Coolant and Heater Plumbing

This is one of those jobs that takes a lot of time, effort and some expense but no one will really ever appreciate all the work. It just isn't one of those sexy parts of doing up a car. Just like so many other things in life, the time spent on this part of the project has to be done and will pay big dividends in the future.

My car was missing everything. There was one piece of cut off 3/4" tubing in the center console well for the heater piping. That had to come out and it was quite the job getting that thing to separate itself from old 3854. With this little project out of the way I could get on with figuring out how to best plumb the Coyote in the Pantera.

My first thing I decided to figure out was how to give myself more room where the heater hoses come in to and exit out of the Coyote engine. As I have explained in an earlier post the thermostat housing has a strange set of hoses that I don't think can be replaced with more conventional hose and hose clamps. Unfortunately the top radiator hose sticks into the passenger compartment. I have had to build an enclosure on the fire wall to take that into account. All I kept thinking was there has to be some way to give myself some extra space here.

I took off the upper part of the top radiator hose where it connects to the thermostat housing on the Coyote. This is one of those clip connections that are everywhere on modern engines. Nice design but not easy to modify. The female part of the connector has a grove that keeps it from rotating when attached to the housing. I noticed that if I made a new grove I could rotate the hose away from the passenger compartment and give myself a little more room. And, that's what I did.

Unfortunately I don't have the pictures of this modification but it is easy to do after you see the inside of the hose connection. I did have to remove a portion of the tab that goes into the new slot so that the connector clip would seat fully when snapped close. A really nice and relatively simple modification. You will be able to see some of the results from the pictures below.

With that mod complete it was time to figure out how to get it all plumbed up. I found a picture of the cooling flow from a Ford document on the Coyote.



This shot came from the following pdf.  http://www.fordracingparts.com/download/instructionsheets/FordInstShtM-6007-A50NA.pdf

Lots of other good info on the Coyote here as well. A good resource to keep around. 

After studying this diagram and comparing it to the flow of the original 351C I decided that I needed to purchase the Coyote radiator reservoir rather than using the original reservoir that came with the Pantera. Although the price was right - $60 on Ebay - the original reservoir is one of the few parts that came with 3854. I'm sure someone will want to purchase the original I have since it is in pretty good shape. 

With the flows all figured out I decided to take a run down to the scrap metal store and pick up some 1.5 OD stainless tubing for the lines under the car that run from the engine bay to the front were the radiator will be. I installed the tubing in 6' lengths. This is too long for the front but I will wait until I have the radiator to trim the length to where I want it. 

With the stainless tubing in place I needed to figure out how to get the inlet and outlet tubes (both 1.5" ID) to the underside of the car. For the inlet tube (the one running to the bottom of the thermostat housing) I used two pieces of pre-bent 1.5" radiator hose I got from my local part store. I purchased one P/N 22484 and one 21953. Both of these have two 90 degree bends that can be cut and used to get the water to flow around where I want it to go. Here's a shot of the two hoses I purchased.

I used the intact 22484 to go from the bottom part of the thermostat housing, around the alternator and it ended up just above the frame close to the stainless tubing running to the front of the car. I then cut one of the 90 degree bends out of the 21953 part and attached that to the stainless steel tubing. To connect the two pieces together I made up a nice 45 degree bent piece of stainless tubing. With a bunch of water hose clamps I was able to tie it all together. 

Here's a shot of the the amount of the 90 degree part I took out of 22484 and how it will connect to the 21953 piece. 

This is a shot of what the 45 degree tubing I made looks like. Notice the weld on the end of the pipe. I decided to weld a bead along all ends to give the tubing and hose clamps something to grip against. Don't know if that will make any difference to sealing but I thought it would be good idea. 

That finished up the inlet side. Now for the outlet side of the thermostat. For that one I used a piece of the original hose that came on the Coyote engine along with the rest of the 21953 hose. I connected them with an appropriate sized (about 4") piece of stainless steel. Once clamped together it connected right up with the other piece of 6' stainless running to the front of the car. Here's a shot of the upper piece from inside the passenger compartment. 

The heater hoses were a bit of a chore. I had a part of a 3/4" pipe in the center console that was left over from the original layout. Unfortunately someone had cut the pipe down for some reason. It took quite a bit of work to get that old pipe out. Once gone I used two pieces of new 3/4" stainless tubes to run from the back of the car up to the front of the passenger compartment. 

I purchased two pieces of 3/4" pieces of molded hose for the 90 degree bends. I figured that by cutting the 19604 and 19666 pieces I could get two 90 degree turns if needed. I ended up only using the 19666 piece by curing it exactly in two. 

In order to get the the heater hose turned up from the center console into the heater box area I made a two 45 degree pipe turns as shown below. Using a 3" piece of 3/4" tubing and two clamps I connected the 45 to the stainless pipe in the center console.

Using the two 90 degree turns cut from the 19666 piece of molded tubing I was able to turn the heater hose to the spot where I wanted it to come out near where the heater box will eventually be. In order to enable me to get the hoses exactly where I wanted them to be I decided to cut out a chunk of the center console as shown below.

I then cut a piece of 13 gauge steel to make a cover for the hole I cut in the console. I attached the plate using six sheet metal screws. A little paint and it is ready to go.

Here's what it looks like in the engine compartment. I still have to get some clamps on the heater hose connections. After that it should be good to go.

The coolant reservoir tank arrived from Ebay. Although it is plastic, it is a really well made part. I decided to mount the reservoir tank right above where the fuel tank would be going. I might relocate the fuel tank to the other side anyway so this space might is something I could use for something else in the future. I made a bracket out of 13 gauge steel to mount the reservoir. Here's some shots of the bracket and the tank mounted in place.

More to come on the radiator selection and connections at the front of the car. 

Headers

After borrowing a set of shorty headers to see if they would fit, I've come to the conclusion that custom is the only way to go. I priced out the various options of getting them made and felt the $1,500 to $2,000 is just too much for me to spend on this part of the build. I've always wanted to make a set of headers myself so here's my opportunity.

After a bunch of research on how to make them, I decided to just jump in. I closely read the information and watched the videos on this site.

http://www.stainlessheaders.com/mandrelbends

They have an amazing mock up system that they will loan out if you want to design your own set of headers that they will build for you. Check them out for yourself.

I found a set of header flanges for $60 for the pair. Here's where you can order a set of Coyote flanges.

http://shop.watsonracing.com/Coyote-header-flanges-p/wr-coyoteflange.htm

Don't make the same mistake I made - I assumed the quantity 1 was for one flange. I now have four flanges since qty 1 means a set. Wish it was clearer on the site. I'll be sending back a set after I do the build. Who knows, the extra set might come in handy if I mess something up.

I started the mock up by securing the collector where I think it should go. I consulted a ton of pictures online to see if I could get the collector to come as close to stock position as possible. The collector I used is an old set I had from my Ford Galaxie rebuild from many years ago. These parts didn't make the cut on the Galaxie due to clearance issues. I knew keeping them would come in handy someday. Here's a shot of the collector secured in place.

Not too high tech, but it gets the job done. With the collector in place I used 1 1/2 inch sprinkler PVC to help lay out each header pipe. I used 45 degree and 90 degree bends only since that is what I can find in header pipe. I will be using 1 7/8 inch header pipe. The 1 1/2 sprinkler pipe is almost exactly the same size OD as the header pipe I will order. Here's a shot of the first pipe done and the second one on its way.

After a few restarts to get the lengths as close as possible I ended up with the following. I decided to only do the passenger side for now just to make sure I can actually complete this project.

Not bad if I say so myself. With this mock up I was able to determine how many 45's and 90's I needed to weld up my own headers. I ordered the tubing from a company in Minnesota. I don't have the name or contact info for them right now. As soon as I receive the piping I'll update this post.

After I received my 45's and 90's it was time to see if I could match the mock up with actual steel. I started by checking out the fit between the header flange holes and the actual bends I ordered. It was tight to say the least. I decided that I needed to do a little grinding on the flange holes to make the pipe easier to fit. In the shot below you can see the differing appearance between the stock hole and the one I modified to fit the pipe better.

I also did a slight modification to the set of collectors I had laying around. The collectors were made for a 2" pipe, the Coyote engine uses 1 7/8" pipes. I took 4" long pieces of 2" pipe and put them into the collectors. The 1 7/8" pipe slips nicely into the 2" pipe. Once welded I think this will be more than enough of a fit to make the system work well. Here's a shot of the collector showing what I'm talking about.

Once all the flange openings had been modified it was time to see if I could make the bends I ordered match up to the mock up I made. It was surprisingly easy. I want one pipe at a time starting with the one that had the most bends to it thinking that I would need the most room to make this one happen. Here's a shot of that first pipe.

I lightly tacked up all the bends cut to fit into place. I continued one pipe at a time until I got three of the four exhaust ports piped up to the collector. I saved the fourth one to be done off the car so that I could more fully weld up the pipes to the collectors. That way only one pipe will have an incomplete weld at the collector. Here's a couple shots showing the other two pipes going into place.

Here's a shot of the finished product off the car.

There were only two places where I had to do a little custom bending. To do this I simply cut a V in the pipe, bent it to the angle I wanted and rewelded it up. This gave me room to tweak the pipe where I needed to to get it just right. One of the most important places I found this a necessity was on the port closest to the front on the passenger side. I had to sightly bend the pipe away for clearance for the A/C hookups off the compressor.

I also had to do some pretty bit weld fill ins at a couple mating junctions where some of the bends came together. This was due to some inaccurate and not so straight cutting methods I did on the bends. Not a big deal, just required a bit more time behind the welder.

Now all I need to do this make this same header in an almost mirror image for the driver's side. I'm thinking of just using the same mock up as my template as a mirror image. If anything comes up of this process I'll post it then.

This was my first attempt at making headers. I have to say I like how it all turned out. The pipes are close to the same length (within less than 2" from the longest to the shortest). I know this discrepancy in lengths could have been and probably should have been smaller, but for not ever having done this before I'm more than pleased with the results.