hot hose, cool radiator

[johnnycharger]

Hi guys,
here is a new one, at least to me. I fired up my engine, let it run for about 3 mins, pulled her out of the garage, turned around and backed her in. Got out, opened the hood and noticed that the heater hoses feel extremely hot, yet the radiator top, upper and lower hoses feel fine. Is this expected and I just haven't noticed or is something wrong?

[tatrick2me]

The heater hoses circulate water in the heads till the t stat opens, its normal.

[FLG]

The heater hoses circulate water in the heads till the t stat opens, its normal.

If you dont have the valve on the heater hose that will stop circulation when the heat isnt on..water will always be flowing and will be hot before the tstat opens and hot coolant gets to the radiator...for the summer id ether get the valve or bypass the heater core or youll be stripping down to your boxers on a 95* day...of course i have NO personal experience doing such 

[johnnycharger]

That makes me feel better. Thanks guys.
what valve goes on the hose? I need to get me one!  My car is always hot as hell inside! 

[Brass]

Really?  Will bypassing the heater core keep it cooler in the cab during the summer months?  If so, that seems like a great idea to keep the heat on the other side of the firewall.  It makes sense that even with the heater off, hot water is going to be circulating through.

[resq302]

Hot water does circulate through if you do not have a/c that has a shut off valve in line with the heater hoses.  The only difference in when you get heat is with the fan on and the selected vent door open allowing heat to come out the various vents.

[FLG]

Right Brian, but even with the vents closed if you have a non rebuilt heater box...chances are it leaks some and your still getting hot air blowing through the vents.

[resq302]

Hell, they probably even did that new as the only "seal" from what I remember was a foam rubber gasket which would not seal all that well.

[johnnycharger]

Thanks for the tip! I had a/c but it is no longer in the car. Is there any seals in the heater core that will prematurely dry out due to no fluids running through? It sounds like a great idea because the car is a million degrees inside, I just want to make sure having my heater core out of the loop for months at a time wont cause it to leak everywhere when I hook it back up. 

[johnnycharger]

 

[six-tee-nine]

You could always plump a pair of manually operated valves in the heater lines in the engine bay. If you close these in the summer time, then you are 100% sure there is no water circulating anymore in the heater core.
No need to shortcut hoses or stuff like that that dramatically changes the look under the hood. If you use the car in colder weather, simply open the valves and the heater ciruit is "connected" back to the rest of the water ciruit without a hassle......

If you put a vave in each heater hose, then you block off some off the additional heat that spreads out from the hot water pump towards the cab on a long drive.

[johnnycharger]

Sounds like a great idea! Do you have any pics of what kind of valve could be used for this?

[six-tee-nine]

Not really an idea but found a generic pic on the web of what popped up in my mind when i wrote the previous idea.




I would however try to locate a brass of chromed variant of wich the visible part between the two hose ends is as small as possible to keep it as low profile as possible.....

[FLG]

Napa has a nice low profile shutoff

http://www.dodgecharger.com/forum/index.php/topic,70841.0.html

[johnnycharger]

Hi guys,
thanks for the details. I see from the link that it Has to be on the side that exits the heater? I would have thought it would be on the side going in to keep the heat out of the core.

[bobs66440]

I would think so also. That's where I will put mine.

[johnnycharger]

Unless I am missing something....it makes the most sense to me.
I also am going to try and hide mine as much as possible.

[bobs66440]

I installed the NAPA one on mine last night. So far it works perfect.  I ran it until the t-stat opened and and both hoses were cool from about halfway out to the fire wall. I will test it this weekend at Carlisle. It's supposed to be warm....

[johnnycharger]

Awesome. Can you post a pic of it installed?

[bobs66440]

Sure. I'll try to do it tonight.