Please enlighten me on why the lower hose needs the spring? is it a mopar thing? is it needed when there is no t-stat? I find the spring hoses unpleasing to the eye, buttt... if there is a need in certain situations id like to know....thanks.
Two reasons:
When running, the water pump can suck hard enough to collapse the lower hose at higher revs. Seems to be combo dependent (radiator, pump, thermostat, cooling passage mods, etc).
When not running, as the engine cools will go from pressurized to negative pressure (Vacuum) which is supposed to draw the coolant back from the recovery tank. Sometimes the lower hose can collapse and prevent it from drawing from recovery, and once restarted can cause flow issues and may remain collapsed due to the pump 'sucking' on the hose.
The bendy/flexy "spring hoses" aren't necessary, you can put a spring into a standard hose to give it some support.