This stuff comes in many flavors; i.e. temp range, chemical imperviability, pressure range.
You have to make sure you buy the correct stuff for your application.
I hope you don't have IP troubles; you caught it fast.

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Think Alternative Energy!
300CD '80 (now gone but not forgotten...)

the POLYETHELENE hose melted....

the HIH is about 20 feet total lenght. the "return" heater hose has a fuel line as well. I used a "Y" adapter for the fuel supply line and ran parallel HIH fuel supply lines from the tank to the engine. One HIH line starts at the engine and goes back to the tank, & the other HIH line returns the coolant back to the water pump. That way I didn't "waste" the coolant returning to the engine and doubled my fuel heating. Each fuel line should flow 1/2 as fast but absorb twice the heat.

anyway....

I pulled the HIH assembly apart last night...the poly hose as the coolant inlet was total melted. It had gotten so hot that as it melted, the suction from the lift pump collapsed the poly hose and it began to get sucked into the brass hose barb it was attached too. This had the effect of mostly blocking that side of the parallel fuel lines and preventing even more water from getting into the fuel. Thus I was able to drive for about 2 days with the HIH system before the water level in the fuel reached critical levels and shut the engine down.

The return HIH hose obviously is not as hot as the supply one. The poly hose in that one was noticably discolored from the heat, but had not failed...yet. So it was supplying all the fuel after failure and the melted side was trickling in water.

I'll try to post some pictures tomorrow.

It was ugly.

I drained the tank and will be flushing it with RUG today and then let it dry out.

I'll be rebuilding my HIH, but with copper or something else.

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1987 300TDT
1981 VW MKI Caddy 1.6 diesel, waiting on engine swap
1983 D-50 Power Ram 4x4 "Mitsubishi" 2.3 turbo diesel
assorted gas powered crap and motorcycles

RIP: 1984 300TDT, 1982 300TDT, 1984 190D 2.2, 1992 300D 2.5, 1987 300TDT, 1982 Maxima LD28, 1983 Maxima LD28, Isuzu C223 P'ups X3, 1983 Holiday Rambler 6.2 Banks turbo diesel, 1984 Winnebago LeSharo 2.1 TD, 1985 Allegro 6.5

I will again reccomend HOH. If you look at the conversion companies products (Greasel etc) I think you will find none of them use HIH anymore either. Especially since you are dealing with a 300D. These buggers love vege and there are known to be ones on the road overseas that run pure oil with no conversion at all.

Use the hose on hose just to help the fuel flow from the tank. Honestly you may not even need that If corpus cristy is a warm TX climate and you dont venture far from it. Do a final heating of the oil to the temp needed for better combustion up in the engine compartment via a home made or commercial coolant/fuel heat exchanger or a 12v one orrr?.

For more information a discussion on this conversion is going on over at Maui Green SVO Forum

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"Know other lessons I need to learn? TELL me. Tired of learning'em the hard way".

Glow Plug Wait: [i} Time of silence in homage Rudolph Diesel. Longer you own a diesel. more honor you give". [/i]

Life; SNAFU Situation Normal All Fouled Up, & FUBAR: Fouled Up Beyond All Repair

-Now: Snafued Jeep TJ w/OM617 2Be daily driver & building SS M1079 w/Ambo boxed /live in Adv. Truck, Diesel KLR conversion
-Sold 62 UNIMOG Camper w/617 Turbo, 85 300SD

Ya, I never liked HIH. Too much opportunity for failure, and failure here is catastrophic. Coachgeo has it right, HOH is the way to go. Combine that with Dana's Hotrod heated fuel pickup, and you will never have coolant troubles again.

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Think Alternative Energy!
300CD '80 (now gone but not forgotten...)