Does the heater hose that runs from the front tee with the lower radiator hose into the heater core and back into the rear of the block serve any engine function?

I am eliminating the heater and would prefer to just cap the front and rear inlet/outlets of this hose but want to make sure this hose does not perform a cooling function by moving coolant from the rear to the front of the motor (or visa-versa).

steve77

I had mine plugged off at the front on the race car with no trouble, although a lot of people run the line from the front to the rear of the head.

IIRC, the 280's had a screw in pipe nipple at the front and it was as easy as pulling that and replacing it with a pipe plug as well as the one on the rear of the head. Less likely to spring a leak that way.

Can I recommend keeping the flow route from the rear of the head to the forward T piece/ radiator hose fitting, this flow allows for an even temperature sink through the engine at operating and warm up, it eliminates any sediment build up at the rear of the head in the fluid galleries this may not be a problem short term if you intend to rebuild the engine every season and use a good cleaning process but if you intend to sustain the engine for years in this mode you may set up for a problem be it blockage or component failure (head). For piece of mind keep the flow, change the method to stainless steel aeroquip style fittings at both ends a similar inside diam and get a stainless steel tube fabricated to install between the two. this method will overcome the hose problem and keep the flow, allowing for disconnect at tare down time

My2c

cheers

Steve:classic:

OK...so that's what Idid for now...I just pulled the long one that comes from the front and bent it into a quite sharp 90 and plugged it into the rear nipple. I put an angle relief on the 90 to keep it from kinking. Will run it this way for some tme and will be watching for any cooling irregularities. Thanks.

steve77