Dan Sarandrea (Phila)
Waitin' On Parts...
You can see in your pic in the design of the header that there was a conscious effort to route the tubing so that (1) it could be equal-length yet (2) clear an A/C compressor.
I can certainly understand that a shop doing a low-volume custom item would want to make one design that would fit both A/C and non-A/C cars, but in retrospect that might have been a bad call if indeed the design does create the type of problem that you are experiencing.
I think the good news is that it should be relatively easy for a competent welder to make up a water pipe that can be routed away from the header. Even a crazy looking U-shaped path that would have the 90 degree bypass hose point straight down, go down well under the header, go horizontal for 1-1/2 feet, then 90 degree up and then 90 degree into the pump. Heck, you could probably use some ready made, generic exhaust pipe pieces and generic flexible coolant hose from the local auto part store to make a temporary pipe assy to test your theory.
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I can certainly understand that a shop doing a low-volume custom item would want to make one design that would fit both A/C and non-A/C cars, but in retrospect that might have been a bad call if indeed the design does create the type of problem that you are experiencing.
I think the good news is that it should be relatively easy for a competent welder to make up a water pipe that can be routed away from the header. Even a crazy looking U-shaped path that would have the 90 degree bypass hose point straight down, go down well under the header, go horizontal for 1-1/2 feet, then 90 degree up and then 90 degree into the pump. Heck, you could probably use some ready made, generic exhaust pipe pieces and generic flexible coolant hose from the local auto part store to make a temporary pipe assy to test your theory.