source for right angle heater hose fitting?

The ACE hardware down the road from me has all sorts of interesting brass fittings, hose barbs, etc. Don't know if they have exactly what you need but I have made similar things for 5/8 hose using two hose barbs and a 90.

Assuming a steel plate you're connecting to, perhaps just drill a 3/4" square steel block from two sides to make a 90 degree port, get a suitable piece of tubing for the outlet nipple and braze the whole mess together?

Nate Nagel wrote: (Need source for right angle hose fitting)

I need to relocate a heater hose to a plate beh ACE hardware has many sorts of brass fittings, hose barbs, etc. I have made similar things for 5/8 hose using two hose barbs and a 90. __________________________________________________

A 1/2" NPT fitting will have about 36 per cent less flow area than a 5/8 hose. It is not clear what the plate is for. If it is just a mounting plate, it probably has a straight thread, instead of the tapered NPT.

Lowe's and Home Depot both have good selections of brass tube/hose fittings, at about $3 to $9 each. You should be able to put something together, possibly a single 90 degree hose barb or an assembly of fittings to do the job.

Another approach would be to move the vacuum-operated heater control valve back to the firewall. It already has a 90-degree configuration. Or if you don't need the control, find an old used one, gut it out and use it for an elbow.

Good luck.

Rodan.

It's one of the blockoff plates for the coolant passages that would connect to the water manifold, were the head mounted the opposite direction. The one on the driver's side has a NPT hole in it for the temperature gauge sender, the one on the passenger side is typically blank.

That's why I'm posting, I was at HD last night and as usual they are worthless. I don't have a Lowe's anywhere near handy :(

actually this car ('55 Studebaker) uses one of the old Ranco temperature compensated heater valves controlled by a cable, so I'm not sure what you're envisioning here...

nate

I'm thinking you need to move somewhere with better access to real stores, or else make a once a month supply run with a good shopping list.

How about this one for $10?

I live within walking distance of a Home Depot and a Lowe's, and Lowe's is no better. Actually they've been worse because their employees are dumber.

Auto parts stores carry right-angle fittings, but sometimes only in plastic.

Must be a regional thing. Around here I have two HD's within a couple miles, but the selection at Lowe's (a 20 mile drive) is worth it if I've got a big project. Otherwise I go to HD, get frustrated, buy half the stuff I'm looking for and either buy the rest online or try to sneak out of work early so I can go to a real hardware store.

I was thinking that wouldn't be acceptable for a heater hose, do they work OK?

nate

Oh, tell me something I don't know. I was a happy camper when I discovered that McMaster-Carr was actually pleasant and easy to order from online. Unfortunately their version of the part I'm looking for is no cheaper than the Performance Stainless part.

I don't know why the stores around here so uniformly suck; I live in a fairly affluent area (mostly more affluent than Yours Truly, to tell the truth.) Or maybe that's the problem, enough money = less incentive to DIY?

Hmm, that might work. Only thing not to like is the pronounced barbs; I like easy disassembly because I have a nasty habit of reconfiguring the car on a regular basis :( For some reason I couldn't find that with an online search.

nate

I would tend to be leery of plastic fittings at those temperatures. Some plastics can take it, but the commonly found ones can't, or won't for long. What's wrong with the Perma-Cool brass 90 degree 5/8" hose barb to

1/2" NPT fitting for $10 from Summit?

See my other post... only thing I don't like about it is the pronounced barbs, but I could deal. I just apparently wasn't punching the right search terms into Google to find it.

I had two other thoughts... one was to solder up something from copper plumbing pieces, although I might have to swage the pipe to fit the heater hose, Right about now is where I start kicking myself for selling the set of tools I had for rolling a bead onto the end of thinwall tubing that I inherited from an old employer and sold because I didn't have the space to keep it around... The other idea was that Studebaker Champion sixes (the early, flathead version) used a similar fitting from the factory as the heater hose fitting screwed right into the top of the head. Whaddaya know, SASCO still has that fitting in stock for $5. Sometimes you got to go right to the source :) I posted to the SDC forums asking someone with a six to verify the dimensions of the part, as my parts book only gives applications not sizes and I don't drive sixes :) but if my memory is correct it should work... I don't know why I didn't think of that before.

nate

Less incentive, and more importantly less ability typically.

>

There were a number of other options at Summit for that adapter, in various chrome and SS and with different barb styles. I just noted the basic brass one. The one I noted doesn't have pronounced barbs though, it has flat barbs / under cut areas for the hose clamp to compress the hose into, much easier to remove than the saw tooth barbs.

Yep, missed by a couple minutes.

I didn't Google for it, I happened to know that Summit had a big selection of auto related plumbing parts. Also, I find that Altavista is better search engine.

I'm sure that would work as well. Given how those hoses like to bond to the fitting, I expect a real bead isn't even needed. A dull tubing cutter would probably raise enough of a lip on the tube.

I looked in the search by application / model list on Summit and noted that they listed Studebaker. Bet they have some other goodies to round out your order...

The manager of the Lowe's near me is a real idiot who probably never used a power tool, and when someone complains to him he just mentions that his store is doing well in sales (that happened to me and a friend on separate occasions). OTOH the manager of the HD is a lot better, maybe because he used to work in construction.

It's a high-temperature hard plastic, like acetal, which I think is related to nylon. I've seen the plastic on water heater drain valves.

Competent management certainly can make a big difference.

A home water heater runs around 120 degrees typically, rarely more than

150 degrees, vs. probably 200+ on an engine block. I'd be quite leery of any plastic in that application unless I could be sure of the exact material and lookup it's exact ratings.

Heh, that's not a glowing endorsement, as I don't have a particularly good opinion of most water heater drain valves (one of my "new" house repair projects last year was replacing all the water heater drain valves with dielectric nipples and 3/4" ball valves, as none of them would close after use and I had to plug them up with garden hose caps until I could fix them correctly.)

nate

I would expect that plastic fittings for use in a home would fail under the hood of a car for one of a variety of reasons. In this case the temperature cycling alone would be enough. Plastic used for home plumbing isn't going to be the kind to go from -30F to 250F (and I've probably significantly under-estimated the real design temp range for a cooling system part) as would something in a car.

I roamed around mcmaster and found this:

53525K23 Brass Hose Elbow Adapter 90 Degree, for 5/8" Hose ID, 1/2" Pipe In stock at $6.02 per Pack of 2

But plastic pipe approved for water heaters has to withstand at least

180F @ 100 PSI continuously, and some plastics, like polypropylene, nylon, and Saran Wrap can take much higher temperatures. Also how do you explain plastic drain valves in radiators, plastic radiators, and even plastic parts inside engines (Ryton)?

continous temp is much less severe than temperature cycling on a plastic. Temp shock (going immediately from cold to hot or hot to cold) is even worse.

There are plastics that are able to take engine coolant temps, they are used by manufacturers, I simply wouldn't expect to find parts made from (and molded properly so those properties aren't lost) on the shelf in the plumbing isle at the local home depot. Throw in the chemical resistance required for under-hood use and it becomes even less likely.

Would something from the plumbing isle work for a little while? Sure. Will it decide to fail at the worst possible moment? Probably.

The discussion is academic at this point, a friend of mine that runs a rod shop sold me a chrome plated steel fitting that should work for a not-too-extortionate price.

Now if you could just send me a couple weekend days where the temperature is above 20 degrees, and I'll let you know if it really does work :(

nate