Has anyone seen this cooling set-up before

Hello, here is a 1935 Pontiac straight 8 engine. The water hose running from the top of the water pump to the back of the head is a set-up I have not seen before.

Does anyone know if this was a common "fix" for cooling problems or has anyone seen the same set-up on other Straight 8 engines?

My best guess is that this would help out when the water distribution tube rusted out.

Any guesses?

Thanks,

Joe

Hello, here is a 1935 Pontiac straight 8 engine. The water hose running from the top of the water pump to the back of the head is a set-up I have not seen before.

Does anyone know if this was a common "fix" for cooling problems or has anyone seen the same set-up on other Straight 8 engines?

My best guess is that this would help out when the water distribution tube rusted out.

Any guesses?

Thanks,

Joe

[ATTACH=CONFIG]288750[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]288751[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]288752[/ATTACH]

Hi Joe

That's a simple by-pass for the heater core that has been disconnected or missing for whatever reason. Many older vehicles had the isolation valve installed to stop the flow of hot jacket water thru the heater core during the summer monthes as our '53 Chieftain has a similar disk type valve installed.

The water flow is coming from the cylinder head back to the low pressure side of the water pump which gives the pressure differential to create the flow through the heater core ( if fitted) as my 51 is plumbed in a similar fashion. You could plug both the inlet and outlet and there should be no change to the cooling system efficiency or flow rates .

I doubt if it would help the corroded water flow distribution tube issue as you mentioned as it effectively allows that volume of coolant to bypass the radiator all the time - however as the coolant is flowing from the high pressure side back to the suction side of the pump it may ?? It would be hard to quantify .

Thanks Russ, good points on both the heater and the cooling . . . . I'll keep it this way for now and worry about a heater core down the road . . . . Thanks for the reply and the info.,

Cheers,

Joe