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Samco Horror


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Wow man, I'm sorry to hear about that. :( I'm glad you shut her off immeidately, though. Just for future reference, if you see a tear in a hose, don't pour in more fluid and think it will flow through that tear... it will go right past the tear man and just make matters worse. I agree with a couple other posts here, saying it's a blown head gasket and possibly a warped head. Hopefully it isn't, but best of luck either way man.

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This is an interesting thread to me as I was the original stockist of Samco hoses in the UK for these cars. I stock them to this day and would say that I have sold most of their production in the UK and not ever had a complaint from a customer.

However, I have had one failure on my old S70 T5 when we where racing at Mallory Park, lying second in a Toyo mod.prod.saloon race on a hot July day when the top coolant hose split along its length. Luckily, a friend was driving the car on that day and pulled up in a massive cloud of steam, no damage had been done.

I was a bit miffed by Samco's attitude when I 'phoned them about the failure..mutterings about competition use...funny that when the original owner of the Company designed them for that very purpose.

Two of the original owner's employees have started another firm manufacturing this style of product, they have built up their business along the lines of the original owner of Samco and taken much of the business of the specialist motorsport preparers whilst building their range of hose kits for road cars. It has not been worth my buying from them for the 850, S.V.C70's as Samco own their tooling and the cost of making tooling of my own would have been too expensive.

I have looked into some stuff for the S60, new V70, but most of the original hoses are semi-rigid plastic, some having sockets for sensors, which make for costly work when making in silicone for relatively small volumes. Kits for the new S40, V50 may be worth a punt as they will share with the upcoming Ford Focus with the common Volvo 'T5' engine.

I would return the split hose to where you purchased it and ask for their comment and a free replacement. It is most unlikely that you would have damaged it.

Regards, Don.Norchi.

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I have a set of Samco coolant hoses on the way from George and I'm very confident Samco's product overall. I've had their intercooler hoses for nearly a year now and am very impressed with them still. They are as good as they were the day I got them and show no signs of degradation as you see with regular rubber hoses. Speaking of regular rubber hoses, they do a good job of putting things in perspective. I had a rubbber hose completely fail after only 6 months of use on my car. It was the top radiator hose. I think this thing that happened with Jim's car is kind of a freak accident sort of thing. It sucks nonetheless, but I think a rubber hose with the same cut as described would've failed. I will however be carefully inspecting my hoses when they arrive to make sure that there are no slits or anything of the sort on them. Jim, good luck getting everything sorted out. I never look at failures as failures, but as opportunities to improve :) .

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Well, I've almost eliminated anything on my end as the cause of the rupture. I thought that I might have nicked the hose with a box cutter when I opened the package that it came in. I found the box and plastic package that the hoses came in... neither had any knife cuts in them. Not sure if anything could have happened during installation but I suppose there is always the chance that it rubbed against something sharp in the engine compartment as it was being installed. The hose may simply have had a weak spot in it. stuff happens.

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Guest DougK

for the record I only recommended the Boost hoses as part of stage 0 ;)

Its partially why I didn't put the lower samco hose on yet (mostly out of laziness)

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i've always been a bit uneasy about the coolant hoses.. why fix something if it isn't broke ?? the oem hoses are sufficient, no more coolant is pumped through due to modding a car, so really no reason to spring for a theoretically "stronger" setup.

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Might be good for you! We'll see when I get the prognosis!!

jwm

Which color were your hoses Jim? It might sound like a stupid question, but the reason I ask is that several other sets from the batch yours came from could also be bad. I would think that they manufacture batches by color and by application.

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Well either way, if the car turns out to be fine give ol' samco a call and see what the deal is. Hopefully it isn't quite the same response that don (kalmar) got. I would say they should replace it... just show them the damage.

But hey... Jim, if you have to go to the VMS engine rebuild :) Don't be too dissapointed! Haha.

Good Luck Jim.

-Joe

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Which color were your hoses Jim?  It might sound like a stupid question, but the reason I ask is that several other sets from the batch yours came from could also be bad.  I would think that they manufacture batches by color and by application.

The pretty blue ones. I wouldn't worry too much. I believe this is most likely an isolated incident. It looks like there was a cut on the hose. Now, if it comes back and it had a thinner wall than it should have, then there could be cause for concern. But for now, from what I've seen, I'm sticking to a packing/handling mishap of sorts.

jwm

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