OK folks.
This kit is basically an answer for a question that was never asked, or at least not one that had not been corrected already.
The concept was to shunt off cooling water thats coming up from the block (it enters the head at the rear) and to reroute the coolant.
The true answer was the HO water pump and dual stat crossover.
FLOW is the answer as increasing it throughout the block, heads and radiator.
The dual stat crossover along with the HO pump increases the flow through the block by 70% and through the radiator by about 10%.
When the stats are closed the water is recirculated through the heads under a much higher flow rate and pressure than the original set up.
When the stats open the coolant return flow to the block is shut down and the entire flow then runs into the radiator.
The HO pump is well worth the $$$ as is the dual stat X over.
The bottom line is this, if less than $20 worth of hose and fittings would have corrected the problem, does anyone really think that the engineers would have gone to the trouble of designing and manufacturing the dual stat crossover and HO pump.
That change was not an insignificant little blip $$$ wise.
Coolant needs to flow through the entire block and the full lenght of the heads at a fairly good velocity in order to scour out any steam pockets and the thoroughly cool the heads and the block.
Slowing up the flow with the hose shunt goodies does nothing other than allow the forward cylinders to heat up more as a direct result of the coolant being routed off prematurely.
Just another BAND AID fix that did little other than make somone some $$$$
As I said, if this was the answer, the big boys would have done it right off and not spent big $$$$ to redesign the system.
Cracked #8 cylinders is due to several factors, the biggest of which is the presence of a severe stress riser right under THE HEAD BOLT thats located at about 8 oclock near the back of the block and around 1 inch below the deck surface.
The AMG blocks have had the decks thickened and the stress riser was removed.
THE STRESS RISER I AM SPEAKING OF IS A BULGE RIGHT UNDER THE BOLT AREA.
THIS CAUSED THE THINNER AREA ADJACENT TO THE BOLT TO CRACK RADIALY AROUND THE CYLINDER WALL.
If your worried about your #8 cylinder cracking, there is little that can be done on the 97-99 blocks. If its gonna crack, its gonna crack, and all the gizmos in the world are not going to stop it.
I hate to be the harbinger of sad news but, thats the way it is with these things.
Some cracked, some did not. I have seen a total of 3 blocks that have done this.
One came from an H1 Hummer 1998 model with less than 100K on the clock.
The others were from pickups.
Save your hard earned $$$ for good parts like a HO pump and crossover kit.
Missy
