Ford 5.0 HO coolant hose restrictor?

Sorry for the cross-posting, but I wasn't sure where this would go... It's not in a Mustang, but I'm told tons of the parts are the same. Anyways:

Car: 1992 Lincoln Mark VII LSC SE, 5.0 HO V-8, 135,000 miles

Said car has been leaking coolant fluid, and I can't quite figure out exactly where, so I pulled all the hoses (most were still factory original!) and am in the process of replacing them. One thing that I've come upon has me stumped, though. There's a formed hose towards the back of the engine, on top, that has a metal insert inside it. The hose is 3/4" diameter, but this insert restricts the flow down to about 1/4". So, my questions are:

1) Does anyone know what this is?

and

2) Does it need to be in there?

If needed, I can post pictures of the insert, the hose that it was in, and the new hose.

Thanks, all!

---------------------------------------------- The way the world perceives me Is not the way I am The one half thinks I'm crazy The other thinks I'm mad

Reply to
Aaron
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Well..... it doesn't really "need" to be there.... you can remove it but there is a very real chance that the noise of the coolant flowing through the heater core may disturb you.

Reply to
Jim Warman

Possibly a heater core flow restrictor on the heater hose inlet. .

Yes, if you want to continue protecting the heater core from excessive inlet pressure.

-- Mike

93 Cobra
Reply to
Mike R

Hello,

Sounds like you are reffering to the coolant flow restrictor going into the heater core. My knowledge is that this is there to stop the core from becoming over-pressureized and cracking, or getting pin-hole leaks that will eventually have you tearing apart the car to replace it. Coolant pressure rises as the engine spins faster, and this is ford's correction to what I think was a bad design (3/4" intake, into a 5/8" exit?!?). You can remove it, but with that many miles, you may end up like me--replacing the core soon after removing the restrictor. It doesn't really inhibit the normal operation of the heater core, so I'd say better safe than sorry.

Reply to
Christopher Wall

Be sure to buy the hose from Ford. The restriction is as explained, to protect the "very hard to replace" heater core when the engine is wound up. Most factory Ford hoses are molded with the restrictor in the hose. Ford is not the only one to do this, early V8 Chevy's had the restrictor in the fitting where the water came out of the intake. Lots of guys drilled them out to get more heat. If you didn't "hot rod," the core would hold up. BMW's have an elaborate pressure regulator to control the pressure.

Al

Reply to
Big Al

Aaron opined in news:hWSXc.37837$ snipped-for-privacy@bignews4.bellsouth.net:

Not the engine.. it's the application.

and it's mistaken to believe that the problem only occurs because of hose, piping sizes... it's because of the honeycomb core design.

Reply to
Backyard Mechanic

In police applications there is a restrictor that is even smaller, something to keep in mind if your car sees a lot of high RPM.

Reply to
Ironrod

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