good day I have a 1938 ford standard with a 351 Windsor does any body know what rad hoses I can use ?
What.... AutoZone can't look those up for you? Take a coat hanger and make the length and shape of the hose you think will work. Get the size of the neck on radiator and thermostat housing. Go to auto supply and look thru their hoses. Or use flex hoses. Sent from my Moto G Play using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
No two are going to be the same as the other guy might have the upper radiator outlet in a different spot, the engine sitting higher or lower or closer or further back. You can do as Graybear360 suggested and bend a wire or get a similar size length of flexible cardboard heater duct or the flexible aluminum tube that goes from the manifold to the aircleaner on a lot of 70 something rigs. either might cost more than you want to spend. Another and maybe more accurate way would be to cut up and duct tape some old hoses together in the shapes you want and take your sample to the parts house. The March 2018 Street Rodder Magazine has an article on the subject. I was looking at it this past weekend.
I've used that metal flex hose they sell to go from the air cleaner to the exhaust manifold on the early '70's motors. It is about the same diameter and retains the shape you need to take to the store to look for a pre-formed rad hose
Flex hoses are traditional; that's almost all you saw in the old car mags. The rest had chrome pipe with short pieces of straight hose for connecting.
They might be "traditional" to some but they are still ugly and scream that the builder didn't care enough to do it right.
I don't disagree, but it is what it is. Personally I don't like them as they fail faster than a molded curve hose which is why you never saw them as OEM. But if you're working hard on a 'traditional' look, that's what you need...
Used to be that a flex hose was cheaper but now days they seem to be more expensive than a lot of molded hose. On the OP's rig I would believe that he needs more than one bend in his hoses and flex hoses usually don't handle that while they do the one bend thing pretty good. t
I used plastic pipe, straight and elbows, took it too the parts store and they sent me to the back and let me search until I found the one I needed. They don't bend like wire or??? plus I need a good example that I can compare too
Your 351 Windsor water pump is very close to how the 322 Buick water pump exits. Here a thread I started for a 32 radiator (upper and lower) I used a gates 22006 lower and trimmed some off. https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum...2-ford-what-did-you-use.969480/#post-10918380
Post some pictures. I like the Gates or Allstar stock car hoses that Summit carries. Dayco has a good selection too. My local speed shop has the Gates hoses, easy to match something up since they are straight.
Gates used to sell hoses with a wire molded in so you could form them and they would keep their shape. Do they still make the formable hose?
Street Rodder magazine gets bashed sometimes here on The H.A.M.B. but there's a pretty good article in this month's magazine about making-up radiator hoses. Might give you some help and ideas.
I had an auto parts guy at the local store that was a master at matching a bent coat hanger to a molded pipe. Bring it into the store - he would go into the back and bring out the perfect hose in a couple of minutes. Also knew most common parts without looking them up - and could find ANY part . Alas , he died a couple of years ago , and have not found anyone close yet ! No, he didn’t work at AutoZone..... Sent from my iPad using H.A.M.B.
Thanks for all the help and great suggestions. With a little bit of trial and error. I got a couple of hoses and cut them down seem to work not bad.
I have used this trick for figuring out what shape and how long my radiator hoses need to be back in the 70's and it has made finding the right hoses pretty simple. It's just a aluminum VW heater hose,they are flexible and hold their shape and you can use them over & over,I have 2 for both hoses. HRP
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