Dino DIY - Changing hoses and coolant pipes

I decided to drive 05082 down to Palm Springs last month for the annual Desert Concours (http://www.desertconcours.com/) and meet up with another Dino owner, surfer Bongo. The warm weather in the desert was hot and after a several hour "spirited" run to get there I arrived in plenty of time to meet up for the first event, The Rallye, which is my personal favorite.

I had difficulty finding the exact location of the starting point and there was an unrelated parade that blocked the route through downtown Palm Springs so I spent quite a bit of time in stop and go traffic. I could tell the Dino was getting warm when the fans repeatedly kicked in and as we started to make another pass through downtown I heard this particularly explosive sound from behind me. I recall thinking to myself "hmmm that's funny it sounds deep and low, like a muffled shotgun blast".

Then I glanced in my rear view mirror.

All I could see were plumes of white coming from the engine bay behind me, my rearward vision was completely obscured by the cloudburst. The Dino had erupted and I immediately pulled over. I always carry 3 halon fire extinguishers in the passenger compartment but they would do no good, as this was steam. We got out and saw that hot water was spraying everywhere but it quickly stopped and a river of water flowed from underneath the engine onto the ground.

On the bad side, the destruction was complete as the top hose had totally severed itself in half forming a circumferential ring that split the hose into two separate parts.
On the good side, I had shutdown the car and parked within 100 feet of it happening.
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This was bad and I was not happy that I would miss the rallye, but it couldn't be helped. Bongo called an old friend of his, the son of famous racer John von Neumann, who lived there and he directed us to a specific NAPA parts store. His instructions were precise "Talk to the manager, I know him and he will solve your problems. Tell him I sent you".

So off we went. Upon arriving at Napa, we asked and met Randy who was great and immediately identified the part I needed, unfortunately it wasn't in stock. The difficulty was that this hose was a special reduction hose with a 90 degree curve in it; 1.5" at one end and 1.25" at the other. In other words, nonstock, special order, and a day away at best.

On to Plan B, pleading, begging and explaining the urgency of how flexible I really was. I offered to buy two hoses of sequential diameter where one would fit inside the other to make the 1.25" end.
A light lit up above Randy and that reminded him that he carried special sleeves for this exact reason. They were not stocked at other stores as it had only been because of his extensive experience in the parts world that he would need them for customers like me.
Very grateful customers like me.

The sleeve is quite trick, has a stepped up catch end to make install easy and soon I was back at the Dino cutting and fitting it. I always carry distilled water, an embarrassing amount that tallied to over four gallons which made Bongo shake his head at such eccentricity. But hey, I could always use it for drinking and my experience in the desert is that you can't have too much water. After filling the cooling system I had over two gallons left and used the extra water to rinse and wipe off the paint of any coolant residue.

Within two hours of the calamity, I was back on the road!
Thank you Bongo, John, and Randy.
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There are six hoses in the standard Dino cooling kit and if I had one that had failed, then the remaining five would be suspect at best. At worst they would strand me again and I didn't want that. In addition to the 6 hoses, there are 3 coolant pipes that connect the long hoses in the central tunnel with the oil cooler and thermostat.

I ordered a complete set of 6 hoses and 3 stainless steel coolant pipes from Superformance in the UK.
First thing to do is size new clamps onto the hoses and I prefer the Wurth Zebra clamps. Wurth sells a special flexible, 7mm driver that fits the clamp head and really makes installing clamps easy. It bends and flexes into tight spaces where a straight screwdriver might not access. Also, the hex drive won't damage the clamp heads like a screwdriver might.
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Safely jack the car up, remove the right, rear wheel and unfasten the splash panel. Place it off to the side and remove the exhaust heat shield where the coolant pipes pass by.
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Remove the lower coolant pipe from the Tunnel hose to the heat exchanger

There are two, 32mm long hoses that connect the front radiator to the rear engine area's coolant pipes. The lower coolant pipe connects to the heat exchanger for the oil cooler. The upper pipe connects with a second pipe to receive the flow from the thermostat housing.

The lower pipe is the low point of the system and a good place to drain the system from. Crawl under the car and loosen the lower clamp around the bottom coolant pipe. Place a catch basin underneath and pull the pipe out from the hose to allow it to drain. When it is finished draining, locate the connecting point at the heat exchanged and remove that clamp. Free the pipe and remove.

Note the photo shows that while the outside of the pipe looks fine, the conntact area that was underneath the hose reveals the pipe is rusty and corroded. Looking into the pipe I see a series of deposits and slag like solids that I do not want running around my coolant system.
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Once the lower coolant pipe is removed, then remove the upper coolant pipe clamps that connect it to the tunnel hose and the vertical 90 degree union hose. Free the pipe and remove it.
Note how the hidden portions of the pipe look far worse than the areas you can normally see
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Remove the three hoses that retain the upper coolant pipe to the thermostat housing. The pipe and hoses are free, so remove them.

NOTE: This is where the original hose burst and as I compared the old coolant pipe to the new, I see the new pipe has a standoff to secure the pipe to the forward bank valve cover. My old coolant pipe did NOT have this standoff and there was a remnant weld point, so the standoff had departed leaving the pipe free to move. The pipe's movement would have flexed the hose that had burst and the motion was probably a significant contributor to the hose failure

I have examined all my old photos and the standoff has never existed on this car since I owned it, nor was the remnant standoff attached to the valve cover point, yet the acorn nut and washer are still there meaning that when it broke, someone discarded it.
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Unfasten the two clamps that connect the waterpump output hose to the thermostat housing. remove the hose, it is a tight fit.

Note: After doing this I decided that access is so tight that I would remove the thermostat housing held on by two nuts.
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Beneath that is a small "J" shaped hose that connects the thermostat bypass to the heating delivery system. I found this a tight and difficult area to access so I unfastened the two 13mm retaining nuts on the thermostat housing and pulled the thermostat housing away from the water pump to get to the hose. This also helps gain access for reassembly
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Remove the clamps on the hose that spans between the thermostat housing and the heat exchanger. Be careful here as the heat exchanger is brass and can be easily damaged.

NOTE: to avoid damaging the soft brass heat exchanger metal fitting, always remove the hose from the thermostat first and once it is free then grab the hose and rotate on the heat exchanger fitting to loosen it from the heat exchanger.
Never pry the hose from the heat exchanger as it is brass and can be easily deformed or damaged
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Now that all 6 hoses and 3 coolant pipes have been removed, compare them to the new ones and layout in exact order.
NOTE: the big pipe on the left is the old one and it has no standoff

Pre-assemble the new hoses on the pipes. I found I needed to use a little water based lubricant (spit) to allow easy movement of the hoses onto their final resting place. I pre-fit every hose before I tightened any clamps and found that I had to gain some movement to exactly position each one. Take your time and if you must remove a hose to check or re-fit into place then that is perfectly fine. This took far longer than I thought it would but pre-fitting it is an important step so do not rush this.
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Install the small "J" hose from the thermostat bypass to the heating system hose. Next, install the thermostat to water pump housing hose. Mount a new waterpump to thermostat housing gasket and secure the housing with the two 13mm retaining nuts. I replaced the two split ring lock washers before I fastened the thermostat housing down.

Sorry for the bad photo of the thermostat housing gasket, didn't realize I has the close up feature off
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Install the hose that connects the Thermostat housing to the upperconnection on the heat exchanger. Once again be careful of the soft brass heat exchanger. I like to mount the house on the heat exchanger first and then rotate it onto the thermostat's pipe.
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Connect the straight hose to the lower heat exchanger. Fit the coolant pipe that connects the lower heat exchanger to the central tunnel hose but do not fasten this yet. There will be some final adjustment needed after the other coolant pipes are installed.
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Install the top reducer hose and the coolant tank return to the top of the long coolant pipe.
(Note: this is the only hose that I needed to trim a little off before it fit well. All other Superformance hoses fit perfectly without any trimming!)

Lightly fasten the standoff of the long coolant pipe to the valve cover but still leave a little movement before final fitting.

Install the 90 degree bend hose into the vertical bottom of the long coolant pipe. Connect the short coolant pipe to the horiziontal end of the 90 degree bend hose and then loosely insert the other end of the short coolant pipe into the central tunnel upper hose.

Loose movement before final fastening is necessary for fine adjustment of the position fit of the pipe and hoses.
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Insert the coolant pipe into the lower heat exchanger hose and position this in the lower hose of the central tunnel. Do not fully tighten until final fit.
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Now that all hoses and pipes are loosely placed into their respective locations, make minor adjustments to their placement so that pipes do not push onto interior portions of the hoses at bends and that they are not positioned too close to each other where clamps may rub or cause wear on each other. Tighten all clamps, double check and secure the long pipe's standoff to the valve cover.
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Fill the system with distilled water and start the engine to circulate it. Check for leaks and remove the air from the system at the radiator bleed screw.

I like to temp cycle the car once, let it cool and then top off with distilled water. After driving a few times I'll come back and empty the system again, put new distilled water and repeat. The third time I empty it, I'll fill with my final mix of 50% coolant and 50% distilled water.

Here I took it for its first run with Mei's F430 spyder to the Symbollic event.
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Bill,

Skinned knuckles? all I see is blood and very little skin left
I donate regularly every 56 days at the blood bank and figure I've got my A pos contribution in already!
(just kidding, everyone who can should donate)

Actually John Corbani was right and I ditched the gloves fairly soon during this job so that I could have the better tactile feel in those tight spots. You really need it. All other times I highly recommend nitrile gloves for protecting your skin.

Dan,

Thanks, Superformance is using kevlar strands as the binder between hose layers. Stops bullets...great stuff 'nuff said

I've heard the argument against using distilled water also, but figure there are enough components between the anti-freeze and dissimilar materials (iron block, aluminum heads, stainless steel pipes, brass heat exchanger, radiator, etc) that the distilled water will not be completely devoid of minerals or ions. I ALWAYS change coolant every 2 years and do the double flush with distilled water before the final 50/50 mix. Note: Seattle has some of the nations BEST drinking water from the tap and radiator shops use it yet I still use distilled water.

As further evidence to use distilled water, nearly all iron manufacturers (clothing irons that is) recommend using distilled water in their products to reduce residue and improve heat transfer.

See the attached photo of the rust and slag that settled in the bottom of the tubes by the long tunnel hoses that had built up over time. You only see this stuff when dig into the system and it is not pretty. It was actually worse looking when I disassembled and scraped a bit before taking the photos. I wish I could take my whole system apart like OMGjon and run a bead blast through the passages.

Fred,

You've got a great point there and although these tunnel hoses looked and felt good I really don't know how old they are. My expert "go-to-guy", Carlo Durante, has explained what an absolute pain it is to feed new ones through the tunnel area and I'll just hope these tunnel hoses are as good as the ends that I connected to. That being said I've already bought a set of the 32mm AlfaGomma hoses for the tunnel to install on my other Dino.

BTW, Superformance makes the stainless steel pipes quite long on the tunnel hose ends and they fit a long way into the tunnel hoses.
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After fixing the Dinos cooling system a test drive was in order.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4tBeyVTGnNI&fmt=18