Grrr... it just never ends.

[jsneddon]

Some friends were over this weekend and their daughter and friend wanted a ride in the TR3. Far be it for me to deny giving kids a quick spin around the neighborhood. So with 3 kids and myself crammed in we go running up and down a few hills around the house and suddenly every time I romp on the throttle I get a stream of scalding coolant on my right foot.

One more ugly set of hoses I've been ignoring. I just hope I didn't split the core.

Oh well. We had fun for about 10 minutes at least before I had to drag it back home. At least I didn't have to make 'em walk. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif And I think they were almost as surprised as me when I chirped the tires downshifting into first when I came up on the driveway. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[Alan_Myers]

Ouch! Bummer.

At least you can just plug the fittings on the water pump and head, if you wish, and easily keep the car on the road throughout the summer and take the heater out to work on at your leisure. (Not that a TR heater does a great deal of good in the winter, anyway.)

The outlet on the water pump and the return on the back of the head are standard tapered pipe thread fittings, plugs for which are available cheap from just about any hardware store. (Might actually be British pipe thread, I dunno, but that's close enough so that US tapered pipe thread works fine with a little Locktite Thread Sealant on it.)

 

[PeterK]

Alan's right - take it out and work at your leisure. But much easier than buying plugs is to run a section of heater hose from the driver's side water outlet to the pipe on the heater shut-off valve valve. This will loop the coolant around until you get yours fixed. Think you need 1/2 heater hose from the auto parts store.

 

[MGTF1250Dave]

Aloha Jim,

The plugs Alan mentioned are 1/2" NPT, the same as the gearbox and rear end drain plugs. They are readily available in iron or brass at most home centers.

Safety Fast,
Dave

 

[sammyb]

My first TR3 had the "loop solution." Considering I've never used a TR3 heater in any of the three TR3s I've owned, it's a great way to go. (I turned on the heater in my primary TR3 once and the fan bearing in the heater made an awful noise and it emitted a burning smell, so I turned it off!)

 

[jsneddon]

Apart from warming my bare shins on a cool summer evening the heater never really did anything for me anyway... and I drove it every day in the midwest without a top through two winters.

If the core is shot I'm just going to pull it and do the bypass... It might just be the original ribbed hose split but I haven't dug into it yet. There were guests to entertain after the hot glycol treatment and even a cretin like me decided to let the wrenchin' wait. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

and yes... I know... rust blah blah blah... I pulled the mats and threw a towel around but my floorboards up in that area are more DPO fiberglass than rust at this point anyway. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif