PT Rod in the Shop...and Guess What I Found?

[JOEM]

On last Thursday evening I was tooling around Dayton in the PT Rod, scaring small children and Soccer Moms, when the temperature gauge suddenly zoomed to "Hotter 'n' Hades" and the engine temp diode blinked and dinged. Holy Cow! So I immediately panicked and then recalled an trick the old man taught me (the one besides making noises with your armpit)--I turned on the heater full blast and that lowered the temp enough to nurse the PT Rod home.

I drove it to the dealer the next morning, and found out that my expensive chrome heater hoses had failed and were leaking fluid worse than my legs do. So I had regular heater hose put in their place and that solved the overheating problem but also nipped the old pocketbook a cool $222.00.

Anyway, while I was at the dealer, the service manager (thankfully, old Burr Head, the one that almost got my Good Hood/PROH hood ruined before, was gone) and I talked PTs. He agreed with me that DC should build a panel Cruiser forthwith and mentuoned that they had a cool panel conversion for sale over at their used car outlet next door. I puffed on over there (bad ticker kicking in again) and peered through the window--yep they had a panel Cruiser all right and guess what--it's Race and Street's cool supercharged Panel Cruiser, the one they recently sold on eBay. So, my dealership evidently bought it and has it for sale. Small world, huh?

So, the morale is, some mods will bite you in the butt and DC should build a panel Cruiser and my chrome radiator hose will probably go next.

[at58]

Yes it is a smal world

[Marc]

Thanks for the tip JOEM.
Next time I run into the temperature gauge saying that the engine is overheating, I'll turn my Heater Full Tilt.
It hasn't happened yet, but it's good to know....

[Matt]

That heater on full blast has saved me a couple times.

Tough break on the heater hoses.

[GregsPT]

I don't agree with the heater on full blast deal. The best thing IMHO is to shut the engine off and let it cool down and then add water.If that doesn't get you home or the dealer TOW IT. The heater bit might work but overheating may cause permanent damage Just my 2 cents

[2_2COOL]

I had to borrow my dad's Escort ( gag) a few years ago when one car croaked & , at the same time, the other was in collision repair. OHMYGAWD! I had to drive that blasted thing EVERYWHERE with the heater on full blast!! NOT VERY FUN!!!!!I lived in central CA at the time ( Los Banos, CA) where the temps reg. hit 112 degrees F. Talk about HATING a car with a vengance!!! LOL
Anyway, I sincerely feel for you in losing the chrome hoses, but I'm glad you passed along the info & could maybe help someone else out before they face potential engine damage & the loss of quite a bit of $$ too!!!
Hope your PT remains A-ok!

( Cool thing about the Panel too.......too bad you didn't need a second PT, eh?? )

[Rockin Cruiser]

Good to hear it was just the chrome radiator hose and not the radiator itself.

Hey I will have to keep that tip in my head about turning on the heat

[joseph szostek jr]

I just figured those flames caused it to overheat?! LOL

[BULLY]

Glad to hear that your PT survived the whole ordeal! (And you too! .........BTW.......if you ever need mouth to mouth rescue, I'm here for ya! )

Joem! WHERE do you get all of the Roger Ramjet graphics..........as you know, I am also a fan!

[JOEM]

Originally posted by BULLY
Glad to hear that your PT survived the whole ordeal! (And you too! .........BTW.......if you ever need mouth to mouth rescue, I'm here for ya!
Joem! WHERE do you get all of the Roger Ramjet graphics..........as you know, I am also a fan!

Thanks, Bully. I'll definitely keep that in mind!

Lots of great Roger Ramjet stuff here. Do you have the two RR DVDs? They're great!

Funny thing about the chrome heater hoses. I didn't even realize until I had 'em installed that the darn hoses were positioned so far under the Cruiser that you could hardly see 'em! So few folks noticed the chrome hoses and their loss really doesn't detract from the PT Rod's engine bay appearance. Which is good, I guess, in kind of a twisted way.