This morning I opened the hood to plug in the Block Heater for an hour to get her to start.
Checked the Oil, and do a visual for leaks etc.... Damn I have a return cap starting leaking Diesel.

Any way, noticed the heater hose that runs down to the lower block looked like condensation on the full length of it,
Kind of like it was sweating. Not dripping.
Ran my finger on it, and is Coolant. Wiped it off with a paper towel the full length and was yellow like the coolant.
Checked the other hose that runs over the Alternator and it had a little of the sweating more where it goes over the Alternator.


I replaced these 4 years ago when I was out in the farm lands on 2 lane roads south of Sacramento late one night
so I could by pass the screwed up mess of freeways and traffic. Think it was around 11pm, and my Wife said it`s
getting wet on the floor, and then the whole Windshield fogged up. Blew the damn heater Core.

Good thing I had my tool bag, used 2 6' Vice grips and clamped off the hoses.
Get to Santa Cruz and pick up a Blower Motor, Heater Core and enough hose to replace supply and return.

Never had any problems with it till I noticed the sweating on the hoses this morning.
Iam damn near 75 and have driven 100 of K of miles and never had this one pop up.

Iam going to replace them, just thought I would ask if any one had come across this before.


Charlie

 

In my experience that just means you need to tighten up the clamps. Seems like these engines move around enough to loosen a lot of fasteners, combine that with the rubber getting beat down over the years and they can begin to seep a little.

Either way, if you have the funds replacing hoses is cheap insurance.

 

Hes talking about the hoses themselves sweating through the rubber. Seen it before, usually on really soft hoses that are breaking down. Probably just cheap hose.

I feel you on the return caps, i have one that just will not stop, must be a bad cap. Replaced O-rings 3 or 4 times, stops for a week or two then its wet again, but not getting air at least.

 

Learn something every day, I have never seen or heard of such a thing. One of the downfalls of being a young pup.

 

Thanks guys. I bought the parts at Autozoo in Santa Cruz. Isn`t their brand Duralast? Or is it Neverlast...LOL
Blower and Heater Core are good so far.
I`ll see if I can find some good Gates hose, that seems to be good.

I may have disturbed that leaky cap when I put in the new Motorcraft GP`s a few weeks back. I have a couple bags of the #111 "O" Rings
I got from McMaster-Carr. You can`t just fix the one leaky cap, tried that on the other side when I eliminated the air bleed hose from
the filter to the first Injector cap on the pass side. Cut a short piece of hose, stuck a screw in it to seal it off. Then the cap leaked. Looked
through my stash of spare caps and put one on with one nipple, and 2 new "O" Rings. Every thing was good then the next cap etc... so just
replaced that whole side of "O" Rings.

I have a new set or R&D Injectors, so when I get around to installing them, it`s "O" Ring time again.
I also have the new IP to go with them.

I bought this truck July of 14, and the GP`s did not work. So have just been plugging in the Block heater. Every thing I had read of stuck
AC Auto Lites etc....had me shaking in my boots thinking what could be if I dug into them. I bought the truck for a move from Commiefornia
to Nevada so didn`t want it laid up till we got moved. Made 22 trips over the Sierra Nevada Mountains....but I have a lot of cars, trucks engines
and other treasures......= crap. Think I have 14 vehicles.

When I got the Plugs out, they were all AC`s. none were swollen, just sooty on the ends. So maybe the Controller is bad and not working?
They were tight, only because there wasn`t any Anti-Seiz on the threads. Dodged that bullet.
The spades were broken off 2, and they are in the connectors to be pulled out, and then see if the harness is any good.

Charlie

 

I've only experienced sweaty hoses when I had my oil-in-coolant leak.. Maybe the thin film of oil on the interior of the hoses broke down the rubber and allows some of the coolant to force through pores in the material. IDK. Just a thought.

 

Sounds like youre living the dream, im actually looking at a different job right now because my job furnished housing is conflicting my toys and treasures. I have a big bag of viton rings too, had the whole passenger side of each time ive replaced o rings on the 3rd injector, each time none of the others leak. That said, the engine only has 8500 miles on it and the o-rings are only a couple years old so probably still nice and pliable.

 

Definitely something worth checking. Oil makes coolant hoses gooey and soft and eventually they fail

 

The hoses have no oil on them, maybe the end down low on the block where it connects. The end that connects to the water pump is dry.
I know what oil does to rubber hoses.

This morning I checked them, and they did not sweat from driving yesterday. Probably drove 60 miles.
Strange they were wet yesterday and dry today.


Charlie

 

Do you think it's possible it was vapor from the overflow settling on the warm hoses after shut off and then condensating?

 

Are the hoses marked with a SAE# ? If they are plain hoses then they are probably not rated hoses and are dissolving. This gets even worse in the presence of DeX cool or Preston universal yellow bottle coolant.

 

Not sure what you are talking about, "Vapor from an over flow setting". These are just the Heater hoses going to the Heater Core.
I just checked for any writing on the hoses, and these do not have any printing on them...strange. Not sure what Autozoo sold me...LOL
I was just out to the truck to plug in the Block Heater, 11:25PM and 35deg so far. Suppose to get down to 22 tonight.
Threw a moving pad over the engine to keep in some of the heat...at least the Mice will be warm tonight.

There is no Dex Cool or Prestone yellow. I bought the coolant from the Ford dealer along with the special additive.

Anyway noticed a slight bit of sweating on a short section of one hose. We`ll see what it looks like in the morning.

Charlie