Long story short, I swapped to a GM-style aluminum radiator to replace my corroded factory unit. To do so required some custom radiator hoses (obviously). The problem I ran into is that now I have nowhere to run my heater/beehive oil cooler coolant line to. I don't have a FMOC hooked up on this engine (mostly stock '82-83 with bolt ons listed below) so I need to keep the beehive cool.

As I was looking at the cooling system, I got to thinking. Isn't the factory setup just recirculating hot coolant back through? Wouldn't my car run a little cooler if instead of running the warm heater/beehive coolant back through the lower hose, I'd route it back through the upper hose (actually, more specifically, through the port by the water neck), to be cooled in the radiator before getting sucked back into the engine? I think it would. Having 100% radiator-cooled coolant flowing in obviously has to be better than having some warm coolant getting sucked back through the system.

I realize this might make the car a little slower to warm up, but I think it will be beneficial in the long run.

Even if it's not, it's certainly going to be a lot easier than trying to splice the heater hose into my lower radiator hose.

I'll post pics and an after-action-report when it's all said and done. I'm waiting on an adapter to come in.

 

Interesting. Seems to make sense.