Two issues, coolant res level falling and ps rack leaking...

[olliec420]

40° is bitter cold? Our high today won’t get over 30°. Guess it’s all what you’re used to. I agree with the suggestions above.

I guarantee you won’t freeze to death. I replaced a lower intake manifold gasket on my sons truck a couple years ago and the highs were 4°.

You guys are tougher than me! Thats for sure. I can't do cold. Dont like too hot inland away from coastal breezes either.

 

[olliec420]

honestly.. it's got 200k. Just order the denso radiator everyone here uses, put your water pump on and new fire wall T's in before the trip. even if that's not 100% the problem they are well past time to do them. and the rack leak if you're not seeing the pump run dry should last till you get back from the trip.

the craziest thing about these trucks is how the parts that fail, fail like clock work. the guys can tell you at what mileage each part will fail withing 10k or so.


funny I remember those 40* Florida days.. it was bone chilling cold, homeless people and pets dropping dead. where 40deg in the rest of the country is a nice day. it was 43 in tx this morning and I almost didn't even grab a jacket on the way out. in Florida I'd have had ski gear on and still mad at the world. haha


on a side note, just wait till 11am. if it's 40 in the morning it will be 70 by noon. hahw

Yeah I am willing to do all that but not before this trip! lol. It is uncanny how these parts all fail around the same milage. I have noticed that from years of reading here and other forums.

 

[Doubeleive]

Found it. Its this thing. I haven't driven it since wednesday. It was wet when I started looking with the flashlight. Dried it off with a rag, immediately wet again under no pressure. Started engine and it ran down in a thin little stream and saw it drip off the bottom. The steering rack is close below it, that's got to be what I saw on there since my PS fluid level hasn't seemed to move lower at all.

Does anyone know what this piece is called/number? The hose goes to one of the heater core in/out. The one on the right hand side looking at the front of the firewall. I wonder if its the plastic piece or the hose. Id assume the plastic piece. Any name or part number that I can start deep diving on finding I'd appreciate it!

View attachment 443761

Those are the heater hoses, you will want to replace both of them and the T's by the looks of things

 

[olliec420]

Those are the heater hoses, you will want to replace both of them and the T's by the looks of things

I replaced the Ts at the firewall a while back, I had accidentally broke them trying to put the vortec cover back on. Im sure there's lots of videos on youtube for all this. Time to go to Youtube University... Thanks!

 

[89Suburban]

I replaced the Ts at the firewall a while back, I had accidentally broke them trying to put the vortec cover back on. Im sure there's lots of videos on youtube for all this. Time to go to Youtube University... Thanks!

This Dorman part comes with a metal Tee for that location on the water pump.

Amazon.com

 

[donjetman]

I replaced the Ts at the firewall a while back, I had accidentally broke them trying to put the vortec cover back on. Im sure there's lots of videos on youtube for all this. Time to go to Youtube University... Thanks!

New heater hose w/metal y fitting, Dorman# 626-553 or NAPA# 827-5730-1

 

[Joseph Garcia]

I am assuming that most/all of your heating/coolant hoses are original, and if this is true, you are ABSOLUTELY living on borrowed time with these hoses, as they deteriorate over time with the engine bay heat. I believe that the date of manufacture is stamped on the hoses, so check them out.

Change them out on your timetable, as opposed to changing them out on their timetable, after a hose failure occurs somewhere on the road.

 

[Gearz]

For the cost I would only use GM OEM heater hoses and T's. I replaced the 2 T's and the molded hoses and will probably never again have another issue. The lack of coolant flushes can help the plastic lines to fail so regular maintenance is key. Even 100K fluid is not designed to go that long so every 50K just dump and fill. I don't wait for things to fail I just replace them according to mileage and time.

 

[olliec420]

For the cost I would only use GM OEM heater hoses and T's. I replaced the 2 T's and the molded hoses and will probably never again have another issue. The lack of coolant flushes can help the plastic lines to fail so regular maintenance is key. Even 100K fluid is not designed to go that long so every 50K just dump and fill. I don't wait for things to fail I just replace them according to mileage and time.

Yeah I hear ya on the OEM but I couldn't wait for shipping. I think I even saw the OEM was less than the dorman, at least at one seller I looked at. Heater return was $58 and the heater inlet was $61 + black T was $25.99, 14.99x3 for oreily's dexcool fluid. It wasn't cheap, I can't image what I would pay a shop to do that. I had to do the white T 2 years ago when I cracked it putting the vortec cover back on wrong.

My coolants new now. I had been slowly toping off for the last 2 years with this slow leak and then now i just put 2.5/4 gal back in after disconnecting the heater hoses. So its almost all fresh now.