Dave951

I'm getting tired of making a huge mess in my garage every time I drain the coolant system. I decided to start looking around for a stopcock that can be installed in place of the plastic drain plug in the radiator. I know for 87' and later cars the plug is M10 x 1.5mm and for 86' and earlier its M10 x 1mm. Problem is I cant seem to find any place that sells plastic drain stopcocks with a metric threaded end. I've checked Mcmaster Carr and a couple of other places with not success. Anyone have any ideas of where to look next?

Mark-87-951

Maybe something like this would work

http://store.summitracing.com/egnsea...115+4294815254

87944turbo

I have drained mine a couple times now and all I do is disconnect the lower radiator hose from the radiator on the passenger side. Just loosen the hose clamp and pull it off with a bucket underneath it. If you do it quickly, there's no mess!

theedge

I looked and looked and looked and couldnt find anything. What im doing is a banjo bolt and fitting, with a hose going to a ball valve. Ill post pics once its ready to go.

Dave951

I found a 2-way micro stopcock at Bohlender Chemical Supply, except its M8 not M10. If I can find an adapter to step up to M10 I'll be in business.

http://www.bola.de/E/Produkte/0F00055B.html

IanS

I'd like something like this. I just broke my drain plug two days ago putting it back in.

I had a big bucket, so the mess wasn't that bad, but I was doing it outside.

KuHL 951

In all honesty disconnecting the lower hose is fast and does something a petcock can't do. It drains the system fast enough to bring any sediments out that tend to plate out when drained slow. A small matter yes, but if you are draining the system for coolant exchange or after a cleaning flushing it does matter to get the crud out quickly.

Dave951

Agreed... however for me 90% of the time I'm dumping coolant because procedure calls for it and not because my coolant actually needed to be changed.

hosrom_951

Ditto

ibkevin

^^^ Steve is dead on, an dyou don't run the risk of breaking the plastic plug.

Buckaroo Banzi

I found a stalinless steel plug for a 951 radiator at my local ACE HARDWARE.
Walked in with my core and matched up the treads tried it and it worked for me
no leaks....

KuHL 951

Stainless steel and aluminum isn't a good combo...a non-metallic plug if you can find it would be a much better choice. I hope you glopped up the threads real well with sealant before that aluminum starts corroding.

Dave951

Agreed... once again. I found a nice brass valve however I'm still aiming for something plastic. Mostly because the threads on the radiator are notoriously weak and to ensure there would be no adverse reactions from the disimilar metals.

Musche

Just a word of caution...remember metal/brass fittings expand at different rates that the plastic side tanks. I had replaced the plastic hose barb at the top part of the radiator with a brass one thinking it was better since the plastic one tends to crack. Ended up replacing the radiator after a few weeks since the plastic tank developed a crack at this fitting. Learned the hard way.