jleidel

I know there have been plenty of home made alternator cooling hose solutions posted, but hey... one more won't hurt. After replacing my fried alternator with an aftermarket Bosch unit, I figured I would try and keep it cool and make it last. The original cooling hose was toast. The fabric was not only torn, but oil soaked. I trashed it and decided to look for a suitable replacement. I didn't want to replace it with an OEM version as I don't trust the longevity of fabric on the undercarriage [especially on a car that still has a few oil leaks]. I decided to raid the local auto store just to see what sort of junk they had.

I actually found what became a great solution. Autozone stocks a generic set of parts to build "cold air" intakes for various models. They're generally marketed towards the Japanese cars. Rather than paying the money for a Greddy, you can make your own intakes with various U/L fittings, couplers and hose.

I bought two items:

• Spectre 3" x 48" Flexible Rubber Intake Tube : $19.99: Part #8741
• Spectre 2 1/2 inch to 3 inch reducing coupler [complete with clamps]: $6.99 : Part #8751

I measured the output of the standard alternator cooling shroud to be 2 3/8, so the 2 1/2 reducer worked great. Everything is thick rubber, so oil+road grime shouldn't be a problem. The actual intake diameter is now larger, reducing to the standard diameter. All this for less than $30.00. I used a couple small bolts+washers to mount the hose to the stock mounting brackets. All in all, it worked out great.

Pictures:

NickT

Nice job - Color match too!

linderpat

Wow - another great solution!

Jadz928

Go fast RED! Nice find.

Landseer

Excellent. Thank you. I need this for my platinum car.

jleidel

One thing I forgot to mention... they have colors other than Red. [I just lucked out]. I believe there is a dark blue and, of course, black.

chrly924s

DANG!!! I just bought black from an aircraft supply house. I wish they had Kiln Red hose

Rick Carter

I just printed that out, thanks.

worf928

Nice find!

JG928S4

Used Part #8741, black, air intake cool air kit, Autozone, cut a inch out of the 2 supplied rubber ends, put them inside the supplied 3" tube, threaded the original hose clamps on (tight) and attached as original. Hopefully the plastic will last a while and not get damaged per oil etc.

Thanks for the reference !