Whats its purpose anyways?

 

Because the cooling system is 'reverse flow' and the coolant enters low in the heads and exits low in the heads, it's very, very easy for air and steam pockets to collect in them. The steam tube is a high point exit for those air and steam pockets. They're more or less mandatory; you cannot just 'eliminate' them with impunity.

 

Maybe I'm just lucky but in my engines I just eliminate it and plug the holes in the head. I've never had an issue with air pockets or cooling issues.

Why cant you blead the air from the thermostat housing? Messing around with that tube dilly is silly.

 

How many engines are we talking about, and how long have you run them?

You can bet your bottom dollar that the factory did not put that there for fun. You need to look at the cooling system:

The coolant flows from the pump into the block, makes a 90 degree turn upwards, and flows into the heads. From the heads, it flows downward into the block.

In other words, it comes in from the bottom, and goes out through the bottom. Air bubbles in a liquid, as a rule, do not travel downward. There is no way that all the air can be bled off in that scenario. To alleviate the problem, the factory installed the steam pipe. It exits the heads at a high point, providing an exit point for any entrapped air and/or steam pockets.

Need a visual demonstration? Fill a sink with water, then put a cup in the water with the opening facing down. Notice the air stays in the cup? Now put a hole in the bottom (now the top) of the cup and repeat the experiment. Notice that the cup fills up?

You cannot use the thermostat housing alone because it's not going to have any effect on the air trapped in the cylinder heads.

 

That's a postive way to look at it, but getting some of those "bolts and screws" unfastened and refastened w/out damaging components or the wrench wielder takes a bit of technique.
Do a search on this site. This topic has been covered here for YEARS.

 

I'm pulling heads as we speak!
Have the driver side off and
starting on the passenger side.

If this is your first time out, I
wouldn't recommend you have a go at
it alone. Get a manual, study up, then
solicit the help of an experienced buddy.

First head I pulled was a turbo brick
and talk about easy. This is far from
easy but you could do it.

 

Not trying to steal the thread, but I just got done pulling the heads off my friends '88 GT mustang(5.0), and I didn't think it was that bad. For anyone who's done both, how do they compare to pulling LT1 heads?

 

Night and day. On a Mustang you don't have almost half the engine buried under the cowl as well as the engine compartment being cramped to all hell.

 

6 LT1 engines, 3 of them are daily drivers and three are more performance orientated. My car is done that way too, never an issue.

Reverse cooling wasn't invented with the LT1 engine, its been used several years prior to its production car debut with the LT1. We used to do reverse cool engines for NASCAR V6's in the 80's/90's and we never ran a line across the back of the heads. We recently did a reverse cool big block mopar without a line present either.

If I'm not mistaken air will always find the highest point in a cars cooling system and once the system is properly filled and extra air is purged from the system how is extra air being introduced to where this would be an issue?

 

I will never understand the folks that delete the steam pipe and claim no problems.

I guess GM had nothing better to do than spend x amount of dollars on proper reverse flow cooling. I guess GM had nothing better to do than spend x amount of dollars putting the steam pipes on every single LT1. I ques GM ain't as smart and daring as some guys on the boards. Auto makers go to extreme lengths to cut product costs, if it was not needed, bet your *** it would not be there.

Get a grip guys. Clearly it has a purpose and is essential for proper cooling.

 

Hey wrd1972, your more than welcome to check out my car anytime you want. Some fellow board members have checked it out in person

I've ran 8 egt's on my car, nothing showed signs of being improperly cooled. The RACEPAK shows nearly identicle water temps on every corner of the engine too. My car can idle until it runs out of gas with a factory radiator and only 1 fan and never go over 180 on a 90 degree day.

I know of several NHRA Stock and SuperStock engines that don't have them either, so what gives???

I guess GM has never over engineered something or perhaps thought of something that saves a minute for production costs or was easier to cast?

I'm just stating facts from my personal experience regarding the steam pipe dilly.

 

Well, it looks like it clearly is not essiental for proper cooling on all setups after all.

 

lol wtf...have you done it before? It took me 2 weeks working 3-5 hours per night...Then again I also did LT's and RR's and got the heads machined.

 

If you have to ask that question you need to do a LOT of reading up and following tutorials. I just got done doing mine about a month ago. The first time its pretty hard, but 2nd time I will be able to fly through it since its mainly the unknown factor holding you back.

And yes the steam pipe is a bitch to put back on w/ out cross threading...I nearly cross threaded mine and had to take the heads back off. Getting the steam pipe off was easy tho.

Your in for a world of hurt if you think its just bolts/screws and easy-

 

those people are stupid who say its hard. I got mine off very easy.

Here is the trick. Get the right size box wrench, put it over the bolt facing up. Go and get a small sledge hammer and start taping/wacking the end of the box wrench. This worked very good since its sooo hard to turn by hand because of no leverage in that area.