Watercooling hoses through longs?, I need feedback from those who've done it. Options

[pktzygt]

I'm finalizing my Suby conversion and I can seem to make myself put the cooling lines under the car.

I can think of one person (Britain) who has put the cooling hoses in the longs, but I was hoping to get some feedback on the difficulty of installation and how well it works form some suby or V8 guys. Part of the problem is that I haven't ever cut into the longs myself.

One one hand I don't want to put extra heat in the cabin or lose foot space but on the other, I hate the shortcut look of the under car routing.

Do the bends in the hose cause cooling issues?

Can the hoses go into the longs without taking foot space?

Should I put them under the car and re-route them as a future winter project?

Thanks!

[Mike Bellis]

Project Anklebiter has them in the longs.

My first V8 had coolant hoses run through the center tunnel. The PO did this and it worked well. The problem was radiated heat inside the cabin. Rubber hose and copper are great heat conductors. They will radiate heat in every drection.

Aluminum through the tunnel may be a better option. It can fit and Aluminum is not a good heat conductor. Most of the heat will stay inside the tubing. Thick wall aluminum conduit is available from most any electrical wholesale house. It can be threaded too. I am considering this solution to replace my under body hose. My car is low and the hose now is damaged from putting it on my trailer. I am replacing it today in kind but I'm considering other options.

The longs look great until you get to the front. Hoses have to go past your feet to get past the front firewall. Great feet warmers in the winter...

[pktzygt]

Aluminum through the tunnel may be a better option. It can fit and Aluminum is not a good heat conductor. Most of the heat will stay inside the tubing. Thick wall aluminum conduit is available from most any electrical wholesale house. It can be threaded too. I am considering this solution to replace my under body hose. My car is low and the hose now is damaged from putting it on my trailer. I am replacing it today in kind but I'm considering other options.

The longs look great until you get to the front. Hoses have to go past your feet to get past the front firewall. Great feet warmers in the winter...

Aluminum sounds expensive, but seems like a better idea than the hot hose under the feet. I'll do some research on that one.

I want this thing to look like it is all original, at least to the untrained eye.

[pktzygt]

WOW, that aluminum tubing isn't expensive at all. Probably less than a new set of those rubber hoses.

I plan to cut the top off the tunnel eventually to make sure the rust isn't taking over and to run all my conversion cables properly. Aluminum and maybe some foam insulation may be feasible if there is room. Maybe one in the tunnel and one in the passenger long with some foam insulation.