Cooling Hoses for a Zetec SVT

[Croc]

Well I went into the garage yesterday intent on touching up some stone chips as part of my winter projects (sadly delayed) only to find my little car has had a hissy fit and gone and dumped its coolant all over the floor. Further investigation reveals 2 splits in the cooling hoses near the radiator.

 

Given it is only 6 months or so since I replaced all hoses with a brand new set of Ford Focus OEM silicone hoses, I am slightly miffed - I expected them to last longer, especially with the scars from my previous cooling meltdown still so fresh. Given the garage is unheated, I have a suspicion cold has something to do with it. I am also a little frustrated since I had filled the system with a new kind of coolant that can last 100,000 miles or life of car....

 

Should I shift back to regular rubber hoses? Any brands/hose kits recommended over the Ford OEM variety - looking for ideas or alternatives people have seen.

 

Thanks!

[MHKflyer52]

Hi Mike,

 

Sorry to hear about your car taking a leak on the garage floor. :jester:

I can not say what hose's to use but I would empty the rest of that coolant and replace it with new coolant as it sounds like the coolant might now have kept from freezing and that might have caused the splits in the hose. Check for other signs like freeze plugs and any deformation of the radiator especially in the area of the top due to the expansion of ICE in the system.

Sorry to have to suggest this but it is better to catch now than later.

[glenntwincam]

we have 03 cat with svt, I went to napa and bought std radiator hose that had the shapes that I needed and just cut it to the right sizes using old hoses as patterns. I think it was from a chevy p/u truck. seems to be working fine and only cost $14.

[athens7]

I am generally a student of the "buy the most expensive solution possible" school. It's not necessarily the best school, but it has pretty diplomas. I recently replaced my front hoses with Samco Sport silicone hoses from Merlin Motorsports. I am pleased with the price and quality, as well as Merlin's service. What type of radiator do you have? More specifically, what is the diameter of the radiator fittings? If you have a standard Caterham USA set up, you have black plastic pipes that connect both the top and bottom driver's side hoses from the radiator to the thermostat housing and engine. Those are 35 mm outside diameter. I have the Caterham triple pass aluminum radiator, which has 32 mm o.d. piping. The cooling submarine (Caterham's phrase) connecting the 2 bottom front hoses is 32 mm o.d. I was unable to find replacement hoses for the originals from Caterham UK. Darren Phillips, who knows virtually everything about any Caterham, said they had no experience with our motors in the UK. Ben at Caterham USA said their replacements were generic pieces, from several different sources. Samco makes universal racing hoses in a variety of sizes, and I found 90 degree reducer elbows and 90 degree constant diameter elbows to fit the car (RE90 35-32 and RE90 32). The tricky front hose is the top driver's side hose (see picture). I wound up using a Samco 35-32 reducer elbow, an alloy connector, and a length of Nissan radiator hose with a bend in it for the half that connects to the black tube (I can get you the Nissan part number if you want it). A big problem with my original hoses was they were all 35 mm, tightened down with hose clamps to fit the 32 mm radiator outlets-a guaranteed way to prematurely wear the hoses! The new solution is much better, but I have also been told Samco will custom make hoses, so one could also send them the old top hose and get a custom replacement, if one had a couple of months to spare...

[Croc]

Thanks for the input Guys!

 

Martin - I think you are on to something. I think what happened is that some residual fluid (probably the preparation flush fluid) was not fully cleared out of the system prior to replacing with the glycol-based (non-water based) new coolant. I think this preparation fluid is heavier than the coolant and so it trickled down and sat at the lowest level, froze in the cold weather and split the hose. The coolant has an operating temperature of -70 deg before it freezes and even then it is supposed to just become a slurry and shrink - not expand. However, the preparation fluid will expand on freezing - makes a likely candidate here I think. The splits are very localized at low points in the hoses so I may have got off lucky without any issues on the radiator - it looks ok but a thorough check will confirm this. Fingers crossed.

 

Brad - I agree with you - I always buy the better quality item as it usually is false economy to go with the cheap one - unless I have some good knowledge on the topic. The Samco hoses that you mention are the ones I was using. Samco make the regular and silicone hoses (as upgrade items) and sell them through Ford (as Ford brand) as well as other retailers like Napa. I know I bought the Samco Focus hose kit and supplemented it with a few of the Samco racing hoses. I cannot find the invoice but I am almost certain that I did the same thing you did. I cannot remember any 32mm vs 35mm issues so I will check that out when I finish the morning brew and face the garage.

 

 

As an aside, I find kitty litter is wonderful stuff for soaking up miscellaneous outflows from my Cat. Mopped up the garage floor nicely!