1988 Isuzu Trooper diesel conversion

After many failed attempts, I've finally gotten my hands on a genuine Isuzu intercooler hood scoop. A few private parties fell through (I was trying to get someone from New Zealand or Australia to ship me a scoop) and more than one supplier refused to help.

Only one outfit, All Four X Four Parts in Australia, was willing to sell me the parts. They did a fantastic job, cut the scoop free with part of the hood and all the mounting hardware intact, and even included the sealing gasket. Great guys to deal with. Check them out online.

Now I need to weld it into the hood...

As delivered, the heater hoses on the diesel engine appeared intact. Closer examination revealed that they were both torn and in need of replacement. Both hoses are shaped units, unavailable in the USA (at least, one cannot walk into a parts supplier and order hoses for this application) and, after my experience trying to find a lower radiator hose, I was in no mood to try and find something that would work from another vehicle.

The solution was to duplicate the more complicated bends in copper plumbing pipe and use standard 5/8" heater hose for the rest. All that was required beyond the copper shown above was a straight length of hose and one 90* bent rubber hose, which should be easy to find in a parts catalog.

The main issue was finding a way to duplicate the bead found on the end of factory steel hose connections, which is present to prevent the hose from popping off. I used a flaring tool to create a single flare in 1/2" copper plumbing pipe (the 5/8" die works perfectly for this, don't ask me why) and then employed a combination of 90* elbow fittings, T-fitings and 5/8" copper repair sleeve to create the tubes shown above. The flared 1/2" pipe fits into the enlarged areas of the elbows and Ts, and those oversized sections are the perfect size for the I.D. of the heater hose.

The T-fittings are present to allow for the future plumbing for the SVO heating tank and possibly a coolant heater for winter starting. They are closed off at this time with plugs (one shown above left) and a short section of hose.