never too old to learn a lesson the hard way.

Had a leaky heater hose connection on the oliver 1750. So, I chose today to fix it. Bought the new hose I needed, and since I was gonna have it apart I figured I would replace the t-fitting that splits the line for the preheater. Waled over to the plumbing section and grabbed the plastic peice I figured I needed. Spent some time cutting off old hoses and trying noot to lose too much coolant. Ended up having to just let it drain out, wanted to add a gallon of antifeeze anyway since I was only good to -7. Get it all back together, poured the antifeeze coolant all back into the radiator, figure I should plug it in and start it later to let it all circulate and look for leaks. Came back in 7-8 minutes too see that my new T-fitting was melting. Oh what joy. So I guess tomorrow I will do it all over again with the peice that was doing just fine in there, or I will go pick up a galveniezed metal one. Sorry, made a short story long! IDIOT!

Dave,

I think you're right on to get a metal T-connector for the heater lines.

Here's just a thought along those lines. I moved to Rochester, MN from Cleveland, OH in January 1970. My 1968 Ford Torino just laughed at me within a couple of days when I asked it to start one morning. I bought a heater to install in a tap off the heater hose. I installed it and plugged it in. A little while later, it had melted the plastic Y-connector and dumped the antifreeze.

I talked to a native Minnesotan and he suggested that I might have had an air gap in the antifreeze just above the heater. According to him, if that air gap is in there, the heater will boil the antifreeze and the steam will be hot enough to melt the plastic Y-connector. I don't know if he was right or not, but I bought a metal Y-connector, installed it , primed the heater hose that went down to the heater itself, and plugged it in.

The heater worked great for the four years I lived in Minnesota. I then moved to Miami. I can't tell you how many times I explained to people in Miami why I had an electrical plug hanging out of the front of my car!

Good luck with your installation.

Tom in TN

Dave,
Part of my job is to do preventive maintenance on standby generators at radio tower sites. We have block heaters and 195 degree thermostats on them and many of them use a plastic tee with no problem..

Get a heater hose tee from an auto parts store, not the ones from plumbing store made for sprayers, etc.

I've had no problem with ones from auto parts store.

Many thanks for the info, I've wondered what would happen if I used a plumbing store tee in an emergency.

Bob