Likely Cause’s, Water hoses and Hose clips
Symptoms related
Hose clips and water hose condition are so often overlooked when it comes to engine overheating problems. Whilst not normally the primary concern they do represent an area of your engine reliability that warrants further and attentative consideration.
Coolant Hoses
The most common fault we find with hoses fall into these following categories
- Old and split:
Look out for signs of cracking on the surface. A quick look is all you need.
- Old and hardened:
Hoses like this are crusty and flaky in appearance also easy to spot.
- Soft bloated and saturated:
Normally due to oil or petrol contamination. Hoses like this feel and look like fat soggy Cigars.
- Split or cut around the fittings:
Caused by sharp hose clips perhaps to narrow in width or fastened incorrectly.
Hose Clips
The most common fault we find with hose clips fall into these following categories
- Old and corroded:
Maybe near impossible to remove or replace rusted hose clips but they can be considered completely useless especially if you need to tighten them.
- Old and broken:
Older pipes can sometimes keep an adequate seal under low pressure even if the clip is broken but problems with failure will be just around the corner.
- Narrow profile/width clips:
Such clips will not spread the load and will cut through your hose pipe perhaps internally where you cant see it.
- Hoses Fittings area split or cut internally:
Water and all other hoses will suffer this, if caused by narrow or sharp poor quality hose clips.
Further Consideration
The secret to a successful engine rebuild, upgrade or replacement mostly lies in the small detail thus we recommend the following
- Hoses:
Always replace smaller hoses and take an objectionable look at the larger ones that are bespoke to your V8.
- Hose Clips:
Always use new high quality stainless steel wide style hose clips and mostly the quality is best if the holes are pressed in the clip rather than stamped.
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