Installing a coolant filter
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From: douglasville
Installing a coolant filter
I decided while I was monkeying around with my fuel filter housing I would install the coolant filter kit I bought ages ago but I have a question, I spliced the filter into the 1/2 inch hose that connects from the bottom of the radiator to the tee in the hot side heater hose. I am not sure of the purpose of this hose and it seems some trucks have it and some dont, anyway the factory fitting where it attaches to the radiator is like a carburetor jet, it restricts the flow. My question is should I swap it for a full flow fitting and let the coolant filter be the restriction or does it need that fitting to keep the flow at a certain level. I read the guide on here about installing the filter between the 2 heater hoses and that was a bit messy and had alot of potential leak points, Not to insult that person i am just odd about the way things appear. Thanks for any help folks!
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Joined: Dec 2005
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From: Felton, Delaware
Splicing into the heater hose and returning to the radiator is going to cause it to run cold in the winter, you're bypassing the thermostat. I ran mine in line of the heater hose with valves. I force all coolant through in summer when I don't need flow through heater core, in winter I run it half and half so there store flow through core.
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From: douglasville
Splicing into the heater hose and returning to the radiator is going to cause it to run cold in the winter, you're bypassing the thermostat. I ran mine in line of the heater hose with valves. I force all coolant through in summer when I don't need flow through heater core, in winter I run it half and half so there store flow through core.
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Joined: Feb 2008
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From: North Bend
You have an IDI right?
The factory cooling setup never used the auxiliary cooler in the radiator. That setup is for cooling automatic transmission fluid. Maybe a previous owner didn't know exactly what to do with that and plumbed it in? It is left empty and unused on manual transmissions like mine.
The factory heater core hose runs from the passenger side of the block to the heater, then out over the alternator to the top of the water pump on the front of the engine.
As for the filter, anywhere in the stock routing is fine to splice into, just make sure it's in the hose coming from the block. The water pump side is the inlet, not outlet. That way you'll filter the stuff before it gets into the heater core.
The factory cooling setup never used the auxiliary cooler in the radiator. That setup is for cooling automatic transmission fluid. Maybe a previous owner didn't know exactly what to do with that and plumbed it in? It is left empty and unused on manual transmissions like mine.
The factory heater core hose runs from the passenger side of the block to the heater, then out over the alternator to the top of the water pump on the front of the engine.
As for the filter, anywhere in the stock routing is fine to splice into, just make sure it's in the hose coming from the block. The water pump side is the inlet, not outlet. That way you'll filter the stuff before it gets into the heater core.
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From: douglasville
You have an IDI right?
The factory cooling setup never used the auxiliary cooler in the radiator. That setup is for cooling automatic transmission fluid. Maybe a previous owner didn't know exactly what to do with that and plumbed it in? It is left empty and unused on manual transmissions like mine.
The factory heater core hose runs from the passenger side of the block to the heater, then out over the alternator to the top of the water pump on the front of the engine.
As for the filter, anywhere in the stock routing is fine to splice into, just make sure it's in the hose coming from the block. The water pump side is the inlet, not outlet. That way you'll filter the stuff before it gets into the heater core.
The factory cooling setup never used the auxiliary cooler in the radiator. That setup is for cooling automatic transmission fluid. Maybe a previous owner didn't know exactly what to do with that and plumbed it in? It is left empty and unused on manual transmissions like mine.
The factory heater core hose runs from the passenger side of the block to the heater, then out over the alternator to the top of the water pump on the front of the engine.
As for the filter, anywhere in the stock routing is fine to splice into, just make sure it's in the hose coming from the block. The water pump side is the inlet, not outlet. That way you'll filter the stuff before it gets into the heater core.
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Joined: Aug 2015
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The hose you're talking about is to help warm the radiator's trans cooler in cold climates.
From what I understand, it's dead headed in there. There's definitely no return line coming from it. There may be some internal passage that lets it flow though. I'm not sure on that.
From what I understand, it's dead headed in there. There's definitely no return line coming from it. There may be some internal passage that lets it flow though. I'm not sure on that.
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From: douglasville
The hose you're talking about is to help warm the radiator's trans cooler in cold climates.
From what I understand, it's dead headed in there. There's definitely no return line coming from it. There may be some internal passage that lets it flow though. I'm not sure on that.
From what I understand, it's dead headed in there. There's definitely no return line coming from it. There may be some internal passage that lets it flow though. I'm not sure on that.
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Elder User
Joined: Dec 2005
Posts: 776
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From: Felton, Delaware
Most coolant filters have a restriction in the center of them. Mine was restricted to 1/4" or so. I placed my filter AFTER the heater core, so i could bypass the filter or completely block the filter and would make no difference in heat going to through the heater core or not. I wanted all the fittings and tees after the pressure drop that'd be seen over the heater core.
My coolant leaves the cylinder head into the heater core from there his a tee with a valve to divert coolant through the coolant filter, then another tee after that to return into the fitting going into the water pump. This ensures its its always filtering without bypassing the thermostat.
My coolant leaves the cylinder head into the heater core from there his a tee with a valve to divert coolant through the coolant filter, then another tee after that to return into the fitting going into the water pump. This ensures its its always filtering without bypassing the thermostat.
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Joined: Feb 2008
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From: North Bend
The hose you're talking about is to help warm the radiator's trans cooler in cold climates.
From what I understand, it's dead headed in there. There's definitely no return line coming from it. There may be some internal passage that lets it flow though. I'm not sure on that.
From what I understand, it's dead headed in there. There's definitely no return line coming from it. There may be some internal passage that lets it flow though. I'm not sure on that.
I can't imagine it's dead-headed, nothing would flow. Must be an internal passage?
If it does flow then putting the filter in-line is fine.
As for the restriction, there is already a stock restriction at the block outlet fitting. I've read of guys replacing it with a full size NPT fitting once the filter was added, to get more flow.
I personally didn't change the stock fitting there and it's mostly fine. My filter fills up fairly quickly as far I'm concerned, so I may open it up this fall.
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From: douglasville
Most coolant filters have a restriction in the center of them. Mine was restricted to 1/4" or so. I placed my filter AFTER the heater core, so i could bypass the filter or completely block the filter and would make no difference in heat going to through the heater core or not. I wanted all the fittings and tees after the pressure drop that'd be seen over the heater core.
My coolant leaves the cylinder head into the heater core from there his a tee with a valve to divert coolant through the coolant filter, then another tee after that to return into the fitting going into the water pump. This ensures its its always filtering without bypassing the thermostat.
My coolant leaves the cylinder head into the heater core from there his a tee with a valve to divert coolant through the coolant filter, then another tee after that to return into the fitting going into the water pump. This ensures its its always filtering without bypassing the thermostat.
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Joined: Dec 2005
Posts: 776
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From: Felton, Delaware
I know the hose you are talking about, i saw it on the 94 IDIT i had purchased for a spare engine and never thought much of its purpose.
What's nice about my setup is during the summer you can cut off the bypass and force all coolant through the coolant filter which is a small orifice so you dont have as much heat from the heater core sitting in your heater box. And if the filter were to completely plug up it will make no difference.
And for what it's worth i purchased a kit for a 6.0l that i use and its inline tee only have a 1/8" NPT fitting for the hose thats used. You dont need full flow for side stream filtration. Full flow filtration is of course the best, but its really not necessary when filtering an engine's coolant. Even if you're only a 1/2gpm flow in 20 minutes or so you've filtered the volume of the entire system, though not fully as its not a full open loop to the radiator but its still filtering a large volume in comparison to the whole.
What's nice about my setup is during the summer you can cut off the bypass and force all coolant through the coolant filter which is a small orifice so you dont have as much heat from the heater core sitting in your heater box. And if the filter were to completely plug up it will make no difference.
And for what it's worth i purchased a kit for a 6.0l that i use and its inline tee only have a 1/8" NPT fitting for the hose thats used. You dont need full flow for side stream filtration. Full flow filtration is of course the best, but its really not necessary when filtering an engine's coolant. Even if you're only a 1/2gpm flow in 20 minutes or so you've filtered the volume of the entire system, though not fully as its not a full open loop to the radiator but its still filtering a large volume in comparison to the whole.
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