Happy news everyone! I had to do a bit of leg work, but NAPA carried a T designed for automotive HVAC. It was 5/8ths straight through with a 3/8ths “T”. However, those thick lines had in I.D. of 1/4th inch! So, I had to use a short section of 3/8ths ( transmission hose ) and an adapter down to the 1/4 I.D. line.
No promises, but if the weather holds and I find the time this weekend, I’ll shoot a quicky video and post it here outlining what was wrong and what I did to fix it.
Total cost was about $30 for hoses, clamps, adapters and a small stupid tax ( I will point that out in the video if I make one ).
Consider this problem solved!
Oh, and my thoughts on the steel line…asthetics. I don’t see any reason to route those lines so ridiculously complex, although I’m sure a Furd Engineer could tell me what the brain trust was thinking when they designed this engine.