Nice. How do you plan on making the outlets for the heater hose and stuff?
Nice. How do you plan on making the outlets for the heater hose and stuff?
Probably end up with something like this: Dorman 56399 Water Pump Inlet Tube | eBay
Which they carry at most parts places, then just drill the holes and have someone weld them in place. Need to find the right size tho
Could you braze or solder those tubes on? The metal is pretty thin, and I don't think the water pump is under a ton of pressure.
Yeah that was suggested by my dad also. A certified grease monkey for decades, so I'm inclined to believe ya'll. I'm looking for durability overall, just worried solder would crack due to vibration/hot-cold cycle.
Yeah, that's a good point. I don't know much about it, but I think lead-free solder is prone to cracking (main relay anybody?). Not sure if you can buy regular leaded solder or not, or if it would really even matter.
You'll be fine as long as the solder you pick has a high enough melting point. Pb90Sn10 is commonly used in car cooling systems.
Proud new owner of Catalyst's hatchback
great job man! i bought the inlet pipe a year or two ago brand new. i kept my old one to grab the dimensions off of it and i plan to make me a couple of back up (i have a feeling they will stop making these soon if they haven't already stopped making them) of course mine was a 89 LXI so it looked a little different but same purpose!
good job again SZfiftyfour.
Thanks, yeah they will probably discontinue them eventually, which is the reason I had to make this one.
Good luck with the project. In my case, the main issue was keeping the cost down, I'm no fabricator, I don't have the tools or the experience
so I used what tools I had (apart from buying a few little things) and took the cheap/easy way out. Which is why I say hack-job. Like as-in, using the 2x4 pipe-bending
method 'vs' buying a tube bender for $80. Or, using a cutting wheel on a cut-out tool (not safe) because that's what I had. And If you notice, the heater tubes
aren't nippled they're just regular tubing slightly larger than the stock heater tubes, which will suffice. Since I couldn't find a heater tube the right size without
buying another whole coolant tube assembly to cut up. Also, unless you can make them you'll need the in/out fittings from another water pump inlet tube, which
automatically puts the running-total at 100% original part cost. I don't even want to think what it would cost to have someone make one from scratch. So anyway,
I was trying to stay as close to original part cost as possible. I would suggest buying one more at least, to hold onto for later if needed,
only because it costs more to make them. Or just take good care of the cooling system, like I should've done with my car back in the day.
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