Filter replacement brands

[BamaBus]

Originally Posted by adic27

I was draining the old coolant out and decided I'd check the thermostat. It looks like it needs replacing, along with the upper hose. Would you agree? I'm also gonna use a couple bottles of Prestone 2 in 1 flush

I would replace the upper and lower hose along with the thermostat after flushing with a garden hose to remove as much debris as possible. Then use the Prestone flush. The thermostat I used for a '97 and '99 DT466E were Gates 33957 from Rock Auto. The numbers on your thermostat seemed to be an obsolete number. The numbers for the hoses are different depending on the configuration of the radiator. Hopefully the old hose numbers are still legible.

[adic27]

Originally Posted by BamaBus

I would replace the upper and lower hose along with the thermostat after flushing with a garden hose to remove as much debris as possible. Then use the Prestone flush. The thermostat I used for a '97 and '99 DT466E were Gates 33957 from Rock Auto. The numbers on your thermostat seemed to be an obsolete number. The numbers for the hoses are different depending on the configuration of the radiator. Hopefully the old hose numbers are still legible.

I got the Gates 33118 thermostat and Dayco 71740 for the hose. Both from Rock Auto as well. Hope the thermostat is the right one

[Phatman]

Originally Posted by adic27

I was draining the old coolant out and decided I'd check the thermostat. It looks like it needs replacing, along with the upper hose. Would you agree? I'm also gonna use a couple bottles of Prestone 2 in 1 flush

Hey neighbor. Just south of you. I would not use the flush. Every time I’ve seen that stuff used on older radiators, they wind up replacing their radiator. It breaks up all the rust plugging pin holes. Then they have all these leaks. I would just drain the radiator, flush it with just water. Make sure you are using the proper coolant for your model & year of your bus.

[Booyah45828]

A picture of the radiator would be worth a thousand words. It might need replacing or re-coring anyways.

Good call on replacing the thermostat. Looks like a lot of rust and neglect in your system. The only flush I would use in your situation is motorcraft vc9. It is made for rust and works well at it.

Leave out the t-stat and install housing and old hose, fill system with a couple quarts of vc9 and water, run the engine for an hour at high idle. Let cool. Drain vc9 and run as much water through the block, heater hoses, and radiator as you can to get out the vc9. Replace hoses and thermostat, add coolant, test coolant for PH and additive, install new coolant filter and run it.

[adic27]

Originally Posted by Booyah45828

A picture of the radiator would be worth a thousand words. It might need replacing or re-coring anyways.

Good call on replacing the thermostat. Looks like a lot of rust and neglect in your system. The only flush I would use in your situation is motorcraft vc9. It is made for rust and works well at it.

Leave out the t-stat and install housing and old hose, fill system with a couple quarts of vc9 and water, run the engine for an hour at high idle. Let cool. Drain vc9 and run as much water through the block, heater hoses, and radiator as you can to get out the vc9. Replace hoses and thermostat, add coolant, test coolant for PH and additive, install new coolant filter and run it.

Sounds like a master plan. Yea I was planning on removing the thermostat and putting the housing and hose back and running water a few times before the Prestone flush but I wasn't sure if the housing and thermostat were permanently stuck together or they were just corroded. The new one came today, way earlier than expected so I'll look at it in a bit on YouTube. I will now be doin it with the vc9 instead.

After I drain the vc9 is it ok or even necessary to fill it up with just distilled water and run the engine again for any amount of time, once or multiple times before adding the new coolant? Wish I could get it close enough to a water hose. I'll use a bucket I guess. Could I moolve it with just water in it? Its only about 75 feet away from the water hose. At one point a while back I used to put water in my radiator from time to time to keep it from overheating so I guess this small move should be fine?

Thanks a lot!

Edit: I'll try and see if I can get in a position to get good enough pics of the radiator. I think it's in a tight space tho and I'm not sure I can get the front grill off to get a better look

[Booyah45828]

You want to flush it with straight water to dilute the vc9. Unless it's well water, or hard town water, it doesn't have to be distilled for the flush. VC9 is a mild acid, and doesn't require a neutralizer like some flushes, but you definitely don't want to leave it in. A couple drain and refills with water from a bucket would do it. You can run it with straight water to get it to the hose, but don't leave straight water in it for any more then a day.

We use the hose in the shop because it's there and easier then a bucket, and also because you can't flush it too much. The more you dilute it the better, so don't be shy with the water.

[BamaBus]

Originally Posted by adic27

I got the Gates 33118 thermostat and Dayco 71740 for the hose. Both from Rock Auto as well. Hope the thermostat is the right one

The 33118 is for a mechanical engine and is 180°. The 33957 (190°) is for the 466E as you have in your registry. The 33957 is the thermostat with integrated housing as you pictured. The hose 71740 has a 2-1/4" end and a 2-1/2" end. The thermostat has a 2-1/2" opening and I bet the radiator does also. You may be able to remove the overflow fitting on top of the radiator to peak at the top side of the cooling tubes to see if they are stopped up.

[adic27]

Originally Posted by BamaBus

The 33118 is for a mechanical engine and is 180°. The 33957 (190°) is for the 466E as you have in your registry. The 33957 is the thermostat with integrated housing as you pictured. The hose 71740 has a 2-1/4" end and a 2-1/2" end. The thermostat has a 2-1/2" opening and I bet the radiator does also. You may be able to remove the overflow fitting on top of the radiator to peak at the top side of the cooling tubes to see if they are stopped up.

Yea, I realized I got the wrong one. I could have sworn I put the electronic version in my cart. I think it was when I tried to go on my laptop to check and see if I would get the same address error as I did on the Rockauto site with my phone. I didn't. When I went back to my phone the site worked properly all of a sudden but I emptied my cart and started over. Probably got distracted by the cheaper price of the mechanical one

Anyway I already ordered the right one but won't have it until as late as the 31st smh

On the old one, I can't seem to get the thermostat out of the housing. Is there a way or is it just too rusted? I may have gotten it to move a little bit wit a hammer and screwdriver by clamping it down and trying to beat it out but I'm not sure. Might just have to wait on the new one and use the housing for it. Tips?

As for the radiator, I'll take a look when I get back to the bus

[BamaBus]

Originally Posted by adic27

On the old one, I can't seem to get the thermostat out of the housing.

The thermostat doesn't have a housing like most autos. The thermostat/housing is a single unit. Use the 2 existing bolts to put in the new one. Once I got my new one, I cut the insides out of the old one leaving the flange and the section that the hose attaches to. Then I was able to attach the hose to the housing allowing me to circulate water through the engine and radiator like Booyah described yesterday.

The Gates 22140 is the upper radiator hose that I used. The lower hose will depend on the design of the lower radiator outlet. The outlet can be on the right or left, come straight out or turn up/down, etc. Is yours stock International or a Modine replacement? The label on the rad inlet may tell you the part number. Pic may help

[adic27]

Originally Posted by BamaBus

The thermostat doesn't have a housing like most autos. The thermostat/housing is a single unit. Use the 2 existing bolts to put in the new one. Once I got my new one, I cut the insides out of the old one leaving the flange and the section that the hose attaches to. Then I was able to attach the hose to the housing allowing me to circulate water through the engine and radiator like Booyah described yesterday.

The Gates 22140 is the upper radiator hose that I used. The lower hose will depend on the design of the lower radiator outlet. The outlet can be on the right or left, come straight out or turn up/down, etc. Is yours stock International or a Modine replacement? The label on the rad inlet may tell you the part number. Pic may help

Makes sense. That explains why beating the soul out of it didn't help it separate.

What part are you asking about stock/part number, the hose or the radiator? I assume the radiator sense you already know the part number of the hose. I'm not sure if the radiator is stock or not (if that's what you were asking about). I need to take pics of it, or get the part number when I get the chance

[adic27]

There was a Modine sticker on it so I guess it's not stock? Couldn't really get a good pic of it, just the top.

[adic27]

Originally Posted by BamaBus

Once I got my new one, I cut the insides out of the old one leaving the flange and the section that the hose attaches to. Then I was able to attach the hose to the housing allowing me to circulate water through the engine and radiator like Booyah described yesterday.

Can I use the old one but just pry it open some how to where it won't close? Or would the stat itself still be in the way, not letting enough water flow through?

[Booyah45828]

On those thermostats with the integral housing, the thermostat is pressed into the housing and can't be removed easily.

To remove it, you first take a side cutters and cut the 4 bars at the water outlet near the outer circumference. Then with a hammer and punch, you drive the thermostat out of the housing from the top. Once out, Install the old o-ring into the receiver groove on the engine and install the bare housing in it's place.

[adic27]

Yea, I got it apart but it only took a few hours and I realized everything you just explained after every other approach I could think of. Almost forgot to put the O-ring back, thought about it right after I screwed the housing back in. That probably would have been bad

I just squeezed on what I think is the lower radiator hose (image attached) and it feels like something solid is in there. Not normal is it? Kinda like rocks and even makes a noise. Could this be the "pelletized" sca's you mentioned?

Also, I took pics of the radiator as best I could but it seems the only way to get a better view other than removing it is removing the front grill. Took a pic through that too. Probably can't tell much from them


Thanks!

[Booyah45828]

Might be a spring. Some vehicles use a spring in the lower radiator hose to keep it from collapsing due to water pump suction.

[BamaBus]

The housing looks like it should be able to flow water just fine.
The radiator specs show the 2-1/2" top and bottom. When I replaced my radiator, I went with one with the same bottom configuration as yours. The lower hose (22762) at Rock Auto doesn't fit. It was too short in the section going side to side, if that makes sense. I modified it with a 6" pipe from a muffler shop instead of buying the correct hose which cost 3 times as much and another two weeks out. There was a spring in the lower hose but the newer one didn't have a spring being it was some new material. The old one looked good so I re-used it.
The sca's are pellets in the coolant filter not the rad hose.

[adic27]

I had did some research and found that it was a coil like you guys ended up saying.

Originally Posted by BamaBus

The housing looks like it should be able to flow water just fine.
The radiator specs show the 2-1/2" top and bottom. When I replaced my radiator, I went with one with the same bottom configuration as yours. The lower hose (22762) at Rock Auto doesn't fit. It was too short in the section going side to side, if that makes sense. I modified it with a 6" pipe from a muffler shop instead of buying the correct hose which cost 3 times as much and another two weeks out. There was a spring in the lower hose but the newer one didn't have a spring being it was some new material. The old one looked good so I re-used it.
The sca's are pellets in the coolant filter not the rad hose.

Did you reuse the old "spring" because you felt it was needed or because of a "why not" kind of decision you made? And what are the chances the 22762 hose might be too short for me as well? Is your bus a 98 3800? I take it you have a different radiator? The images of the 2 hoses available on RA look like the same image and both mention the 2.5 inner diameter the specs. Specs for both are pretty much the same from what I can tell except the material. One is reinforced rubber and one is EPDM, whatever that is. Neither of them have a spring. Since they, for the most part, match up spec wise I'll get the cheaper Gates one. Besides, the acdelco one has a 3 day delay. Hopefully I don't have the same issue you had. Here is a screenshot of the specs

[adic27]

Meant to post this days ago. Pics of the color of my old coolant. Doesn't look to bad to me

[Booyah45828]

Probably isn't, run a test strip through it and see what it says.

Regardless, I've changed a lot of coolant that looked good, because the coolant had oil in it or the test strip said to flush because of sca's or ph level. When it looks bad is usually when the system has been neglected and people didn't change it when they were supposed to.

[adic27]

It was worse than what it looked like compared to this comparison. The little bottle was the initial drain and the darker gallons and a 5 gallon bucket were after I filled it up with water and vc-9, letting the engine idle at 1500 rpms for about an hour (or 2) and drained it again. Then I ran water through the reservoir from a hose and let it fill quite a few times with the petcock open til it ran clear from the petcock, into gallon bottles. The second pic is how it ran out in order with the drain open.

I closed the petcock and filled it up with water then parked it back in my storage and this morning the reservoir had particles floating on top of the water, maybe from the engine circulating what's left of rust, etc. I guess it course a few more drains, maybe fill with water and let it run for a while before the last drain and coolant fill? Guess I'll determine when I drain the water that's currently in it. My lower hose was delivered at a ups store and I didn't know til the next day when they were closed so I've basically been waiting to have all the parts. Already have the thermostat and upper hose. Hope the lower hose fits.

Would you guys suggest using some kind of sealant on the new thermostat housing? Or will the new O-ring be enough? I ask because when I first feel the system with water in vc-9 I noticed air bubbles coming from the housing area and eventually leaking down to the floor, not a big leak but still. It stopped after the engine ran a few minutes but when I started it up this morning it start leaking again. Not as much as yesterday. It probably has to do with either me bending on side where the bolts go when trying to separate the thermostat from the housing or maybe I didn't put the hose clamp on low enough. Should I replace the hose clamps with the hoses? Either way, I hope I didn't need some kind of sealant because when I go get this hoseim replacing the parts and getting this over with lol