I need some advice as to to determine if the mods I intend to make might work or fail miserably. I have installed a Griffin aluminum radiator(31x19) with no heater return fitting. I also want to delete the heater diverter valve to clean up the engine bay. I want to integrate these changes with the throttle-body bypass mod by reversing the coolant flow thru the heater core and installing a shut-off valve to interrupt flow when desired. The return from the heater core will be directed to the 3/4" fitting on the water pump.
This will let you stop the flow of water during the warm months keeping the throttle body cool and not letting hot water into the passenger compartment.
See attached diagram and lets hear what you think good or bad.

 

I can't believe nobody has anything to say about this. Somebody wants you to troubleshoot his fan belt and everybody's all over it. At least tell me I'm a dumb *** and it will never work, yall can't hurt my feelings.

 

Anybody ever swap a 4th gen hose clamp over to a 3rd gen? was wondering if that might work cause one might be metric and the other american. thanks

 

Watch out for those metric clamps, make sure you use the proper Metric Norwegian Phillips head screwdriver made by Norelco.

Norwood, thanks for the coolant answer on my thread as well.
Looking at the diagram you have drawn, what pump are you using that has an outlet available on the top like that? Mine has no provision for that, just the teo bilateral block holes and the bottom intake. What engine/part used that outlet you've described?


Thanks again. Check My thread for another question. Dave Buchholz, Rochester NY "Lakeffect@gmail.com"

 

My pump is made by Flowkooler and the outlet is pretty standard on most aftermarket pumps. Actually this outlet is really an inlet as its on the "suck" side of the impeller. It comes with a pipe plug in case you don't need to use this port.
As far as my diagram what I'm not sure about is if its ok to just stop the coolant flow with my shut-off valve. The stock way always has flow. Mainly I'm concerned about blowing a hose off or bursting one.

 

TTT In case anyone is interested, the hose clamp swap works perfect.

 

Maybe what I'm really wanting to know is if it would be ok to STOP the flow of water with the shutoff valve instead of re-directing it back to the water pump? I've been told this might cause the hose to burst or blow it off the nipple. Any thoughts?

 

just my opinion
but I dont think stopping the flow
would blow a hose off.
i mean, just my thought but when the thermostat is closed,
the hose by the therstat wont blow off does it?

I donno though, just a though


maybe u can check it by idling it til high temp
and see how it goes,
if the hose starts growing big, u can just stop..

 

even wqhen the thermostat is closed it still allows for coolant flow, via a tiny hole drilled in it. its not much but even when closed coolant is still flowing through the block.

as for whether or not it is ok or if it will work i have no idea. my opinion is to leave well enough alone. gm designed the cooling system this way and they arent stupid they know what they are doing. changing how it operates can have an adverse effect on the engine.

if you simply want the coolant to not flow into the car all you have to do is connect the inlet and outlet hoses on the heater core together with a "T" intersection although you will be offly cold during the winter. this is the only acceptable alteration that i know of as i had to do it when my heater core went bad and i didnt have time to fix it right away.


oh the throttle body by pass is ok as well.

 

Norwood, what you've drawn up is extremely similar to what I did on a vehicle recently. I put a 350 into an Olds Bravada (like an S10 Blazer, but AWD) and had a lot of cooling bugs to work out. This setup you're talking about is one thing I did.

The result was good. Shutting off the heater core loop forces all the water through the radiator and it did help.

The one difference though, and this is where I have some concern, is where you put the shutoff valve. If you put it on the return line, where you've got it in the diagram, the heater core will always be pressurized. This might not hurt anything, but there's no reason to tempt fate. And changing a heater core sucks. Put your valve on the high pressure side, before the heater core. Like this:



You can see the brass "ball valve" with the red handle sticking out of the intake manifold. Bought that at Lowe's. It's got 3/4" pipe thread and it's designed for hot water. This way you don't have to pressurize the heater core or even the hoses.

 

Thanks for all the help, it's good to hear. Green89 - why do you say to leave GM's design alone but its ok to bypass the heater core with a Tee and throttle bypass is OK? That's exactly what I'm talking about here just a different way.
And Faceless, apparently we think alike, because I do have the cutoff valve on the pressure side, but not installed directly into the intake like you have. That is the better way and I'll do it like that after I get back from Lowes.