The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Interiors Why is my heater dripping?

No more drips, plus the heater is working, too!

Each of you correctly diagonosed the cause of the drip from my heater ... the hose connection to the in/out pipes on the heater core. 51 ashton, I straightened the crushed pipes on the core last week.

I removed all of my old Thermold heater hoses today and replaced with new Gates Premium (NAPA #H-153.) Although both are 5/8", the Thermold hoses are noticably larger ID than the Gates hoses. Easy to tell just by poking my finger into each. I ran my hose test on the core last night with short pieces of Gates Safety Stripe hoses. Everything held tightly. But today when I bench tested the core with my old hoses connected - it was like blowing into the wind.

So I mounted the heater and installed new heater hoses today. I used gear clamps instead of wide flat spring clamps to connect the hoses to the core as Bill suggested. Then I took it for a two hour shake down cruise. After a few minutes, the temp gauge pegged on "H", which I expected as air was purged from the block and the thermostat opened. I shut down and waited a few minutes. When I restarted, the gauge immediately fell to the usual position - a little below center.

And then best of all ... the heater works now. Blows hot even with a 160deg thermostat. It didn't heat before I installed the new hoses. I'm wondering if air was trapped in the heater core thus preventing hot water from circulating. Perhaps it was sucking air through the leak between the hoses and the in/out pipes on the core. I ain't gonna speculate much; I'll just enjoy the new found heat.

I'll drain the straight water and refill with Prestone tomorrow morning.

Thanks to everyone for your interest and your help in fixing my dripping heater.