300/6 Coolant and vacuum fittings availability (and thread sizes)

[Rembrant]

Gentlemen,

I'm getting this old 300 ready to attach to the transmission and drop into the frame/truck.

See the items circled below. I'm not seeing them on Rockauto or LMC, etc. Are they NLA? Are they just regular NPT pipe thread? If so, I'll just make my own fittings and be done with it.

[Gary Lewis]

Have you looked here?  Documentation/Cooling Systems/Elbows

And you can see at least one of the parts in Documentation/Engines/300 Six.  There I see 18599, but maybe not the other?

[Rembrant]

Hey Gary,

Yes, I did look in there, but I was really looking for aftermarket replacements. The OEM part numbers are great for hunting down NOS parts, but this truck doesn't qualify for that kind of spending, not yet at least...lol.

[Gary Lewis]

From what I've seen the aftermarket doesn't supply those things.  But if you don't need OEM then maybe you can make one out of a 3/8-18 pipe fitting?

[Rembrant]

Gary,

I will probably do just that. I think the only vacuum required from that port will be PCV and the air cleaner assembly, so I can do that with regular fittings. It looked like 3/8" NPT.

[Gary Lewis]

Yes, I think it is 3/8 NPT.  (Should that be USPT?  Or is it a standard in Canada?)

[Rembrant]

Gary Lewis wrote

Yes, I think it is 3/8 NPT.  (Should that be USPT?  Or is it a standard in Canada?)

NPT is the standard for USA and Canada. When it comes to pipe work and plumbing in general, Canada still uses all of the American sizes and standards.

I deal with BSP (British Standard Pipe) and JIS (Japanese Industrial Standard) on a fairly regular basis as it is common on the marine world...well, common on all of the vessels that are built in Europe and Asia, which most are these days. However, NPT is still the standard here for everything on land.

[Gary Lewis]

Interesting.

I did a fascinating study of thread standards many years ago and was blown away with how many different threads there were at one time.  Starting with when threads were invented and tools with which to create threads were available everyone came up with his own and they differed in pitch, major and minor diameters, angle of the thread flanks, etc.

Then industries standardized threads within each nation, so you had standards for watch makers, plumbers, auto manufacturers, ship builders, etc.  And all of those were different between nations, or at least continents - with the UK being a one-off.

Then global wars happened and parts wouldn't interchange, so there was some international standardization.  Then globalization of markets and manufacturing, and even more standardization happened.  But we still have enough differences to make things difficult.

[ratdude747]

I had no luck on the coolant elbow w/ ECU temp sensor socket. If you're not running an ECU the aftermarket does make a t-stat housing "for leaded fuel" with the heater hose nipple directly pressed into to the housing.

Mine was rusted pretty bad (a few rust holes in the nipple after cleaning it up), I ended up torch soldering it. One could make one from some pipe fittings (close nipple, tee, and 45 degree nipple), but would not be stock, lol.

[1986F150Six]

Rembrant wrote

See the items circled below. I'm not seeing them on Rockauto or LMC, etc. Are they NLA? Are they just regular NPT pipe thread? If so, I'll just make my own fittings and be done with it.

https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=m570.l1313&_nkw=Ford+300+thermostat+housing+NOS&_sacat=6028&LH_TitleDesc=0&_osacat=6028&_odkw=Ford+300+thermostat+housing+OEM

[Rembrant]

ratdude747 wrote

I had no luck on the coolant elbow w/ ECU temp sensor socket. If you're not running an ECU the aftermarket does make a t-stat housing "for leaded fuel" with the heater hose nipple directly pressed into to the housing.

Mine was rusted pretty bad (a few rust holes in the nipple after cleaning it up), I ended up torch soldering it. One could make one from some pipe fittings (close nipple, tee, and 45 degree nipple), but would not be stock, lol.

Interesting. I found one on Rockauto, but I had to keep searching backwards until I got to around 1978.



I might just do the standard pipe fittings for now, but thanks for the info.