Stainless cooling pipes

Peter,

I sourced mine from PI Motorsports a few years ago and they fit my '74. The water pump pipe is a tight fit. Slide the 2" hose onto the pipe as far as it will go first then position it up in the car. The left hand pipe under the car may need to slide forward a bit to get the hose coupling to go on and it will be angled a bit as I recall. Once the lower hose is connected slide the 2" upper hose up and connect it to the water pump. I found that using silicone spray to lube up the hoses helps a lot to position them. There should be a short stainless elbow that goes between the right hand pipe under the car and the lower swirl tank pipe and it is a tight fit also. I remember sliding the hose completely on the lower swirl tank pipe then once positioning it in line with the short elbow sliding it down to connect the two. The upper swirl tank pipe on my car is angled up a bit too high but works fine due to the connection hose being about 10"-12" long.

Steve

I bought mine from Hall Pantera. The fit was very good. I would use the term perfect but there probably is no such thing as perfect.

I had to relocate the surge tank because of the 180 headers in the car.

What was entailed in that was shortening the pipe from the thermostat. The angle remained the same.

There were no hoses included in my "kit" so I used -24 Aeroquip hose.

I'm very happy with mine. It was virtually a plug and play installation and has caused no problems along the way at all.

If I was having that much difficulty with the components I'd consider returning them and getting someone elses parts.

I get it that you are across the other side of the pond and someone elses mistake costs you time and additional money.

What can I say? Keep the faith?

I am having a similar issue with with the ss cooling pipe kit I am installing on a '71. The kit is designed to get rid of the molded hoses by engineering the bends into the pipes and using only straight hoses with double clamps for connecting them. It's designed for a stock system. The cooling system on the '71 is modified.

Here is what I ran into:
- The car uses an aftermarket Fluidyne radiator with 1-1/2" short straight so the two pipes to the radiator requires I use two 90 degree hoses that are 1-3/8" to the pipe and 1-1/2" to the radiator.
- I didn't have problems with the gooseneck pipe tha connects the water pump to the pipe on the driver side under the car. I just had make sure the small end goes around the shift rod shaft. The only thing I had issue with on this was the hose to the waterpump inlet was a little short.
- I did have problems also with the pipe connections to the pressure tank.
1. The top connection from the thermostat does not line up with the pipe on the pressure tank. The 90 degree bend on the pipe is off by an inch. The hose was long enough to compensate. So instead fo being straight, it has a slight bend to it.
2. The bottom pipe doesn't line up so I can't use the short 90 degree pipe to connect it to the pipe on the passenger side that goes under the car. I had to get a molded pipe that matched the bend I needed to connect the pipes and not use the 90 degree pipe. The pipes didn't line up as the previous owner went to a rotary a/c compressor and modified the stock factory ac/alternator bracket instead of buying an adapter to fit. The mod lowered the position of the compressor housing and limits the alignment of the new pipe. The one I pulled out was clearanced to fit. The current owner is reluctant to clearance the pipe I am left with trying to modify the bracket somehow. Replacing the modified bracket with a stock bracket with the proper adapter to mount the rotary compressor is also being considered.
- Finally, if there is a thermostat provided in the kit, make sure it is '351 Cleveland' specific. The thermostat in the kit I'm installing is the wrong type. It doesn't have the hat the covers the hole in the bypass plate when open. You would think a Pantera vendor would know better than to put the wrong thermostat but it apparently still happens.

I have the Sankyo rotary compressor on the stock Pantera bracket with the adapter. The adapter is so simple it's almost a non entity. Its no where near an interference with the bottom pipe.

This may just be an issue with who made the kit?

The top pipe to the pressure tank can be cut near the thermostat bend and 1" taken out of it there. Just put a straight piece of hose over that section. You will never see that until the engine cover is off of the bulkhead.

That's where the alignment of that pipe should be made. Not by putting an s hose in line to the tank.

The other possibility is that if you guys are working on '71s, there are differences in those cars than the later ones that may be causing these issues?

This is what I had to do to the SS tubing kit that I bought for my '71. Water pump and swirl tank are stock. Swirl tank is mounted in stock position.

The 90° elbow that is at the rear of the right under body coolant tube is just that...90°. It needs to be less than 90° in order to line up with the tube that goes to the bottom of the swirl tank. I finally had to use two 45° copper street elbows that were rotated slightly when fitted together.

The 90° elbow that went to the water pump needed to be extended 1.5" in order to line up with the water pump inlet.

These pics were taken a couple of years after installation to help another lister. I had the stock York compressor installed when these pipes were installed, and later changed to a Sanden compressor (as can be seen in the pic).

John

Pic of both installed.

John

Nice job.

quote:

Nice job.

Thanks.

Thanks for all the replies, just a pic of the difference with one pipe, I did buy them from Hall by the way, I shall get them to fit but with a fair bit of fettling, which is disappointing.[IMG][/IMG]

I have my car up on jackstands at the moment. I'll go under tomorrow and see exactly what I did under there. I don't remember finagling with that bottom pipe at all but I didn't do this recently.

The one I had to modify was the top one coming out of the thermostat housing. I cut it and inserted about a four or five inch piece of -24 Aeroquip hose to make it line up with the relocated pressure tank.

That I know I can show you a picture of. The engine cover is off right now also.

It may be the simplest thing to do to fix your issue too.

I am wondering though if I have a different shape pipe on that bottom trouble maker? Vendors have been know to switch suppliers or modify things here and there. Theoretically for the better but sometimes they don't even know there was a problem with the part to begin with.

I could tell you stories INCLUDING Wilkinsons parts that don't fit out of the box!

I'll post something for you tomorrow probably around mid-day here.

While my engine is out being rebuilt, I'm also redoing my cooling tubes. I need to know the distance from the rear cooling tube support bracket to the front of the oil pan with the engine in the stock location.
Thanks,
Mark

quote:

Originally posted by PanteraDoug:
I have my car up on jackstands at the moment. I'll go under tomorrow and see exactly what I did under there. I don't remember finagling with that bottom pipe at all but I didn't do this recently.

The one I had to modify was the top one coming out of the thermostat housing. I cut it and inserted about a four or five inch piece of -24 Aeroquip hose to make it line up with the relocated pressure tank.

That I know I can show you a picture of. The engine cover is off right now also.

It may be the simplest thing to do to fix your issue too.

I am wondering though if I have a different shape pipe on that bottom trouble maker? Vendors have been know to switch suppliers or modify things here and there. Theoretically for the better but sometimes they don't even know there was a problem with the part to begin with.

I could tell you stories INCLUDING Wilkinsons parts that don't fit out of the box!

I'll post something for you tomorrow probably around mid-day here.

Thanks Doug its good to know i'm not alone,

Not alone, just a million miles away.

quote:

Originally posted by ehpantera:
While my engine is out being rebuilt, I'm also redoing my cooling tubes. I need to know the distance from the rear cooling tube support bracket to the front of the oil pan with the engine in the stock location.
Thanks,
Mark

8". face of bracket to face of oil pan.

As far as pictures go, I tried but it's too dark and too close even for the digital camera.

What I can tell you is that I have a different pipe coming off of the water pump then you do.

It has something like a 45 degree bend (but I didn't measure the angle) where yours has a 90 degree.

It actually looks just like what John did with the copper tubing. It has no joint like yours. It is all one piece.

I would have to say that Hall has changed that part, and changed it for the worse, not the better.

Since Gary passed I have found it difficult to deal with the girls at Hall. They really don't know much unfortunately.

You need that 45 degree bend in it to clear everything.

It also looks EXACTLY like the old steel pipe you took out, only in polished stainless.

I took my bulkhead cover off yesterday to adjust timing so you're in luck. Here is a picture of my pipe installed. The distance between the 90° bends is about 7" on center. that's the best I can measure. And yes, my pipe has 90° bends. The water pump outlet comes down at about 30-45° then the pipe bends 90° around the shift rod then 90° again towards the front of the car. The straight hose coupling has a little offset to it but it fits.

The 2" hose measures about 5-3/8"

Here is a picture looking up.

And from the bottom left side.

Good pictures and now I know how it should be done, a fettling I will go.

Thanks to all for their help, Peter.