So...I've learned a bunch about hoses and vacuum lines, etc., in the last week. Spent some time under the hood of the 85 442 and imagining if that were real spaghetti, I couldn't eat all of it in one sitting. That's a lot of spaghetti! The car is probably 95 percent original under the hood, save for belts/hoses, and little sundry things. So I've got a pretty good lay of the land as far as what goes where and what is stamped on each hose.
Thing is, what's really sad, is that at some point in time early in its life, there were little paper part number tags on vacuum hose assemblies. Those, unfortunately, have mostly dried, cracked, and fell off. I do have some reproduction tags made for them, and will do the best I can to replace what was once there, but I have no idea how many SHOULD be there and exactly where.
But, I have decided that there are way too many miles of hoses and tubes running everywhere that are basically 40 years old and need replacing. Some have started showing signs of getting dry and saw surface cracks in areas. Which means you don't know how deep they go and/or if there's a leak happening or going to happen soon. Some hoses actually have some hard spots developing. Yikes.
I've looked under a lot of hoods of low-mile examples searching across the interwebs. And I did notice one thing about the CCV canister to TVS fuel hose routing. My hose runs from the canister up underneath the rad overflow tank on the rear innner hold down bolt. Then makes a hard right toward the engine and over to the TVS on the intake. I've seen SOME cars just have that very line just sort of bumping up against the overflow tank and then heading right toward the engine.
My hope is to replicate as many lines as I can, and get as close to reproducing the hoses as possible that look like they came on the car. May not happen the way I'd like it to end up in my head. Might end up looking like a clown show, similar to a 12-year-old girl putting on her first make-up session, but I'm going to try it and see. NOBODY I know of has ever attempted this. Well, except the Corvette guys but they're more mental-cased than me.
What did I do? I researched each and every tiny little hose I could find. Which wasn't easy. Documenting the spacing, fonts, and sizes for the hoses, what was printed and where. There's only like 4 different colors used that I can find. White, teal, ruddy red, and green. The carb vent hose uses a green size/use/date code on one side, and on the other side a white dash line. The 5/16" gas tank vent is a weird, smooth hose with ruddy red lettering on it, and the PCV hose "VD" coded, uses a teal blue/green lettering on it. The rest of the hoses are white lettering. Some hoses have information on one side of the hose, some on both sides, and a couple there's nothing. Weirdest situation was the brake booster hose. It has TWO different, but same sized, hoses on the booster to filter, then filter to metal vacuum tubing to manifold.
Strangely, the power steering hoses don't have any markings on them. The NOS pressure hose doesn't have any markings on it, either. I got some "bulk" NOS GM return hose somewhere, I gotta find it. So not sure if it has any markings on it, but the original doesn't. It's only about a foot long, but I remember when you buy new GM hose over the counter, you had to get a minimum of 10' in a box. Or a huge-azz roll. 😳
Another thing I found was that was weird is that the '87 442 uses 7/32" vacuum tubing to the manifold differential pressure sensor connector Y's in front of the air cleaner and CCV actuator while the 85 used 5/32 tubing. Actually they're miniature nylon reinforced fuel lines. Just slightly different sizes. But they're only like 2" long or so. I don't know why, but that's what was stamped on the sides of those hoses.
I've already got the ink for the rubber stamps I'm having custom made. Some tiny, some not so tiny. The stamps themselves are in the mail and should arrive today. I'll post further as the project gets underway.
Thing is, what's really sad, is that at some point in time early in its life, there were little paper part number tags on vacuum hose assemblies. Those, unfortunately, have mostly dried, cracked, and fell off. I do have some reproduction tags made for them, and will do the best I can to replace what was once there, but I have no idea how many SHOULD be there and exactly where.
But, I have decided that there are way too many miles of hoses and tubes running everywhere that are basically 40 years old and need replacing. Some have started showing signs of getting dry and saw surface cracks in areas. Which means you don't know how deep they go and/or if there's a leak happening or going to happen soon. Some hoses actually have some hard spots developing. Yikes.
I've looked under a lot of hoods of low-mile examples searching across the interwebs. And I did notice one thing about the CCV canister to TVS fuel hose routing. My hose runs from the canister up underneath the rad overflow tank on the rear innner hold down bolt. Then makes a hard right toward the engine and over to the TVS on the intake. I've seen SOME cars just have that very line just sort of bumping up against the overflow tank and then heading right toward the engine.
My hope is to replicate as many lines as I can, and get as close to reproducing the hoses as possible that look like they came on the car. May not happen the way I'd like it to end up in my head. Might end up looking like a clown show, similar to a 12-year-old girl putting on her first make-up session, but I'm going to try it and see. NOBODY I know of has ever attempted this. Well, except the Corvette guys but they're more mental-cased than me.
What did I do? I researched each and every tiny little hose I could find. Which wasn't easy. Documenting the spacing, fonts, and sizes for the hoses, what was printed and where. There's only like 4 different colors used that I can find. White, teal, ruddy red, and green. The carb vent hose uses a green size/use/date code on one side, and on the other side a white dash line. The 5/16" gas tank vent is a weird, smooth hose with ruddy red lettering on it, and the PCV hose "VD" coded, uses a teal blue/green lettering on it. The rest of the hoses are white lettering. Some hoses have information on one side of the hose, some on both sides, and a couple there's nothing. Weirdest situation was the brake booster hose. It has TWO different, but same sized, hoses on the booster to filter, then filter to metal vacuum tubing to manifold.
Strangely, the power steering hoses don't have any markings on them. The NOS pressure hose doesn't have any markings on it, either. I got some "bulk" NOS GM return hose somewhere, I gotta find it. So not sure if it has any markings on it, but the original doesn't. It's only about a foot long, but I remember when you buy new GM hose over the counter, you had to get a minimum of 10' in a box. Or a huge-azz roll. 😳
Another thing I found was that was weird is that the '87 442 uses 7/32" vacuum tubing to the manifold differential pressure sensor connector Y's in front of the air cleaner and CCV actuator while the 85 used 5/32 tubing. Actually they're miniature nylon reinforced fuel lines. Just slightly different sizes. But they're only like 2" long or so. I don't know why, but that's what was stamped on the sides of those hoses.
I've already got the ink for the rubber stamps I'm having custom made. Some tiny, some not so tiny. The stamps themselves are in the mail and should arrive today. I'll post further as the project gets underway.
