[DeTomaso] Under car water pipes

[JDeRyke at aol.com]

History lesson: back in April 1980, a few weeks before we purchased our '72 
L, Armand Gosselin of Orlando FL converted his '72 Pantera from 1-3/8" OD 
cooling tubes to 2". He did the ENTIRE system, not just the long under-car 
tubes! With the help of a local MIdas Muffler shop, Armand had them bend 
replicas of all the water tubes in the car, also changing the radiator inlet and 
outlet spigots and the spigots on both water tanks to 2". He had some 
trouble opening up the underbody grommet holes and support block for the much 
larger tubes- there's not much metal left when you do this! He also had trouble 
getting the larger diameter 2" tube to wrap around the gearshift rod without 
rattling and rubbing. But he finally prevailed- see PI Tech Info Group 27, 
Article 10.

The Pantera responded by running pretty much as it had before. Some time 
before the work was started, there was a long discussion as to the possible 
benefits, and one contributor said that it should make little difference 
because as the ID of the tubes increases, the speed of water flow decreases with 
the same pump & pulley, thus maintaining about the same flow volume. I can't 
find the discussion in P.I, but it turned out he was correct. And besides 
the water tubes, there are two other places in the cooling system where flow 
is restricted: the stock radiator and the thermostat (possibly by design). 
If those are not enlarged, all you've done with bigger water pipes is 
slightly increase the cooling system volume. 

An aluminum radiator with its 3X larger internal water tubes DOES increase 
the flow rate of water thru it, but the thermostat then remains as the 
primary impediment to higher water flow through our cooling systems. I'm working 
on that.... FWIW- J Deryke, defacto Historian




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