The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area General Truck Talk 59 heater hose set up

Looking for some assistance with a 59 Apache with a "recirculating" heater set up, NOT a deluxe heater! Here is my issue, I have had the original heater core recored by a local shop. Both inlet and outlet tubes are 3/4" hose. Did the original setup have a shut off valve for summer use or is it live all the time? Everyone seems to sell heater hose kits but one hose is 5/8" and the other 3/4". The Factory Assembly Manual and the Shop Manual have no information and I can't find a picture to save my life, thanks for any help!

A pretty common installation was to put a T-type shutoff valve at the cylinder head port with a pipe thread going into the head and a hose nipple to attach the heater hose. The valve had a threaded shank to shut off the flow when heat was not needed. The return line attached to the water pump housing with a pipe/hose adapter fitting. Those parts should be included in any automotive heat/air conditioning universal parts catalog. Try NAPA or one of the other "professional" auto shop parts suppliers, not Auto Zone, etc.

Just checked- - - -there are bunches of them on Ebay. Search "Heater hose shutoff valve".
Jerry

I stay as far away from Auto Zone as possible!!!!!

as Jerry says, just get hose the size you need from a local parts store, skip the "kit"

here's the 57 info, different heater box but the same installation .... there was no shutoff included originally

Bill

Sounds like a plan! Thanks everyone!

Hello Wrencher88

I believe that some models used 3/4 on one heater hose
fitting and 5/8 on the other. I can't remember whether
it was the earlier or the later years that had split sizes.

respectfully, 59shortfleet

The 59's with the recirculating heater didn't have a shut off valve from the factory. If your core has 3/4 on both rigid lines from the core, somebody did that, it came from the factory with one 5/8's and one 3/4's. I believe the 5/8 was the return flow line into the heater core.

Very interesting, the heater core tank ends both have "Harrison" stamped on them. The radiator guy came up with a core that had the same dimensions from an available core and used the tank ends from the original. Either way I will get it functioning!

I seem to recall that on the cores with different size hoses, the 5/8" line was on the "pressure" side, from the cylinder head. They seemed to think a bigger return hose was needed because of pressure drop across the core, sort of like an air conditioner "suction" line.
Jerry

I've found the 2 sizes on some standard truck heater cores, the car heater core always had both 3/4

Bill

Is there any concern with having coolant sitting/rotting in the heater core all summer if you install the shut off valve? Seems like it would be better to have constant flow versus coolant just sitting there. Am I off base??

i think you're off base. i cant see any way that coolant sitting there would do anything. frankly i would think that repeated heating/cooling cycles of the core as you use the truck and circulate hot water would put stress on the tank/core/pipe connections and be more likely to cause a leak. people who store their classics for the off season leave coolant in the core and radiator for months.

Just so you have anti-freeze and distilled water in there.

Ed

The main reason for the shut off valve was to stop the flow during the hot months to kill extra heat in the cab even if the fan was not on.