I was wondering if the hose from the heater core that runs up against the
SLP shorty's will hold up with some thermal protection. I've done everything
I can to move the hose away from the header and covered the hose with a
DEI protect-a-boot silver spark plug wire cover, plus the little short factory
cover that goes at the 90* bend downward. The hose by itself is only about 1/16"
away from the header but with the layers of thermo protection it's actually
touching the header tube.

Will this work?

 

Same problem here. I've had the headers installed for about 15k miles now, and during that time I had a piece of reflective covering between the hose and the header. I also used a zip tie to try and pull the hose
away from the header towards the fender.

The hose is still holding, although it does have a bit of a burn on it now. It's enough to cause an indent in the hose, but not enough to cause a leak. I've since removed the reflective covering because I feel it's probably better to have air circulating between the hose and header than have the material in there making contact.

I've always said if the hose ruptures, I'll replace it with a stainless braided hose so I don't have to worry about it anymore!

Thomas.

 

The sorry design of the 96-97 OEM headers resulted in an equally sorry SLP design (as well as with other manufacturers) to keep them CARB legal. That is why I retro fitted the SLP 94-95 design on mine.

I've had some close fitting headers on other vehicles and from my experience covering the hoses as Stoopalini mentions above got the job done for me.

 

Using zip ties was the only way I could keep the hose away from the header.

 

The object is to keep the hose(s) away from headers. Putting thermal wrap on the hose doesn't do much good if the wrap is touching the headers since the headers will burn the wrap. When my SLP shorties slightly seared hose, I took my dremmel tool and removed the metal jacket that connects the burnt intake hose and replaced it with a metal flex hose and then routed the intake hose behind the outlet hose to give me a tad more room between the hose and the header. Then, as others have done, lashed the hose away from the header with some plastic ties (which should be changed every so often since they may become brittle).

You shouldn't have any more problems as long as the hose does not touch the header, probably 1/2" will do the trick if you use the metal flex hose.

But if you choose to replace that particular section of hose you can ask how to remove the jacket conector since it can be a bit tricky and you risk putting a hole in the metal pipe behind the jacket.

 

I have a 97 Z28 with the SLP stainless shortys as well. The shop that did the install actually cut the offending heater hose and rerouted it so that it went alont the top of the passenger side wheel well. I haven't had any problems with it.

It was done by the shop in Montreal that actually performed the upgrades for GM to make the SS cars, so I sort of assume this is a reasonable solution - though they cut and replaced the heater hose without asking my permission or even mentioning that they were going to do this (?).

 

BTW, if you decide to replace that portion of the hose after cutting the metal jacket, you can get a flex hose from Summit "THE COOL HOSE" for around $26.00, although you may not need all the stuff that comes with it. Just use what you need. JMHO.