Silicone coolant hoses

[Petro135]

So id like to change over to silicone coolant hoses and aluminum fittings. I know there is the aluminum mickey mouse fitting out there. And then there is VTT full hose kit for $400. Honestly is dont want to give my money to vargas, but is there other option with the right bends in them? And im looking to relocate the overflow soon too id like to use the new hoses when i do that. Ive looked everywhere and all i can find is vargas

[Billy C]

Give it time. Once the Chinese resellers get in touch with the manufacturer making the hoses for VTT, they will be all over the place for cheap. The aluminum fittings are a little trickier. I've heard they are making those in-house but more likely at a shop close by. The designs could somehow leak out to the Chinese manufacturers or a company over in China could just reverse engineer the fittings but quality will be the problem. Hitting the VTT quality level on those is much more complicated. Even with cheap labor, it wouldn't bring the cost down that much. Those all look like long cycle time parts that can run lights-out so engineering, setup, material, quality, and finishing is where the real cost is coming from. $400 for one of those kits is extremely well priced from where I see it. Actually , ace job to VTT for getting a supplier of those hoses under wraps to get us kits for so cheap.

[dtla1]

Originally Posted by Billy C

Give it time. Once the Chinese resellers get in touch with the manufacturer making the hoses for VTT, they will be all over the place for cheap. The aluminum fittings are a little trickier. I've heard they are making those in-house but more likely at a shop close by. The designs could somehow leak out to the Chinese manufacturers or a company over in China could just reverse engineer the fittings but quality will be the problem. Hitting the VTT quality level on those is much more complicated. Even with cheap labor, it wouldn't bring the cost down that much. Those all look like long cycle time parts that can run lights-out so engineering, setup, material, quality, and finishing is where the real cost is coming from. $400 for one of those kits is extremely well priced from where I see it. Actually , ace job to VTT for getting a supplier of those hoses under wraps to get us kits for so cheap.

At least the one "Mickey Mouse" fitting OP is talking about is readily available from your choice of i'm sure China based manufacturer's on Amazon.

[Billy C]

I serviced my cooling system last weekend and replaced all of the lines are on the hot side behind the water pump/thermostat housing with silicone. I figured I'd elaborate since some of these hoses are available without buying the kit.

-The U bend that goes from the stat to the pump is available from ECS (house brand)
-The little 45 that goes from the pump to the hard line is available from ECS (URO parts)
-The "mickey mouse" hose that goes around the back side of the stat is available from ECS (house brand)

Those are the most vulnerable hoses from my quick assessment while I was in there. The others are in front of the engine assembly and have the radiator fan blowing on them when the car is at temp so they should hold up a long time.

Also, there are a lot of hoses and quick connects that don't come in the VTT kit. I'm having trouble seeing the point of it if it doesn't replace everything. The fitting coming off the top front of the thermostat seems like it could be an issue in extreme cases but that isn't in the kit. It would also be a difficult and expensive fitting to make.