I’m leaning towards loop. This will allow some coolant flow when the thermostat is closed…
What about you guys?
I would probably just run a cooler thermostat man…
I’m already running a 170. But there is no heater core in the car, so I need to either loop the lines or plug them.
I would vote loop as well.
no heater? I’m really glad I put the one I made in my car.
for the lines, I’d look at the system up to were the HC lines start. And see what its doing, to decide. But another side I see, it’s really easy to change between loop and blocked. And would be something to test looking for a difference in system temp change if you needed it. It could be one of those things you can think about, and do on paper. I don’t know all the fluid dynamics of it, but the big picture of a system like that I’ve seen temps change both ways. So the IRL mother nature’s has the final word to me.
No heater. The exhaust occupies the space where the blower motor used to be. Who knows if someday I’ll rig something up, but for now, I am not.
You can see the heater feed/return in this pic:
The return is the nipple on the tstat housing. This is “low pressure”.
The feed is on the block to the left.
The more I think about it, I should loop these, or else the pump will cavitate when the tstat is closed…
Loop.
You don’t need a heater in a car unless you drive in sub 35 degree weather. You shouldn’t ever have to “rig” anything to clear the windshield, as long as you keep the fan in there you will not fog up. If you ever need to quickly rig something to make your interior warm, remaove your front carpet and sound deadening. The exhaust will keep you nice and toasty.
+1 on loop
I was thinking if you plug them a dry spot would/could happen, but of course I am too late for that idea. lol
Well, I don’t even have a blower motor in the car…
tell that to my turbo SHO. if it is raining out that shit is fogged. I have to drive with a window down. if i turn the blower makes no difference.
Plugging it seems like a bad idea. However… How much flow resistance is there in your heater core? I replaced one once before but I never really looked to see how the coolant flowed through it and if it was restricted in some way.
My concern with a clean loop of tubing is that if the resistance is considerably less more coolant will flow through there meaning less going to some other critical path. Easy enough to fix by stepping down the size of the hose enough to mimic the resistance of the core, assuming there is some.
That exactly was my only concern about looping it. Tons of skyline guys do it, though, because their cores always shit out. That doesn’t mean it’s right.
However, i don’t think heater cores provide TOO much resistance.
Not sure how similar the application is…but on the '55 I have the line looped at the water pump for the heater core. ~1500 miles on it and no problems.
loop just incase of a hotspot
i always loop them
I’ve run them looped (6" to 1.5’) on 4 or 5 cars with ZERO over cooling or over heating problems.
Don’t overthink it, it’s not some critically designed system, the tstat will still let hot coolant out of the block and flow through the (larger) port into the rad. Same to be said for the pump impeller.
I’m no mechanic but i’d assume loop would be better just to keep the natural flow of the coolant going the way it was designed to.
considered running a retro-fit kit like the hotrod guys do? they’re tiny little boxes that fit behind the glove box, couple flexible duct, a pull cable for the valve (run an h-pipe to bypass) and a fan switch. you’re going to kick yourself when the fucking windshield fogs up like a bitch if you get caught in a few drops of rain.
I might add something in the future. I’ve said before that the interior will be a winter project. I just want to get the car driving with the bare essentials.