Coolant loss because of bad o-ring in heater core tee fitting

[treehan77]

Got my oil leak fixed and now I notice some little orange drops. I'm assuming it is actually red and is coolant not trans. Noticed overflow tank was below FILL LOW There other day and added a gallon of dexcool (50/50). Never ever had these little drips before, I assume that's why the overflow tank is pretty low.

At :03 you can actually see it drip in the video ( a little flash way up there). What is best up there that could be leaking? Can't see anything orange/red/wet up top. Overflow tank seems like it's back to LOW already, but could've been air pocket possibly.


It way up there somewhere.

Appears to be dripping onto the hose and running down it


Water pump appears to be dry. Does the red arrow point tothe weep hole? It's dry up there and not anywhere near what seems to be the source of leak, but just curious anyway.

Heater hose adapters/connection at the firewall?

 

[treehan77]

Need some help finding this leak. Here's a video showing what i assume is coolant burning off. The smoke stopped after a couple minutes, so I assume it was coolant that had leaked and had to burn off.

 

[treehan77]

Think i found my coolant leak. That's one beat up looking oring. I'll get a new oring tomorrow or maybe just replace the whole tee. The other two orings look fine, but that one is a mess. Getting the tee off was difficult to say the least. Bought a quick disconnect tool, didn't work at all. I got the connection to the firewall side off with my hand, and then the larger hose by hand too. The one to the aluminum tube was the worst by far. Had to use a lot of different flat heads, pliers, and verbal "persuasion." .

Btw, it sure didn't look like this fitting leaked at all. I could never see a drop or any wetness at all. So i stuck a blue paper towel folded up under the T and ran it for a couple minutes. Soaked! Hopefully it is just the white one. My googling has seemed to find that one leaks much more often than the black one.

 

[bottomline2000]

Those connectors suckered when they go bad. Mine broke and dumped all of my coolant in less than 10 secs. Had to do a field repair and cut if off. Had to use a Ford part to get by. Be glad yours didn't break. I don't have rear heat so I don't have that T in mine.

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[sefiro]

They are quick connect for mfg line efficiency - and the design is not as strong as old fashioned pipe and clamp.

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[treehan77]

i replaced the white one. black one is leaking so i gotta get that one too.

 

[treehan77]

Black was easy compared to the white one. Paper towels shoved in there now aren't getting wet, so tentatively going to say the leak is fixed. Unfortunately now somehow the DIC decided to say "Service Airbag" . Wtf.

 

[treehan77]

Welp still getting a couple drips on the oil pan of orange coolant. Guess I'll just keep an eye on it since I already replaced both of those v heater core T fittings.

 

[treehan77]

found the brand new "black" T fitting was leaking worse than the 11+ year old GM one i replaced. when i went to take it off, the hose ripped off the connector. so now i've ordered a GM black tee and heater hose. heater hose is hard to find, neither chevy or gmc dealer here had it in stock (big box auto stores couldn't even get it). maybe a blessing, as i wouldn't thnk the hose would just fall apart and rip the connector off that easy, but obviosuly i've been monkeying with it a lot lately. hose looked to be in good shape. 15145587 is the GM hose # for reference. GM T fitting (black) is 15055342. i will be trying to avoid Dorman parts for important things from now on. not worth double labor for a cheap pos that leaks. and i got the GM part cheaper online anyway, just gotta wait a few days.

 

[treehan77]

Got the real GM black T put on. Actually cheaper than the cheap doorman piece of junk that leaked brand new. Got it from eBay, some dealer in AZ with free shipping for $12. No leaks. Finally.