Catalina 387 heater hose leak

TomGo

.
Jun 17, 2018
3
Catalina 387 Mystic
New 387 owner. Loosing engine antifreeze into the bilge. Isolated the leak to a plastic T fitting between the engine and the water heater. The T fitting is hose clamped on each side to to a heater hose and has a valve on the 3rd side. I assumed that the valve is for bypassing the water heater if necessary, but there is only a shutoff on one of the 2 hoses. Questions - what is the purpose of the shut-off valve? Do I need it? If so, should I replace the plastic parts with Home Depot brass parts? If no, should I replace the entire hose or just add a splice?

Thanks
 

TomGo

.
Jun 17, 2018
3
Catalina 387 Mystic
Upon second thought, this is not a shut-off valve but a petcock. Perhaps a means to rid the system of air. Is this a factory installed item? I doubt it. Do I need it? How do you all burp your fresh water cooling systems? I built a kit Cobra and the rad was at such a low angle that I had to squeeze the rad hose to burp then keep adding anti-freeze a little bit at a time. Looks like I can do that on the boat as well.. See pic.
 

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jviss

.
Feb 5, 2004
6,745
Tartan 3800 20 Westport, MA
Upon second thought, this is not a shut-off valve but a petcock. Perhaps a means to rid the system of air. Is this a factory installed item? I doubt it. Do I need it? How do you all burp your fresh water cooling systems? I built a kit Cobra and the rad was at such a low angle that I had to squeeze the rad hose to burp then keep adding anti-freeze a little bit at a time. Looks like I can do that on the boat as well.. See pic.
Oh, boy, I hate that plastic plumbing! Oh well, my boat has some, too.
 
May 20, 2016
3,014
Catalina 36 MK1 94 Everett, WA
Oh, boy, I hate that plastic plumbing! Oh well, my boat has some, too.
The nylon is ok as long as it is out of the sun. I have water fittings that look like new but are 35yrs old.
I hate those butterfly valves, I always end up breaking the wings off the things. Much prefer a ball valve even with the added weight.

Les
 

TomGo

.
Jun 17, 2018
3
Catalina 387 Mystic
Thanks for the responses.

Catalina said that the boat did not come with this mod and it is not needed.
 
May 20, 2016
3,014
Catalina 36 MK1 94 Everett, WA
You might want to read the C34.org website on burping before you remove it.

Les
 

MitchM

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Jan 20, 2005
1,009
Nauticat 321 pilothouse 32 Erie PA
leaking engine antifreeze at this white plastic connection may make your engine run hot . so this plastic fitting needs to be replaced with brass ASAP. when you do that you may lose antifreeze out of the engine -to - hwh hose. have a helper ready to hold this hose and close it off ( harbor frieght carries a nice set of u shaped threaded hose shut off clamps. ) have helper hold hose as high up as possible to minimize antifreeze loss as you undo that plastic connection. ( you may also lose antifreeze from the heater coil antifreeze out put line .) if you install an air bleed valve in the antifreeze input line, have the valve pointing 'up' not off to the side. then you can add antifreeze by gravity with a funnel and hose. running your engine with an air lock in the engine to hwh tank is not good. when i changed out both of my engine to hwh hoses i decided to change out all the antifreeze in the system with fresh, since i was going to lose a lot in the heater hose replacement process any how. (i had to replace my heater hoses at 5 years, because there was inadequate anti chafe on the heater feed hoses from the engine block, which caused pinhole leaks in the hoses detectable as a loss of antifreeze only at high engine rpms and operating temps ...( this issue was detectable only by using a STANT tester....)