Radiator Hose Springs - Yes or No ?

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mydart270

myDart270
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I have a 1968 Dodge Dart 270 SL-6, no AC, auto, fully restored . Cute car but original radiator hoses (top and bottom) started to leak at wire hose clamps. Off to NAPA and ordered replacements. However no coiled NO springs inside new hoses. The old springs very rusty and still salvageable I feel. Here is my question:

Do people still use springs inside radiator hoses? New rubber in hoses not needed NAPA man said (nice cope out!). Compared to my 1992 VOLVO hoses, NAPA hoses inferior (no thickness, very soft, no interior strength), thinking about reinstalling springs again after rust removal. What do you think??

Great forum...great people...love my Dodge Dart!!
 
It has been my experience that the makers of hoses now days just don't use them anymore. I reuse the springs where possible.
 
I got the same line from the guy behind the parts counter... advancements in rubber hoses has come a long way so no spring needed. I installed it without the spring but kept it on the shelf just in case. Noticed the temperature gauge would climb at highway speeds so installed the spring and it doesn’t get as hot on the highway now.
 
If you have a performance V8 with a high flow water pump, you can suck your radiator hoses flat and cut off water flow. In performance motors (even during street driving) you need to have the wire springs to prevent collapsing the hose.
 
Wind your own if the old is too far gone. Make sure you roll the ends so they don't/can't poke through!
 
Yes ! !
A length of stainless welding rod wrapped around a jack handle/pipe works very well.

Spring only needs to be in low pressure hose. (Suction side of pump).
 
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Yes, put the spring in. That is a BS line about the rubber. It will still age and the hose will suck shut.
 
Just put a high flow water pump on my 340 and no issues with the hose collapsing flat, if the system is pressurized properly why would the hose collapse.
 
Stainless tig rod and your good forever!
 
Thanks for that link. I ordered two of them. cheap insurance.
sun&seaDart.jpg
 
Just dealt with this a couple of weeks ago. A friend replaced his radiator hoses on his six cylinder pickup early this spring because the top one got a tiny leak. He recently reported to me that the pickup would occasionally overheat since that change. I asked if he took the spring from the old lower hose and he told me the guy at NAPA told him he would not need a spring. We went to my shed and got a spring from a sprinkler head and stretched it to length. Dropped the lower hose, inserted the spring and hooked the hose back up to the radiator. His truck has not heated since the spring replacement.
 
If the system pressurizes why would it collapse? Only time i could see where it would collapse is when it cools off if a vacuum is created and suck the hose flat. I always thought a bad radiator cap would cause this.
 
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If the system pressurizes why would it collapse? Only time i could see where it would collapse is when it cools off if a vacuum is created and suck the hose flat. I always thought a bad radiator cap would cause this.

If you're cruising down the road on a brisk day, engine up to temp, rads doing its job dumping lotsa heat from the coolant, so much that the thermostat is only half open keeping the temp up.

You come up behind a vehicle going slower than you like, so you pull out and jump on the gas. The revs go waayyy up, that high volume pump,(any pump) creates so much suction, but where's the coolant to come from, thermostat is restricting flow, as is the rad.

The result is the pump cavitates, and/or the bottom hose, if soft enuff and without the spring, will collapse.
I was absolutely amazed the first time I saw it. An old Cadillac with an oil sogged lower hose sucked shut right before my eyes, as I reved the engine. Have seen a few since too.
Yes, it was pressurized.

This prob happens more often than known, cuz the collapse doesn't nec last long enuff to overheat.

hope it helps
 
Ditch the spring save weight. Gotta add 7 more mph at the top end. You do relize I'm pulling your chain.
 
Like said above I've made my own out of coat hangers. Did it to my Valiant ! Cheap insurance.
 
Yeah, ditch the spring, save the weight! While your at it cancel your auto insurance, I did and I'm saving 3K a year x20 years? Yeah that is 60 K in my pocket! Course I'm bullshitting you. Why NOT run the spring? Just like Insurance, if you need it, it's there. If your radiator is the least bit restricted, it will collapse the lower hose without the spring.
 
The pressure in the cooling system of a running engine, is not the same everywhere all the time. The suction side is at least 30degrees cooler than the hot side. That alone produces a pressure differential. The pump is not very good at sucking, but it's real good at pushing. But all that hot water from the two sides of the engine comes crashing together under the stat house, and then has to do a 90* turn and get jammed thru the stat restrictor. Then once thru there it bursts into the top hose, an area about 3 or 4 times greater than what it just squeezed thru. Now the coolant loses velocity as it drops into the top tank. But the pump is still pushing, so the hot coolant has to migrate down the tubes, a foreign operation to be sure. On it's way down to the lower tank, it sheds a lotta heat. Then the now cooled fluid has to enter the lower hose, again a reduction in area, so it has to speed up. Next it enters the hot pump, and is immediately assaulted by the very hot water coming from the bypass circuit, and whatever is coming or not from the heater circuit. Finally it gets smashed to smithereens by the pump, jammed thru the two tiny holes into the water jackets, forced along the cylinder walls, up the backside and now returning to the front, whilst picking up heat in the heads. And then plowed into the stat-house again, like hitting a brick wall.
It's a total wonderment. I'd like to be a water molecule and go for that ride.
 
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Below about 300 feet in elevation a 195 degree thermostat should open before a significant amount of pressure builds in the system. An expansion spring in the lower hose is your friend. Unless they somehow went away from the new 2019 RAM trucks, Mopar still installs them.
 
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