Cheap-ass Heater Bleeder Tee Adapter (106786)

[FABombjoy]

Facts:
The OEM aluminum heater tee is known for going bad
The dimensions are too oddball to be easily found (5/8 x 5/16 x 5/8)
Plastic replacements suck
You can find them in stainless for over $50 (!)
You can build them out of plumbing supplies but it makes this piece large and unwieldy
Apparently there is an all-brass version from Midwest but I've never seen a price

So I present the cheapass heater bleeder adapter

Ingredients:
Four Seasons 84706 heater shut-off valve. These can be found at auto parts stores but I paid $8 Amazon Prime
5/16 NPT brass barb hose adapter (in I think 3/8 NPT?)

Directions:
Unscrew valve fitting from adapter body
Pull valve body straight up to remove
Insert barb adapter w/ thread sealant
Install in car
Treat yourself beer and pizza with those fat cash savings

Cheapass-Heater-Bleed-Adapter.jpg

[stevedmc]

Nice. I used that same heater shutoff valve back when I had my 65 Mustang.

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk because I'm too lazy to turn off the mobile signature thingie on my phone.

[Rich_NYS]

Where is this part on the car? I don't recall ever seeing it.

Luke might be making up shit to mess with us....

[FABombjoy]

Luke might be making up shit to mess with us....

Literally put the part number in the title and Internet Guy here can't figure it out

You can see the slave cylinder in the 3rd pic. Its part of the heater hose circuit.

[Rich_NYS]

Literally put the part number in the title ~snip~

Doh! You sure did....I wasn't paying close attention brah....sorry! lol

[FABombjoy]

Haha, just bustin' yer chops.

Part of me wonders if there would be any benefit to building-in a jiggle valve here to the bleeder. A lot of coolant is returned to the overflow tank via the bleed hose.

The RH head has a fairly standard circuit - water pump feeds in to the back, return from the front. The head port is used for the coolant temp gauge.
The LH head port has the heater supply, which is near the water pump feed. The heater supply has a continuous bleed via this Tee fitting. Seems like all of this would diminish the circulation compared to RH.

But, the Y-pipe design should somewhat favor the LH head and may compensate for the distribution difference (straight shot into LH head, 90 degree fork to the RH head). Plus the water pump should be drawing from the return hoses which should help to balance things.

I should have taken Fluid Dynamics.