car 1990 560SEL

I have factory manuals and cannot find this information….

I had a problem with the car over the weekend. Someone (previous owner) had installed a T pipe for flushing. It broke. It was installed on the hose that runs from the driver side rear of the engine block, back to and disappearing into the firewall. Hose looks to be about ¾ “ diameter. It is a formed hose. I had to wrestle a metal pipe (like the ones used for house plumbing into the connection because I was on the road. Car runs fine. Questions are…

1)I would like to replace that whole hose and leave out the T. I put a lot of stress on the sucker wrestling in the metal pipe to get me home. However I fear it connects to the heater core or heat exchanger. Do I have to get at this from inside the car? I hope not as I have heard this job is rough.

2)How many hours of labor will a dealer hit me for to do this if it is indeed rough?

3)Should I just leave the metal pipe in there and forget about it? Or is a metal T made?

4)I think there might be small (T piping is about ¾ diameter and I lost about ½ inch of it) pieces of plastic in the cooling system. It seems unlikely that it went down the hose since the fit is so tight but I am not positive of its whereabouts. It was pitch black. If I am lucky can I suck them out some how? I don’t know which way the water is flowing in this hose. So would the plastic (if it is in there) be in the heater core or engine block. I am just worried that it might restrict water flow and cause overheating. Although it has not yet and I have put 200 miles on.

Thanks in advance,

Jeff


[Edited by jr on 06-09-2001 at 08:44 PM]