Quote: You may have just added some insight to this scenario. I don’t know what sequence or who installed the hoses but if it was done at the engine assembly plant, they may have installed this hose on A/C equipped cars. The 257 hose could have been the “universal” hose unless the vehicle had the A/C option. Rather that spin off in another of area of speculation, do you (A12) agree that the A/C cars had this different style of “hump” hose from the factory?
Yes I agree most production line or what are assumed original hoses on A/C cars (that I've seen since this thread) do appear to have a "hump" for what would be assumed for additional A/C belt clearance on a big block engine.
I'd love to see engine assembly plant photos to see just exactly what was with the engines when they left the engine assembly plant headed for the car assembly plant. The engines had part numbers (i.e., 899 on the 383 A/C engine for a '69 Super Bee) so I would assume that meant they had the A/C already on the engine as a complete assembly. I haven't looked to see what else is on a broadcast sheet that was already on an engine assembly to ask the question again "WHY"?
