Heating & bending stainless cooling tubes ??...

Take it to a muffler shop. They should be able to bend it for you.

John

Of course... Much better idea. Thanks...

quote:

Take it to a muffler shop. They should be able to bend it for you.

Yes, but don't expect it to look like the mandrel bends on your existing tubes. Depends on the shop and the bending equipment but it will likely neck down and kinking is still a possibility depending upon wall thickness. If it's only a few degrees you may get away with it but there's mild steel exhaust tube is much easier to work then the stainless. You may run into problems if the bend is too close beaded nipple on your tube.

K

PLT-1,

I found this old thread... Were you able to get your tubes bent at the muffler shop? I'm looking at doing the same to make the assembly fit better. It looks like the center of bend needs to be right in between the bolt in crossmember and the swaybar. Do you know how many degrees you went if you had it done?

Steve

an old trick for bending tubing with less distortion is to cap one end then fill with sand or lead shot , cap the other end then have the tube bent.

To add to Wades comment, vibrate the pipe when pouring in the sand to make it denser.

And the sand needs to be dry...especially if using any heat.

John

If you have no success bending the tubes it may be easier to buy some 90 degree mandrel bends, cut them and tig weld a section into the cooling tubes to obtain the proper angles. A bit like fabricating a set of header pipes.

Thanks guys. Once I got the radiator in and angled forward just right it all fits good.

Hers's a better picture.

Or you could do what many hotroders do, use the corrugated flex stainless tubes. Usually they use hose clamps with special rubber couplers to hook them up. I'm sure you've seen them.

I did it a little differently. I was using 1.5" tubing to hook up my 4.6L DHOC conversion. I used (2" OD I'm pretty sure) flex tubing tack welded and then silver soldered to make the seal to lengths of 1.5" strait stainless. If you cut the flex tube in the middle of the rib it leaves a sort of U shaped ring which the 1.5" tube buts up to. The picture shows the end result.