(I'm putting this here because I saw no "Cooling System" forum)

An old friend who rebuilds and restores amazingly old cars (including a 1929 Essex) told me about this one, and it saved my butt many times...

The water flow through a radiator is from top to bottom. Do this to the top hose connection:

Find a deep-well socket that fits inside the hose connection with about 1/8th inch to spare. Wrap a length of steel or brass window screen around it, and solder it into a tube shape with a plumbers torch.

Then cut a round bottom piece out of some more screen.

Solder this to one end of the tube you made...

Trim it, and insert this "BASKET" into the top radiator hose. It will catch any debris of a size large enough to block the pipettes in your radiator core, and being soldered (415+ degrees fahrenheit) won't come apart under normal operating temperatures.

If you ever overheat, pull the top hose and dump the basket out. It is sure to have trapped a lot of stuff that would have ruined your day if you didn't have it!

Total cost of the modification: About $1.29

 

They sell a similar product that you can buy through some parts places, it's called a Gano Filter. Catches all the crap that is in the cooling system. Of course it's nowhere near $1.29...can't beat the $1.29 price

Gary M.
==============================
46 truck-6cyl now, 302/C4 soon
46 truck-flathead 8, 4spd
47 truck-getting a 429/C6
57 Ford FL 500-4 dr-312/AT
70 Mustang fastback-351W/FMX
72 Olds Vista Cruiser-350/AT
88 Bronco II, 500,000+ mi.

 

One of the most recent mods I've done to mine includes an idea I got from either this board or the internet.

Go to a well-stocked hardware store, and buy a garden hose connector. Now the package fooled me at first beacuse of the yellow plastic (they could be green for you) hose clamps. But ignore those as long as the two screw-together parts are brass (or metal of some sort).

Now do a good search of the store (I had to go completely away from the garden department to the downstairs Plumbing department) and find hose washers with the fine mesh screens.

Install in a typical Ford heater line and catch yourself some debris.

I pulled it apart for the first time Saturday (yesterday, in fact), and got three small granular particles out. Nothing to write home about, but probably not good for the water pump anyway.

The demonstration I read on the 'net cleaned it out after only a few minutes of running and got good stuff.

err... let's try a pic or two... excuse the sizes, i borrowed them.


[img src="http://www.personal.psu.edu/users/d/s/dsh167/hoseends.gif"]

[img src="http://www.personal.psu.edu/users/d/s/dsh167/hosewashers.jpg"

Use regular automotive hose clamps on the 5/8" brass hose connectors (5/8" worked perfectly for my truck).

Now it's not if you start to overheat, but if you start to lose heat on the interior, wait until it's cool and open it up / clean it out.

Neat idea?
I sure thought so.

I used typical black rubber washers with the screens, not the funky red material pictured.

the demonstration page I got the idea from used what I thought was a better male/female hose connector, the female-end being machined to have a nice, strong hex-end. But even the round version (like the above picture) that I used does not leak once hand tightened.