I thought you were kidding but then you mentioned the grommets and that threw me off.

 

If you mount the filter head high enough, (like the fuel filter), you wont lose any coolant when you change the filter. Those valves and galvanized fittings are really uneccessary plumbing.

 

X2. Thats exactly how I have mine. Changed once since install and with a small container under the filter I lost maybe 2 or 3 ounces.

 

Does anyone know the tranny heater hose size? I looked at mine again and it really doesn't look like 5/8" The reason I need to know ahead of time is because I want to avoid having to empty the whole system again. I will just quickly detach the old hose and slip on the new one as fast as I can to minimize coolant loss. I need the exact size to do that.

I might have a few unnecessary valves on it but oh, well. It's already built.

 

IIRC 3/8" hose fits.

 

You are awesome, sir. I was thinking it was something like that. I'll try to find some 3/8" heater hose and if not, I assume fuel like would work, correct?

 

I think Autozone sells the Goodyear hose with the blue inner lining that's coolant safe.

 

I went with 1/2" hose for the tranny heater and it works flawlessly. It seems like a perfect fit. I found some leaks in my coolant filter setup so I need to crank down some of the connections to get a better seal. I wrapped the NPT connectors with 2 layers of (red) teflon tape. I thought that should be enough. It only leaks when the system gets up to pressure. The never ending battle with NPT is getting a good seal and having the fitting in the right position.

 

NPT tourque specs, "Tighten it until it starts to loosen then back it off a 1/4 turn"

 

I have been thinking about a coolant filter for a long time in my Bronco. I do run one on my Centruion C350 (7.3IDI turbo) and was amazed at the crud that was caught. I installed it along with a new radiator and heater core. I completely flushed the system, twice, with Prestone Coolant Fulsh stuff, distilled water, etc. On my Centurion, my install is very close to this one:



So it got me thinking (not always a good thing) about a cleaner install. Since coolant filters are usually bypass filters and are plumbed between the heater hoses like this:


Could you use a remote filter mount like this (Fram HPK600) plumbed a little different.


My current thought is that if you used four hose barbs, one on each port, and plumbed it inline with your heater hoses (into filter/into heatercore on one side and heater core out and filter out on the other), it would make for a clean install and should function the same.

Any thoughts?

 

Check post11 just plumb it in series with the heater. That way you will know when it is time to change the filter.

 

i wish i knew how to use photo editing or something lol.
someone should add the main coolant hoses to that diagram and it will eliminate some worry in peoples minds.
the upper and lower rad hoses with radiator would clear this whole thing up.

 

Marianna,
One of the benefits of a bypass filter system is that when the filter does clog, operation is not significanly impacted. For me, these "impacts" seem to happen at the most inoppertune times. As for the oil and coolant filters being the same (or interchangeable) I am not so sure. They also make coolant filters without an SCA charge. I would like to see some more information on this.

FORDF250,
I must confess I am not expert either, I just found that one on the net and linked it in. Below is another picture I found that may help other understand. In actuallity, the entire heater loop is a bypass system off of the main cooling system.

 

Guess i missed this thread, at work all of our equipment has a coolant filter we use a transdapt filter base and a standard FL1a filter. Its a standard oil filter for a ford cheap and has a built in bypass valve. Wix has assured us and confirmed the filter media is not special and they use the same paper element in the coolant filters as they do in oil filters. We run them in line of the heater hose. the whole setup costs about 20.00 and then about 3.50 for each filter.

http://www.summitracing.com/parts/TRD-1028/

 

Interesting... very interesting. Out of curosity, what type equipment of you have them installed in? Since they are in-line, do you notice a decrease in heater performance due to reduced flow? In talking with Baldwin Filters, they seem to think an oil filter will swell over a few months and become ineffective. Have you run into this problem?