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In the For Sale section in the Various CL Pickings thread there was an ad for 39 Six Touring Sedan. An attractive car. The photo of the engine compartment revealed a conversion to 12-volt and a peculiar heater hose routing. I posted a question there about the heater hose routing, but deleted it and re-posting it here as it may get more exposure. The heater has been disabled by routing the feed line from the cylinder head back to the inlet of the water pump. Thus providing a closed loop for coolant circulation.

Here is my original message. Thanks.

Edit: I was able to grab photos from the ad. These photos should help to show what is going on better than my words Here they are.

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Regarding the '39 Six, what is the idea behind or benefit from the heater hose routing? I have seen this in a few other cars where the heater has been disabled. Is there some extra recirculation? Just curious as cars without heaters do not have this hose routing, just a plug in the head and water pump.

(o{}o)

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Probably been answered but my two guesses is the heater sprung a leak and rather than go to the trouble of plugging the ports they just did a quick reroute to be able to drive the car. For some it could also be a summer solution to not having a working turn off valve or didn't know there should be one.

It might start out to be a temporary thing until the heater is repaired but wind up being permanent depending on the owners mood or resources.

What I think is more interesting is the oil filter. When my heater core pucked I routed the heater hose the same way.

John,

The '38 Eight I had, had a tube from the plug at the rear of the head into the thermostat housing. Was told by the previous owner it was to aid cooling and he'd been advised that by a visiting American!

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Mal, I think your fan-boosted air cleaner may provide more benefit than recirculating the coolant in the head. I believe this "fix" was just a work-around to disable a faulty heater core. Now, if there were some kind of connection before the thermostat to the block, then you would have some recirculation to aid a faster warm up. I believe this was the case for the Chrysler products L-head engines.

We had another "Norther" come through yesterday. Temps down into the low 30F all day long. We seem to be getting these fairly regularly this winter. Another one is expected later this week. First big car show of the season at a nearby airport will likely be postponed. Saturday afternoon, before the Arctic blast, we were driving around in the roadster with the top off and in short sleeves. We do get a break from time to time, and it is welcomed. I guess you get Antarctic blasts? Take care...

(o{}o)

JW,
I guess we should blame those rascally Canadians for your cold air. Here in South central Alaska we set warm temp records yesterday. I noted a balmy 48 degrees (above zero that is) at my house. Makes me think I am farther behind on my winter projects than the calendar would indicate.
Mal, where can I get one of those fans?
All the best,
Mark

When I posted the photo noticed the fan sitting on top of the air cleaner and thought about making a pre-emptive comment but didn't. Obviously, with the benefit of 100% hindsight should have done so! Photo was taken about December 2008 when the head gasket was changed on the '38.

I'm not at all envious of your weather, the extremes encountered are beyond anything I've experienced!

Co-incidence is a wonderful thing, see the engine photos of this Marmon on Hemmings!

Mal, did your '38 Eight have radiator shutters? Given the age of the Marmon it probably has shutters too. This may have something to do with the recirculation routing. Don't know, just thinking out loud. This would not necessarily apply to the '37 Six which did not have shutters.

The recirculation routing may have been a holdover practice. This would be something like clothes pins on a pressurized fuel pump to carburetor gas line to cure vapor lock. They were added to early gravity fed non-pressurized gas lines to increase area for heat dissipation, which may have helped with vapor locking.

(o{}o)