Before I changed to the IH water pump, I used to loosen the PS pump bracket and shift it forward for clearance when working on the front oil cooler head. That gave me adequate clearance for wrench contact. Now, though, with the new water pump configuration, I can get to both front cooler head bolts easily after just removing the serpentine belt.

I wouldn't worry excessively about the billet housing getting slightly into the bend on the upper hose. Mine did as well as I trimmed it.

There is one more option you could employ, and that is taking a piece of your old upper hose from the same location (under the alt), slit it lengthwise, and wrap it around your new hose and just let it ride. A couple of zip ties will keep it securely in place, and now you have yourself a "wear sleeve" on your upper rad hose. I've used the same technique on one of my heater hoses (to keep it off the oil fill tube), and it works beautifully.

 

Looks like different members have similar ideas.

Imagine the chaos when similar members have different ideas?

Ok OK. I won't quit my day job.

Getting back to technical discussion, one small conundrum with using another radiator hose as a wear/protection sleeve is the thickness of the additional layer.

One of the principle advantages that the Leece Neville Idle Pro alternator provides over other alternatives (haha, I can't just stop cold turkey) is the heat rejection capacity. No other alternator in the Ford 3 bolt T mount form factor has a larger diameter case.

The bigger cage affords larger holes, and more of them, for the internal fans to ingest more cooling air to reject the heat generated by the higher amp alternator.

But it isn't just the quantity of air... it is the direction of available unimpeded air flow. With the hood up and the engine running, one can hover their hand over the top of the engine, and feel the very distinct locations where the air currents generated by engine fan are flowing into the engine compartment. I feel distinctly stronger and unimpeded cooling air flows at 10 o'clock and 2 o'clock. It's the 2 o'clock (more like 1:30) that is of interest to the alternator.

With the upper radiator hose, and an additional 1/4" thick over wrap of a saggitally sliced protective radiator hose sleeve all snuggled up in direct and constant contact with the bottom of the alternator, all the air inlet holes that are facing the direction of the strongest current of available unimpeded air flow off the engine cooling fan become blocked.

It might not make any noticeable difference in actual use, but it would appear to be better to have at least a little bit of air gap between the radiator hose and the air inlet holes that are facing the flow of underhood cooling air.

The protective sleeve idea is still a reasonable solution, but perhaps consider a thinner material for the sleeve?



@F250_ mentioned covering his heater hose with a protective sleeve, and I've done the same thing. What I used was a nylon split convoluted wire loom cover, which, even when considering the full amplitude of the convolutes in cross section, still nets to be about half the wall thickness of a radiator hose. It might be a challenge to find larger diameter split loom rated to 125°C like Ford uses (I used some left over light gray loom that I had on hand from a SUB mfr), but if clearance is really that tight, places like McMaster-Carr often have the parts to make things happen.


The photo below shows the clearance I have between the upper rad hose and the bottom of the Leece Neville 230a alternator:



Hopefully, your idea to trim the upper hose at the thermostat housing end to lower the periscoping height of the hose a little bit, and/or perhaps using an OEM / Motorcraft hose (no trimming was required), should completely clear the upper radiator hose from rubbing against the drive end frame of the alternator. As you can see, adding a second radiator hose as a protective sleeve will double the thickness, consuming the potential clearance space for an air gap, which may not be optimal for the alternator.

 

Y2K... great points.

I don't know the exact diameters, but perhaps a corrugated wet/dry shopvac hose could serve as a protective sleeve without hindering air flow into the bottom side of the alternator case. It could even be split as a super-sized loom if the ID is not appropriate as-is, and zip tie the ends to secure it for the long haul.

 

Y2k has made several great points, you said you wanted to get the billet thermo housing? I would indeed get that, trim the hose and all is good, I personally do not have the larger alt, so did not run into this problem

 

New billet housing in, hose trimmed for a second time (for a total of 1"), and still some firm contact. At least now it isn't tight as a bulls backside during fly season. I'm going to leave it as is for now and see how it goes.

 

What brand of upper radiator hose are you using?

From where was that hose obtained?

 

I have had it underfoot for a couple of years, waiting for the opp to pull off the suite of work I have been doing over the past month - so do not know for sure. I think I got it at a truck rad shop I stopped in at for another reason (checking their side business of undercoating. It is a thing way up here). I know I wanted to go that route and as an afterthought asked and they had one. There is a number on it and it comes up as Continental as manufacturer. Or it could be I was asking about a hose for the '66 4020, I do not remember.

By the way, I used your write-up on the alternator upgrade as a guide for my work. It was very helpful and I appreciate your efforts to condense a project into pictures and write-ups (as well as everyone else who posts how-to info). I start with good intentions to document what I am doing and wind-up getting all wrapped up to the point I end up with photos of stuff I need to remember for reassembly, but little by way of instruction. I did something slightly different on the wiring and will make a post - or add to your post - later when the dust settles.

 

Thank you for the supportive compliment.

I encourage you to give the Motorcraft upper radiator hose a try, next time you open the cooling system. As you can see, there is a Motorcraft logo and Ford Engineering number imprinted on the hose in my photos where the clearance you are looking for was achieved without trimming. That may be the way forward for anyone encountering the same issue, and in seeking solution, stumbles across this thread.