Leaderboard

27-4-2020 Aluminium tube turned up today, so had a spare hour this evening to have a play. I needed to turn this, a 1.5m length of 8mm OD tube into a tube that followed the engine from the water manifold at the back of the engine along the rocker cover above the exhaust manifold, around the front and then to the expansion tank. When i bought the tube i made sure it was 6063T6, to make sure it would form easily. I also have a mini tube bender that forms 6,8 & 10mm tubes. This is the first time using this and i had no idea how difficult this was going to be. I decided buying 2 lengths of 1.5m tube was a good idea, one to practise on and then the final piece. It turned out not to be as hard as i imagined it would be. The tool has reference marks for where the bend starts and degrees all the way round to 180’. It was just a case of measuring the length and getting to grips with the way the bends are formed but first go i ended up with exactly what i needed. When placed on the engine it looks good even if say so myself. I just need to add a couple of rubber lined P clips to hold it all in place and some rubber hose to connect to the water manifold and expansion tank. The final part of the plumbing will be the final connection from the thermostat housing to the bottom of the expansion tank. All easy enough as it is just cutting a bit of 16mm tube and silicone hose to the correct lengths.