Anyone ever try....

[mechanic1]

Forming coolant hoses and "cooking" them to take that shape?

[mechanic1]

had a guy to tell me about this and I tried it....surprisingly enough...it seems to work pretty well!

[M61A1MECH]

The ability to do that will depend on the material the hose is made from.

If made from a old school rubber compound it may not work so well because they tend to be thermoset materials and once cured (vulcanized) they maintain their shape. Many of the new rubber "LIKE" materials are actually thermoplastic materials, they may not want hold there new shape when they get hot again, depends on the temperature required to make them soft again.

 

I hope this works out well, it could be a life saver later in life when parts are no longer available.

[mechanic1]

So far I have tried couple of different type of hose material...the first was actually a type of fuel line made by Gates...since it had a temp of up to 257F and pressure of 35 psi...and it has a type of plastic in it but not totally. The other is just plain rubber heater hose made by Gates also and it seems to have worked pretty well also. Just trying not to re-invent the wheel is someone has had past experience at it

[M61A1MECH]

How well do they hold their shape if you heat them up again?

How hot did you have to get them to form them?

 

I like the idea, have had many times in the past when this knowledge would have been helpful.

Thanks for posting it.

[mechanic1]

I wound up using antifreeze so I could boil it to get the temp hot enough to make it "set" to the form,...I figure is about 250-300 degrees for about 10 minutes then cool with cold water as quick as I can. Question is, how hot is to hot that degrades the hose material? lol

[mechanic1]

Well, actually it wasn't my idea originally. In my hunt for cut to fit hose for my first Gen...and while looking for metal tubing to use in place of the bypass hose with only short and straight connector hoses....I came across this guy at Lowe's here close to me. And he is a fellow biker and builds custom bike some...mostly Harley's I think...he told me you could form them with a good hair drier....I blew it off as BS at first, but then internet searched it....and found a post where a guy said his buddy worked at a place that did just that...formed straight stock hose from a roll that was already "cured"...by passing hot fuild thru them for a time then cooling with cold water

[mechanic1]

...AS far as how hot I got mine....I guessed it...got no temp gauge that goes that high...what I can tell you is...using a hot plate and a metal can with full strength antifreeze I got it to a low rolling boil and kept the hose in it for 8 to 10 minutes. Have yet to see if they keep their shape when at operating temp yet but I believe they will....boiling water isn't quite enough heat to make them take a new form really so...we will see

[mechanic1]

I plan to be working on it again and soon as I have more results and answers I will pass them along....besides, someone on here might have a better "mouse trap".lol:fingers-crossed-emo