Engine hose

Hello fellow TFers,
Time has come up here to wake up the lady and one of the thing I plan to tackle in the coming days will be to replace all my engine hoses, raw water and coolant.
In some case I want to reroute the hose so I can clamp it correctly or get it out of the way of another part. As an example, one of the raw water hose is right over the oil dip stick and chaffing on the air filter too.
These hose looks quite sturdy so not sure how much bend I can get to make them following their new route.
Question: when the hose should bend is it better to just bend the hose or better to use a bronze fitting ? Let say that I want a hose to take a 90 right turn, better to add a 90 fitting in the middle or are raw water hose soft enough to bend?
I see a fitting as a source of potential leak but when you need one, well you need one.

Thank you for your input.

L

I used a grey PVC fitting on my ex boat to make a 90 for the raw water intake. Never leaked and routed the hose where I wanted it to go.
The hose would have kinked otherwise. You can only make a radius not a sharp 90 with hose.

Most 90° bends in hose are molded, some with reinforcement inside to avoid kinking. So if you can make the radius large enough to avoid kinking, you should be alright, especially if it's on the pressure side of the pumps. Otherwise, go with the fitting. A large auto parts store may be able to give you something close with a molded 90° that you can cut to fit.

In most cases just bending the hose to a sweep 90 is actually better then putting in a 90. the true 90 can reduce the flow but you can also buy molded sweep 90s

As mike66 said, if the hose kinks put in a fitting, otherwise bend away.

Not to offend the earlier poster but NO plastic fittings in a critical engine circuit!

siestakey said:

In most cases just bending the hose to a sweep 90 is actually better then putting in a 90. the true 90 can reduce the flow but you can also buy molded sweep 90s

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Good point. Never realized they come in different radii until I was poking around McMaster Carr one day. Definitely better than a squared off 90.

mike66 said:

A large auto parts store may be able to give you something close with a molded 90° that you can cut to fit.

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When I replaced my engine hoses I took the old ones to an auto parts store and bought hoses with similar bends to those I needed. I then cut out the bends to build my cooling system.
As has been said if you bend straight hose too far it’ll kink.

Xsbank said:

Not to offend the earlier poster but NO plastic fittings in a critical engine circuit!

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Not saying you're wrong but why not? Surprising how many "plastic" pieces are used around engines and exhaust systems.

They crack, crush, get damaged by coolant. Lose a critical plastic doodad and lose the engine or worse.

Then again, do what you wish with your own boat. My p.o. used grey plastic and they were deformed and damaged when I threw them all away.

I never had an issue with plastic fittings in cold water applications. I think it's a personal choice.