[Mgs] Sourcing radiator hoses

[wkilleffer at epbfi.com]

Hello everyone, 

Recently, I did a bunch of work on the cooling system of my 1974 MGB. The car has a 1971 engine and is set up to use an upper radiator hose, a separate lower hose, and a brass fitting that attaches to the water pump with a short length of hose and sends coolant up to the heater core. The work I did included a new radiator, hoses, hose clamps, and thermostat. I sourced all the items from Vicky-Brit at the end of May and installed them sometime in July. 

The problem is that the hoses seemed a bit flimsy compared to the ones I took off. Seems like the old hoses came from NAPA. I was driving the car after fitting all the new parts in the early part of August, and all seemed well. I thought I'd been careful to get the air out of the system. We had some really hot days that month, with the heat index showing up at 95+deg, but the car seemed to run well and the temp gauge never got into the danger zone. I was driving it home on one of those hot evenings, when I started smelling coolant not far from home. I didn't see any steam, so I drove the rest of the way home, which was less than a mile at that point. 

Upon raising the bonnet, I saw evidence of a coolant leak, and then found the split place in the upper radiator hose. The car's been sitting in my garage ever since as I haven't yet had time to deal with that. 

Is this the fault of a bad hose, or did I fail to get all of the air out of the system, or was it just too hot that day to safely be driving the car? I'm going to assume that I can still find hoses at NAPA, but does anyone have any suggestions about that? 

Thank you, 
-William 
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