Quote:
Originally Posted by aerohead
road hazard meets rotating tire,tire launches road hazard into coolant line,line breaches,driver on side of road with thumb out?
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Your best bet is to use a metal tube mounted to the vehicle's chassis. I've actually been in powertrain design on a mid-engine vehicle with a front-mounted radiator that was a 4x4 for off-highway only use (hence my experience with difficult coolant purging). It used a steel tube weldment under the floor of the vehicle that was still up between the frame rails but the finned aluminum extrusion may work as well.
When I was in college I participated in FormulaSAE and weight reduction was a key goal. Just between the mid-engine and the sidepod radiator we found a couple pounds of weight savings by using rubber hoses only for bends and flex couplers, and using steel thin-wall tube for straight runs. The metal tube is lighter AND more durable.