Greetings,
I've completed hooking up the new Atwood 6 gal water heater in my coach aside from the Motoraid heater hose connections. The hose coming through the floor goes into a loop with a shutoff valve in the loop. Have to open the loop to add another section of hose and to make the connections to the water heater. How much coolant might I expect to see pouring out? Should I drain some out of the radiator before beginning?
Appreciate any wisdom you can offer. Am trying to avoid a huge mess. Thanks.
Steve
Steve,
It wouldn't hurt to drain a little from the radiator. As soon as the coolant level is below that of the connection, there should be little coolant loss. Also make sure the valve is closed and that the dash heater control is to "cold". That will minimize flow in those lines.
Brett
If your heater hose is in good shape, as in still supple, you could put a clamp upstream of where you are going to cut it and prevent much loss. I would use something as a caul that has soft or rounded edges where the clamp contacts the hose. Just an idea... one that I have used before in similar situations.
Don
Don,
I agree on a new or near new hose. But on a 20+ year old hose, I would not chance it.
Brett
Thank you gentlemen.
I have line clamps used with brake and fuel lines - they are too small for this application. The hoses look to be in good shape (what I can see of them), but yes, they are 20 years old. I tried clamping the new section of hose I need to install, and actually damaged it with the force needed to completely cut off flow, so gave up on that.
Am also planning to swap out the valve, since I'm in there, so it does look like I'll need to drain some coolant out. Was first thinking I'll just disconnect the hose and catch the runoff in coffee cans, emptying them into a pail until it stops, but that could also get very messy.
Thanks again for your help. :)
Steve
If it is a 20 year old hose, this project may be a good opportunity to change it if you need to remove some coolant anyway... I will definitely be doing that on ours as have the FW tank out is giving me easy access to the hose that won't be there when I put the tank back in.
Don
Don,
Those hoses are kind of hard to access and change and are pretty protected as they run in a channel except in the engine room. Many of us have replaced the engine room portion of the hoses and just continue to treat the rest of the hose gently. Have not heard of many failures in these protected areas.
Brett
Thanks for the feedback folks. Agree changing out those hoses would be a major undertaking. Probably worse that trying to replace that dang poly plumbing. :)
Not having touched the cooling systems in one of these machines, and only familiar with cars and light trucks, I have a couple of perhaps dumb questions.
First - how do I drain the coolant? Is there a petcock at the bottom of the rad like a car (did not see anything, but I have not climbed under the rad yet).
My second dumb question is - how do I add the coolant back into the system? All I've found so far is the coolant overflow reservoir.
Any pointers would be much appreciated.
Steve