My truck, a work in progress
Monday, December 22, 2003
Part 11: Fixing the things that annoyed me (12/22/2004)
Before I put the truck back on the road I want to fix a few of the things I didn't get right the first time.
Number one on this list is the lower radiator hose. On the stock 22RTE, the lower radiator hose runs from the water pump to a U-shaped piece of hard pipe. This hard pipe, unique to the 22RTE, passes behind the turbo and around the exhaust-side engine mount before connecting back to the bottom of the radiator. The soft part of this hose contains an extra fitting that ties the coolant system into the in-cab heater.
One of the frustrations of the LC Engineering turbo header is that it was designed for the 22RE, which uses a different lower radiator hose and heater hose arrangement (one that doesn't make any provision for the turbo's water cooled bearing jacket). Consequently, the LC turbo header makes contact with the 22RTE's factory hard pipe, and you need to remove the hard pipe and re-route the coolant line away from the exhaust to install the header on a factory turbo truck.
When I first installed the LC header, I cobbled together a Frankenstein-like lower radiator hose using a piece of the factory hose and another piece of formed hose I got from the parts store. It wasn't pretty, but it did the job OK. In the back of my mind, however, I always planned on redoing it in stainless steel when I had the chance.
This was one of the reasons it took me so long to get the truck back on the road: I wanted to re-engineer this pipe, especially since I had the exhaust side of the motor disassembled. After putting things off for a while, I decided that I had better just dive in and fix it, or I was never going to finish this project.
The following pictures show the old and new pieces side-by-side, as well as the new piece on its own. Like the piece I originally made, the new piece crosses over the top/outside of the alternator and passes down the front of the engine. I incorporated a small section of stainless steel flex tubing to allow for engine movement, as well as a male AN boss to make it easier to tie the heater hose back into the coolant system. Overall, I'm very happy with the way this turned out, and feel I solved this problem correctly.
Before I put the truck back on the road I want to fix a few of the things I didn't get right the first time.
Number one on this list is the lower radiator hose. On the stock 22RTE, the lower radiator hose runs from the water pump to a U-shaped piece of hard pipe. This hard pipe, unique to the 22RTE, passes behind the turbo and around the exhaust-side engine mount before connecting back to the bottom of the radiator. The soft part of this hose contains an extra fitting that ties the coolant system into the in-cab heater.
One of the frustrations of the LC Engineering turbo header is that it was designed for the 22RE, which uses a different lower radiator hose and heater hose arrangement (one that doesn't make any provision for the turbo's water cooled bearing jacket). Consequently, the LC turbo header makes contact with the 22RTE's factory hard pipe, and you need to remove the hard pipe and re-route the coolant line away from the exhaust to install the header on a factory turbo truck.
When I first installed the LC header, I cobbled together a Frankenstein-like lower radiator hose using a piece of the factory hose and another piece of formed hose I got from the parts store. It wasn't pretty, but it did the job OK. In the back of my mind, however, I always planned on redoing it in stainless steel when I had the chance.
This was one of the reasons it took me so long to get the truck back on the road: I wanted to re-engineer this pipe, especially since I had the exhaust side of the motor disassembled. After putting things off for a while, I decided that I had better just dive in and fix it, or I was never going to finish this project.
The following pictures show the old and new pieces side-by-side, as well as the new piece on its own. Like the piece I originally made, the new piece crosses over the top/outside of the alternator and passes down the front of the engine. I incorporated a small section of stainless steel flex tubing to allow for engine movement, as well as a male AN boss to make it easier to tie the heater hose back into the coolant system. Overall, I'm very happy with the way this turned out, and feel I solved this problem correctly.
