galaxy
Well-Known Member
- Thread starter
- #1
So here it is. Never have to remove the belly pan or other parts to drain the radiator again. No mess! Disclaimer; I love AN fittings like a fat kid loves Oreo's. I mean, of all the gearhead stuff you can do, AN hose and fittings are the icing on the cake for me! So I ran all Earl's stuff. Been using their stuff for decades.
I ran the fittings from the radiator drain to a ball shut off valve in the belly pan. Ran it inside that raised area where it's not going to strike the ground and nothing is going to hit it. I can reach the shut off valve from under the hood since I don’t have a windshield washer bottle. Otherwise, all I need to do is remove 3-4 of the push-pins from the fender liner, pull it back, and then it's easily accessible to reach the lever from inside there. Hopefully the pictures are mostly self explanatory. I obviously don't have the stock radiator, so attaching a rubber hose to the drain petcock was not an option. Didn't want that anyways.
If you are observant, yes, you are correct....system fluid is down the hose and up to the shut off valve. Am I worried about a leak? No, I am not. If you know anything about AN fittings, that'll take care of that question. There's the ball shut off valve which also has an AN cap on the end of it. Both of these items would have to fail to start a leak. Highly unlikely. Even if the valve came open, the cap isn't going to leak. If I really wanted to nerd out, I could safety wire the handle closed on the valve.
Why yes Karen, in the event of a mishap, damage to the hose between the radiator and valve will cause a leak that can’t be stopped and leave you stranded. I would argue a mishap bad enough to cause that will leave you in an undriveable situation anyways. I don’t do too many projects (or anything in life really) based on “what if?” And if I needed to for some reason, I can undo the hose right at the radiator, and throw a cap on that -6 fitting, and problem solved.
I think it's a pretty cool mod and I thoroughly enjoyed the day in the garage, so hope you guys get something out of it. Was the juice worth the squeeze? IDK. Don't really much care.
I've included pics where I swapped out the stock expansion tank hoses for AN fittings as well. (even more projects coming on that topic)
Ready for questions...
I ran the fittings from the radiator drain to a ball shut off valve in the belly pan. Ran it inside that raised area where it's not going to strike the ground and nothing is going to hit it. I can reach the shut off valve from under the hood since I don’t have a windshield washer bottle. Otherwise, all I need to do is remove 3-4 of the push-pins from the fender liner, pull it back, and then it's easily accessible to reach the lever from inside there. Hopefully the pictures are mostly self explanatory. I obviously don't have the stock radiator, so attaching a rubber hose to the drain petcock was not an option. Didn't want that anyways.
If you are observant, yes, you are correct....system fluid is down the hose and up to the shut off valve. Am I worried about a leak? No, I am not. If you know anything about AN fittings, that'll take care of that question. There's the ball shut off valve which also has an AN cap on the end of it. Both of these items would have to fail to start a leak. Highly unlikely. Even if the valve came open, the cap isn't going to leak. If I really wanted to nerd out, I could safety wire the handle closed on the valve.
Why yes Karen, in the event of a mishap, damage to the hose between the radiator and valve will cause a leak that can’t be stopped and leave you stranded. I would argue a mishap bad enough to cause that will leave you in an undriveable situation anyways. I don’t do too many projects (or anything in life really) based on “what if?” And if I needed to for some reason, I can undo the hose right at the radiator, and throw a cap on that -6 fitting, and problem solved.
I think it's a pretty cool mod and I thoroughly enjoyed the day in the garage, so hope you guys get something out of it. Was the juice worth the squeeze? IDK. Don't really much care.
I've included pics where I swapped out the stock expansion tank hoses for AN fittings as well. (even more projects coming on that topic)
Ready for questions...
Sponsored
