EMT for this application.  I know that the Zn-coated EMT will not contact the
aluminum components directly; still, I think that the circulating coolant can
be enough of an ion carrier to cause a corrosion problem.  For example, it
was my experience that when Volvo started using aluminum heads, their Cu
radiators did not last as long.  If you noticed, somewhere along the way VW
started using aluminum radiators in the Vanagon.  While this may have been
mandated by some beancounter, I must not have been the only one whose Cu
radiator suffered from incontinence at an early age.
Anyway, the EMT will probably rust away in short order once the thin Zn
coating is sandblasted by road grit.

The best bet is to get the OEM parts.  By the way, I have a pair of unrusted
coolant lines should anybody want to make me a fair offer, FOB.  They are
from an '84 and I am near Pittsburgh, PA.

Richard