Dan Langhout
Well Known Member
There's been lots of discussion on the forums about the rubber elbow that Van's supplies to connect the crankcase vent fitting on the engine to the aluminum tube that runs down the firewall. Basically, this elbow is a NAPA 9816 formed 90 degree heater bypass hose for some car or truck. The problem is that since it is a coolant hose, it doesn't stand up well to oil vapor in our application and turns gummy after a while. Proper MIL spec hose is available - but not in a formed 90 degree elbow which is what you need to hook up to the aluminum tube from Van's. What's really needed is a 3/4" diameter formed 90 degree Positive Crankcase Ventilation (PCV) hose.
After digging around quite a bit, with no luck, I finally ran across this:
Now this hose is more than it seems. There are plenty of places to buy blue silicone coolant hose which looks much like this. They have the same problem as the other coolant hoses - they won't stand up to petroleum products. This hose has a fluorocarbon liner and is specifically rated to be used in systems where oil vapor is in circulation - exactly our application.
Here's a shot of the trimmed down hose installed on my engine. (For the sharp eyed among you - the oil cooler lines in the background of this photo are not real lines - they are mockups for the actual oil cooler hoses which should be coming from SAC today.)
The formed vent hose is available from Autosiliconehoses.com which is in the UK. The specific part is SFL 090 019 (19mm hose, 90 degree with Fluorocarbon liner).
They may be available from other sources, but this is where I bought mine. They aren't cheap and with VAT and shipping from the UK it makes it even higher (I bought two and the total was $62.93 - of which almost half was shipping and tax.) However, I don't expect to have to change this thing anytime soon (if ever).
FWIW.
After digging around quite a bit, with no luck, I finally ran across this:
Now this hose is more than it seems. There are plenty of places to buy blue silicone coolant hose which looks much like this. They have the same problem as the other coolant hoses - they won't stand up to petroleum products. This hose has a fluorocarbon liner and is specifically rated to be used in systems where oil vapor is in circulation - exactly our application.
Here's a shot of the trimmed down hose installed on my engine. (For the sharp eyed among you - the oil cooler lines in the background of this photo are not real lines - they are mockups for the actual oil cooler hoses which should be coming from SAC today.)
The formed vent hose is available from Autosiliconehoses.com which is in the UK. The specific part is SFL 090 019 (19mm hose, 90 degree with Fluorocarbon liner).
They may be available from other sources, but this is where I bought mine. They aren't cheap and with VAT and shipping from the UK it makes it even higher (I bought two and the total was $62.93 - of which almost half was shipping and tax.) However, I don't expect to have to change this thing anytime soon (if ever).
FWIW.
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