Coolant Hose Sections

[Rissy]

Hey all,

Back in Korea now. BOOOOOO!!!!

Anyway, duing my superb visit back to Blighty, I was messing with Lexi a bit.

One of the things i did, was the up and coming inevitable, if people remember from Chirk, i got my radiator changed out. I bought one of Martin's, and it seems to be doing a superb job now its in. A bit of a "new" sort of "hot burny" smell when running the engine for the first 20-50 miles, but i guess that would be normal.

So, on to the actual issue question. The hose sections. Got new ones for immediately attaching on to the new radiator and the accompanying piping, leading back to the engine bay. I've not used anything, but was wondering if others use any sort of PTF tape (the stuff plumbers use) or something to help with the seals where the jubilee clips fasten on??... I've had to literally tighten up my jubilee's to the point where they break, just to try and stop the leaking of the coolant round the ends of the hose sections!? Got nice secure fixing points, with lots of excess hose on the metal piping, but just doesn't seem right i should have to tighten up the jubilee clips so much. I even did this when the water running through was nice and hot, so the rubber was soft and more squashy for the clips to be able to squeeze them down as they tighten (seemed to be the only way to actually tighten them up enough with my poor arm strength (not been to a gym in years! lol!)

So. any comments/ideas?

[Guinney1971]

boo to being back in Korea mate, when you back home again?

Anyway, I had an issue with Flopsy about 4 years ago, I was driving it down to
Essex to have a new clutch fitted, and one of the coolant hoses exploded on
the M1 at "motorway speed". It was the short section of rubber hose that
lives under the coil box in the engine bay.

I decided to replace all my short hose sections that join all the metal water
pipes with some nice blue 'chav' silicon hose, and used good quality hose clips -
not the cheap ones that cut into the hose as you tighten them up.

Hope this helps,

[Phil Peters]

Hi Rissy,

Only just spotted this thread so I imagine you've probably got it sorted by now but I though I'd post for the benefit of others who might be in the same scenario.

I had the same trouble on my old D several years ago: I'd bought nice new hose sections and brand new stainless steel jubilee clips (of course) but I just couldn't get a tight seal on some of the hose sections. I solved it in the end by using a scouring pad to scrub some bits of dirt and crud from the ends of the waterpipes then cleaned any residue away with some water in an old household spray bottle. I then re-fitted the hoses and tightened them up. Problem solved!

[Rissy]

...Just to get a conclusion on to this thread...

It took some time, but just recently in the last few weeks, I've finally replaced a large % of my old rubber hose section (I'm only discussing the 1" 1/4' hoses and the large funny shaped ones in the engine bay here) to nice new black silicone ones. It took a couple of adjustments (mainly tightening up to the extreme, or in a couple of places, double clipping them, for ones under the car) I've now got LEX leak free....more or less. The only leak I'm now aware of, is still in the engine bay. I though it was the "L" bend pipe coming off the expansion bottle which was persisting, but now, i'm convinced that a weld on the tank itself, must be corroding, and causing this persistent leak. I'm planning on taking the bottle off the car and take a proper look, once I've got her down to Rugby (since it's the end of the tank which faces to the front of the car, and I can't see it properly).

Anyone else ever had an expansion bottle do this before? Mine is a mild steel, painted black, affair, not plastic or stainless.

[Guinney1971]

sounds like you've got a similar bottle to me, mines metal and painted black.

Is it leaking when the engine is running? Just wondering if it might be coming out of the
over flow pipe that comes out of the bottle (from memory).

Hope you get it sorted ok

[Rissy]

The tank leaks all the time, but only actually drips on to the frame, continuously, once the engine is running (hence pressure is building up in the system) It's not coming off the tank at the rear, where the overflow feed comes off the cap neck of the tank. It's the lead out into the cooling system, facing the front of the car, at the bottom of the tank. So my conclusion is that since it only drips when running, or until you open the cap to release built up pressure, then it must be the pressure pushing the coolant out. As I say, I have tried all sorts of solutions, including my most current being simply to put two jubilee clips side by side on to the out pipe ("L" shaped one which you have to buy from Ed or the US cause its such a funny shape) and nothing works. This has led me to the suspicion that it must be a weld in the tank corroding, and allowing pressure to push coolant through. As I say, I'll take the tank off the car when I have it down here in Rugby, and see if I can see any evidence of a leak, and try plugging it with some metal cement epoxy resin or something. See if that does the trick...

[Guinney1971]

yer, does sound a bit suspect.

Original coolant bottles are a bit hard to come by, but RichH has managed to
fit a different one on his car and so far so good from all accounts.

[stunned_monkey]

Chris, you can send your coolant bottle back to Regal Rads and get it repaired probably for the cost of the postage. Ring Steve on 01580 892233 (I hope that's up to date) Yours has the extra barb at the trailing edge for the water pump bleed which is something unique to that bottle.

[Rissy]

Martin,

I've taken the following picture of my expansion tank.



1. Highlights the down pipe into the rest of the coolant circulatory system, and it is under this pipe which is where the leak is.
2. What is this pipe's function?
3. This is the overflow pipe
4. This is what i'm suspecting you are referring to by way of mentioning the bleed off pipe for the feedback into the water pump, is this correct?

[stunned_monkey]

2: Bleed from the heater matrix and cylinder heads
4: Yes

[Rissy]

...I had my expansion tank off the car the other day, and fully checked for leaks. Dry as a bone. At least without any pressure applied to it at the same time.

Took the opportunity to sand it down, and repaint it. Stuck with black, rather than silver (Had black paint, didn't have silver, as simple as that). I also applied some chemical metal to parts of the tank round the outlet where there was an appearance of some possible leaking, upon expansion from heat, just in case. Looks quite nice again anyway.

Anyway, this time when putting it back in the car, I wrapped some PTFE tape round the culprit outlet on to the rest of the coolant system, ran the car up to temperature, and all seemed good.

I think I may have cracked it. I still can't understand why that pipe connection was leaking, since its got TWO clips on it, and both are tightened up really quite hard. The silicone pipe section is undamaged too. So, I guess now, it's a "time will tell" scenario.

Just sharing.

[Rissy]

...time has told. And it didn't take long. Still leaking!? (I can't understand it!?)

[Manxmann]

Hey Chris,

When I bought 17152 all the hoses where shot so I had to replace them. Like you I used high quality silicon replacements however this came with a cautionary note from my local mechanic, who's knowledge and opinion I respect, which was that silicon hoses never seal as well/easily as rubber and that I should check for leaks regularly. Thankfully she's been fine ever since, even though the hoses have had to endure my own radiator replacement endeavours. Ed's rads are 1st rate and without doubt provide better cooling than my original.

Whilst not on the D I have used with great success Heldite sealing compound http://www.heldite.com/html/technical_info.html in both automotive and domestic heating environments. In many cases for heating I use this in preference to PTFE, especially where the mating surfaces are 'flat' as in the rad to hose junctions.

Simon

[Rissy]

Cheers Simon. I'll take a look at that. I've got close up photos showing where the first drip from dry is coming from, but it's still not definite enough where it coming out from, apart from somewhere in that localised area...

I've tried a few things already, stopping short of smothering the whole area with silicone sealant!

The clips are at breaking point, and seem to be making a good seal, and the tank itself appears to be ok when off the car (not under pressure). It really is a head scratcher!?

[Rissy]

...well, after starting this thread back in October 2010, I think I've finally cracked it, or to put it more appropriately, sealed it. 8)

As long as everything continues to hold true the way it is now, then it's definitely the tank that's to blame.

I had it off the car, again, and have used this stuff on it ( http://www.amazon.co.uk/Plastic-Padding ... B0001P0IH4 ), inside and out after cleaning the suspect guilty area completely, and literally smothering the stuff on. I bought the stuff from Halfrauds a couple of years ago, for my radiator, which I ended up completely replacing in the end, with one of Martin's. So the stuff was left in a box, unopened, and untested, until now.

As long as it copes with the temperature changes and the pressure in the system, which it initially seems to be doing, then it should be all good, at least for a couple of years or so. Fingers crossed.

Seems pretty good stuff. Rock solid when it cures (10 mins to cure!)

I'll revisit this thread again if I have to come back and eat my hat. :wink: