Does anyone have an alternative to using the cardboard foil heater hose on a type one. Mine keep wearing out by rubbing or vibration. ( Of course I do not have a stock set up)
Do appreciate your experience and ideas!
JH
Heater hose replacement
-
Marc
- Moderator
- Posts: 23741
- Joined: Thu May 23, 2002 12:01 am
Re: Heater hose replacement
Two places where this is an issue with a header - the hose gets sliced where it passes through the rear sheetmetal, and scorched/burnt through where it contacts the exhaust pipes.
Splicing two sections of hose using a stock connector pipe (or other similar steel tube) at the hole takes care of the first problem.
There are aftermarket hoses available which can bend more sharply than the stock foil tube; they're made from a heat-resistant fabric over an internal coil spring. These allow the lower sections to be routed away from the exhaust pipe yet still make the bend where they connect to the heater boxes, and used to be included with most new headers. Similar to this: http://www.aircraftspruce.com/catalog/a ... ckkey=6167
Depending upon how severe the clearance problem is with your particular header, you may be able to get away with using an all-aluminum tube (similar to stock but made from slightly thicker metal without the paper covering) and carefully flattening it into an oval cross-section where it passes by the pipe. This stuff's available from most VW parts-sellers. In my experience this hose will hold up for a couple of years if you can manage to route it where it doesn't touch the exhaust pipe - but it burns through almost as fast as the stock hose if it makes contact.
I have no personal experience with this product, but it looks promising: http://www.machine7.com/product.php?xPr ... &xSec=1801 ...I hear Pierside Parts handles something like this in the USA, but I couldn't find it on their site.
Years ago there were a couple of manufacturers offering headers which had either stock-like "pockets" over #2 & 4 pipes (Treuhaft's "True Blue" system, for example), or had formed metal tubes attached to route the fresh air around them. I don't know of anything like that on the market these days, but you might be able to fabricate something yourself using pockets salvaged from an old stock muffler* or by bending a piece of ~2" exhaust tubing (or maybe even a soup can) to fit for a "permanent" solution. Here's an example of one guy's answer to the problem - no bending required, just welding: http://images.thesamba.com/vw/gallery/pix/1025505.jpg
*sounds elegant, but since the pipes on nearly all headers are angled outwards you'd need to make heavy modifications to get the pockets aligned with the heater boxes...it could be somewhere to start, though.
Splicing two sections of hose using a stock connector pipe (or other similar steel tube) at the hole takes care of the first problem.
There are aftermarket hoses available which can bend more sharply than the stock foil tube; they're made from a heat-resistant fabric over an internal coil spring. These allow the lower sections to be routed away from the exhaust pipe yet still make the bend where they connect to the heater boxes, and used to be included with most new headers. Similar to this: http://www.aircraftspruce.com/catalog/a ... ckkey=6167
Depending upon how severe the clearance problem is with your particular header, you may be able to get away with using an all-aluminum tube (similar to stock but made from slightly thicker metal without the paper covering) and carefully flattening it into an oval cross-section where it passes by the pipe. This stuff's available from most VW parts-sellers. In my experience this hose will hold up for a couple of years if you can manage to route it where it doesn't touch the exhaust pipe - but it burns through almost as fast as the stock hose if it makes contact.
I have no personal experience with this product, but it looks promising: http://www.machine7.com/product.php?xPr ... &xSec=1801 ...I hear Pierside Parts handles something like this in the USA, but I couldn't find it on their site.
Years ago there were a couple of manufacturers offering headers which had either stock-like "pockets" over #2 & 4 pipes (Treuhaft's "True Blue" system, for example), or had formed metal tubes attached to route the fresh air around them. I don't know of anything like that on the market these days, but you might be able to fabricate something yourself using pockets salvaged from an old stock muffler* or by bending a piece of ~2" exhaust tubing (or maybe even a soup can) to fit for a "permanent" solution. Here's an example of one guy's answer to the problem - no bending required, just welding: http://images.thesamba.com/vw/gallery/pix/1025505.jpg
*sounds elegant, but since the pipes on nearly all headers are angled outwards you'd need to make heavy modifications to get the pockets aligned with the heater boxes...it could be somewhere to start, though.
-
Jeff Herriman
- Posts: 13
- Joined: Fri Aug 21, 2009 7:14 pm
Re: Heater hose replacement
Thank you! This puts me on track. Merry Christmas!@