legacycentral bbs

Stumbled across this cool video of a type of hose clamp I hadn't heard of before on the geo metro forum. Check it out. Are these ideal for intercooler piping? And are they superior to a T-Bolt clamp? It also shows that perhaps a Gates Blue Strip coolant hose may be a better option than silicone due to silicone sweating water out over time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GH1po8k ... e=youtu.be

This is very interesting. I've been loosing a very small but constant amount of water from my AWIC (related directly to how much I drive it), which uses very cheap worm gear clamps. I've never been able to track down a source of leakage. The real kicker is that the hose I'm using doesn't bond to the AWIC components, probably because it never reaches the temps seen in engine coolant. If the data their showing is true, I very well could be loosing water through the fittings as it heat cycles.

Regardless, heat-shrink clamps would be a terrible idea for how often I need to remove/move the system. But a switch to constant-tension clamps may do me a little bit better since they don't loosen as much under contraction as worm gear clamps. And to think, I threw away a bunch of them because I thought worm gear clamps were less likely to leak.

Worm gear clamps are crap and I hate them. A quick search found out that these powergrip shrink clamps from gates are $10 a piece on JEGS so...probably not a good idea if you ever plan to take them off. Oh well.

Yeah, we don't go a quarter of a million miles without taking off coolant hoses like some of the big rigs do, lol.

Maybe those blue stripe hoses are a good buy?

If you're looking to replace your hoses anyway, or already have silicon ones, I'd say yes. But I wouldn't bother replacing the stock hoses if they didn't need it personally. I've never had an issue with noticeable coolant loss without a visible leak on rubber hoses, in any car. (Until my AWIC issue, but the hoses don't fuse with the fittings as mentioned above like ones used on the engine do).

Regarding the AWIC leaking. I used to have similar issues and finally bought a coolant pressure tester to pressurize the AWIC system to see where the leak was. It was in one of my fittings. I don't recall what I did to fix it, but I've redone the AWIC system and don't have any more leaks.

One thing I found was the hose size needed for the AWIC pipes on the intercooler core is not a standard US hose size. You can get a size smaller than what is meant for it, but they're a bitch to get on and off. Going larger will cause leaks. I ended up using stock sized hoses and cut them and used 5/8" hose & fittings for the rest of the hoses in the system. That way I can get stock hoses off relatively easy.

Also, they make coolant dye which you can use as well. it will glow under UV light to show you the leaks.

Do you remember what size it uses?

You mean the stock sized pipe/hose? I don't know....I never really measured it. 5/8" is the closest standard sized hose to fit the piping.

Oh OK. I think I misread your last post. The hose I had been using on my WRX coolant tank was the wrong size fitting slightly looser than proper, and that never leaked at all with worm gear clamps. But then again that hose always bonded to the fitting on me too.

The first clamp here is the way to go:

http://www.murraycorp.com/constant-tension-clamps.html