Couple of questions about heater/coolant hoses

[Royy]

I'm planning on replacing my heater sometime within the next couple of months. If I have the system drained and the heater out anyway, I plan on replacing a bunch of cheap other stuff at the same time. Water pump, thermostat, thermostat housing, hoses, etc.
I don't have any issues with it at the moment, but as far as I know none of that stuff has ever been replaced on the car. And since the winters here get really bad and the car is 13 years old with almost 200k miles....

The upper and lower radiator hose are pretty straightforward. I'll just get the molded ones off RockAuto or a similar site. But all the other heater and coolant hoses have me scratching my head. I'd like to buy all the materials I need before I actually begin to pull the system apart. However, I don't know what size hoses I need.

With other kinds of hoses I'd simply pull the hose off and measure the inner diameter. I can't really do that here because the system is full of coolant. The repair manual doesn't have the specs for this. Is there any other way to find out what sizes these hoses are? Maybe a handy chart somewhere that I haven't been able to find?

Secondly, several of the heater hoses are molded. Is there any drawback to replacing these with simple flexible hoses?

Thanks!

 

[Number4]

Any autoparts store website should give you hose dimensions where bulk hose is used. Your local Ford dealer should be able to tell you as well.

I recommend not using any hose that is "cut to fit" as it will not be accurate. Some of the hoses going to the tstat housing are as such, though they may not say so online. Price out hoses from the dealer as they should be direct replacements. It'll save you some headaches.