Do a google search for a Ford dealer in Michigan who has a very extensive on-line parts website and inventory. The name of the dealer is Royal Oak Ford in Royal Oak, MI.

I do not have their website handy right now as I am on my lap top traveling and on a flight at 30,000 feet surfing the internet (how cool is that)!!!

Royal Oak Ford sells parts at or below most dealers "fleet pricing" and I always print off their website pricing and then go to my local dealer and ask them to match it... and they do!!! This way I get the part now, it's a Motorcraft part... and I do not have to pay shipping or wait for it.

Give it a try and check them out... even call them and get a price and part number over the phone... but my local Ford dealer has NEVER given me a hard time when I asked (you just have to ask)... as I am comparing "apples to apples"... another Ford delaer selling Ford parts... veruss they're trying to sell me a part at "full retail"... com-on guys.... and they will reduce their price... if not, finid another dealer or order from Royal Oak Ford.

The internet has placed the "power" into the hands of the people!!!!

Good luck,

Cool http://www.fordpartswebsite.com/

not trying to be a jerk, the tee is called a 1x1x1/2 pex tee. That is how it is read in plumbing talk. a 1x1/2x1 would have the out let side as 1" and the top 1/2. just so every one knows. so make sure you ask for a 1''x1''x 1/2" pex tee so you get the right one.

I was going to mention that factoid ,, I was pulling fittings when I was 17 I know more plumbing terms for fittings of all kinds than I can forget in a lifetime lol

then I had the misfortune to turd heard for years after that

I don't miss it,, my venture wasn't very fun but I did learn allot between running gas,waste,drains,water, grease traps ,interceptors, condensate ,ABS, Cast ,copper ,galvy,black ,pex never , ETC

and don't need a plumber for anything now

but god love the profession

Thanks for the correction, I guess I was just looking for the right tee visually - the actual terminology didn't seem all that crucial ..........

(but it is good to know)

Anyone know if the same tee is used on the 6.4?

Thanks Bismic, sorry to keep beating on this. I looked on Lowe's website and found a Vanguard 1" x 1" x 1/2" Brass Crimp Tee.

Is that the samething you used, the only reason I am questioning it is it says "CRIMP" tee..just want to make sure I am getting the correct piece.

Thanks

Should be this one:
Shop Vanguard 1" x 1" x 1/2" Brass Crimp Tee at Lowes.com

They have an incorrect image, but the description is correct. PEX fittings are crimp assembled.

You are right the image is incorrect looks like 1/2"x1/2"x1"

What size fittings are you all using when building a tee? I cant seem to find the 1 piece pex fittings anywhere.

I tried to tap the aluminum part with a 1/8 npt and hose barb but it leaks through the threads, even with teflon tape, dont think the aluminum is thick enough to get enough threads to make a good seal.. Now im stuck...

Judging from the picture in the opening post, there should be plenty of wall thickness to tap 1/8 NPT. Do you think you went a little too deep with the tap?

Anyway, the hose sizes are 3/4 and 3/8, so those are the barb fittings you would need. I think there is a pic above of the dfuser assembly which should help.

Lowe's Has them. That's where I purchased mine 6.48
Shop Vanguard 1" x 1" x 1/2" Brass Crimp Tee at Lowes.com

Thanks for the info.. Not sure whats going on but I didnt run the tap very deep at all, I wanted to keep the end of the nipple from restricting. Its not leaking a lot... but it's leaking.

I went to 2 local lowes and none of them had that size...

ace hardware had them for me when lowes and HD did not

Bump for the new guy who just did an install

i have had my dieselsite coolant system for almost 4 years now, guess i better check my cheap pressed aluminum tee also.

So switching to the brass Tee is like doing a mod on a mod. That's worth extra points. :)

That looks better than a bunch of cobbled up, threaded brass.

I changed mine to the brass PEX T the other day. Just drained some coolant from the radiator and nothing leaked out. The T looked fine after 10K miles, I just did it for peace of mind.

I posted a question to dieselsite about the T they supply with the kit. Their response to me was that this is not a problem.

Has anyone received a response different from the response I received?

-mike

I bet the failure rate is very very low and wont be a problem. After saying that, I would say there is a better fitting. Just go buy the brass Pex one that has been discussed. I think the Dieselsite kit is fine the way it is and could be made better with the Pex T-fitting. I would tend to beleive when they exhaust there current fittings thay go to a new fitting.

Ha Ha HA that's hilarious! Were they hoping the Jedi mind trick would work on you. 'Move along, nothing to see here, you wont have a problem.'

Look, they admitted to having had reports of failures (look back in this thread) and I think we can all agree that many people simply fix the problem on their own without contacting them for a replacement so the rate of failure is undoubtedly higher than their reports state. So they have a problem with the fitting they know about and haven't taken steps to fix it, instead they say that the failure rate is low and leave it at that. Now having said that, I would still recommend you get the kit but once you get the T-fitting simply drill and tap (I put the info in my first post here) and put in a brass barb. I didn't have a problem with mine until I did.

It is always nice to see the OEM come on and speak to the crowd, or should I say "mob" here, and express a willingness to address the issue.

IMHO, plastic components are grossly under-rated and misunderstood.

Not all plastic is the same --- and hence the problem that people cannot tell a good from a bad plastic part.

The fact is, look under the hood, and you find many critical cooling system parts made of.... plastic.

From the degas tank (nylon), to the rad to components like the rad cap, there are plastic connectors reliably used without much trouble for at least 10 years, and often much more.

The point is, these are plastic components that are carefully designed, and made with high QC standards and quality plastic resins.

The problem is, to an untrained eye (and those not equipped with testing and validation facilitates), a quality part is often indistinguishable from a look-a-like.

In fact, an identical part made with a slightly "off base" plastic resin, or just improperly molded even with the proper resins --- can fail prematurely.

The auto industry know this --- and those who are outside of the business will be astonished at how much work goes in managing suppliers to make what appear to be relatively simple plastic components --- let alone safety and mission critical parts like cooling system components.


The bottom line --- don't expect such quality when you buy plastic parts at "Joe's jobber".

You can get quality plastic parts easily if they are certified (with the proper stamp) for interior / exterior plumbing use --- as those parts are rigorously tested and validated.

No one wants to / can afford to risk an expensive plumbing failure --- as happened with plastic plumbing components in years past.

Like anything else --- your security comes from buying in high volume / specialized shops that sell to the trade mostly --- or from reputable retailers like Home Depot and Lowes.

But since we are taking a common plumbing part and using it for not its intended purpose (automotive) there is a certain amount of risk taking.

I have yet to meet someone who is prepared to go to the specialized suppliers of plastic automotive grade components and buy those parts themselves --- rather than to just show up at a Ford dealer parts counter.


If you are not prepared to do that, then quality metal parts (like PEX) that is vastly over-engineered for our application, may be your best bet.

It is commonly available, and moderate in price at retail.

That, of course, is a different story when it comes to an OEM who is trying to build a kit (e.g. Dieselite) to a price point.

Their 2 piece part probably cost less to make than PEX's one piece part, and for that --- a small price to pay is a very rare failure once they got past the initial run.

The reality is, a 2 piece part, however made, have a finite risk of coming apart --- whether it is press fit, or tapped / screwed in. A much better solution is a one piece cast / molded / part, given proper installation (and not a large amount of stress from the hoses).

However you put it, the 2 piece part, including the "tapped" fixes here, can and will occasionally fail --- whether from an improper press fit / tolerance or, alternatively, from stresses during or after installation. When you have as many expansion / contraction cycles as this part does, I feel a tad quesy about a home made part with a tapped threaded coupling.

What if these rare failures happened?

Problem is, to the person for whom the part failed, the "rare" event may not be so pleasant --- and with coolant all over the place and a vehicle out of operation, it is understandable that the person will not wait for the OEM to come with a fix, but come up with one with what is at hand.

Is it fair for the OEM to expect such a person to wait even 24 hours for a rush Fedex shipment of parts? Perhaps.... but when there are ready alternatives... and when you are dealing with a customer base that is by their nature, handy, technically inclined, and loves to wrench... maybe not.

In all fairness to Dieselite, now that this issue has been "ventilated", lets have everyone do an occasional inspection of the part --- e.g. at every oil change interval --- and see if there are any more problems out there.

In the absence of evidence to the contrary, lets take their word that the failure is very rare.

Where did the Plastic come from? Maybe you ment to quote someone else on that.

Yes, let me add his stuff...

Fella who did the DIY, etc.

Dieselite is a sponsor of this site --- and IMHO, they were responsive, honest and fair in their response.

To me, that is the mark of a quality vendor and a supplier that I would enjoy working with.

Bump for the new guy...

While actual product quality is of the utmost importance, sometimes customer perception makes a manufacturer take notice and make a change for that reason alone, which we did. We ordered the PEX tee that some spoke of and since it wasn’t even close to the right size (you would have to heat the hose to get it soft enough to install), we started manufacturing all of our coolant filter tees with threaded connections. It cost us a few bucks more, but not only will it eliminate any post like this again, it will surely make the customer feel more comfortable with the products we create.

All tees since about a week after I posted last on this thread are a threaded unit. While there have been very few problems thoughout the years, there have been none since the introduction of the new tee. For those with the older units, you can rest assure that in tens of thousands of tees built, we had very few that we had a problem with.

I’m more than happy to finally put all of this to rest.

Bob

https://www.dieselsite.com/avatarssi...naturelogo.gif]

That's great news, thanks for the update.

That's awesome. I'm glad you guys did that as it will undoubtedly save a lot of headaches and it's nice to see a company responding to issues as well. :-X22:-X22

Thats great news, I found this thread after ordering one this morning!

I just put my kit on last week with the old style t. It seems to me desilesite is responsive to the needs of their customers. If I have a problem I'll change it out, sometimes parts fail. I'm glad to have their product on my ride. I thought about changing the t but decided to stay with the kit as is.

I know this comment is late but might help someone in the future. You can always purchase UV Coolant dye that would give you an extra failsafe to check when doing regular maintenance. The UV dye that i purchased from ford does not void your warranty and it also is detectable with my regular ol shop light. Granted it shows up a lot better with a blacklight or UV light...

If you got your kit last week then you have the new tee. The new tees are in just about every system that went out in 2011. They've been out that long. They look identical to the press fit tee as the only difference is that the two pieces are now threaded together. It is a fine thread and it is buried. So the outward appearance is visually identical. Any systems ordered after January 15th or so will have the threaded tee.

Bob

https://www.dieselsite.com/avatarssi...naturelogo.gif

That's why you go with the SINISTER coolant filter set-up. It also has the shut-off valves as part of the purchase package.

That's why i chose the sinister setup. It included the ball valves, being anodized didnt hurt, copper small tee and the bigger alum tee is threaded. At 125 shipped, it was a lot cheaper. I havn't installed it yet but I also heard that the mounting bracket is more sturdy. It's really thick metal. It also came pre-assembled, ready to install...

You can add the ball valves to the dieselsite unit. They are right on their website, sold as an add-on, but there nonetheless.

Now that you brought up the Sinister coolant filter, I would like to post some of my thoughts about it.
First thing that struck me was the cheap look to the hoses. The ends of them are crimped on to the fittings. If you have a failure with that unit, you must recreate both the hose and the fitting. Would the manufacturer stand behind the product? My guess would be yes, but, does that help you on the side of a highway on a Sunday evening at 11:00pm with the wife and 2 kids in the truck? Hardly.

The mounting for the dieselsite unit is plenty sturdy if you properly install it. Do it wrong and it is not, simple as that. The directions are quite clear with the dieselsite unit.
I don't see cutting a hose to length, inserting a couple of fittings into existing lines and hanging that bracket difficult, but if that is to you, get the other "pre-assembled" piece. They both have the "bling" factor of the filterhead being polished aluminum, with sinister being blue anodized.

I, for one, applaud Bob at dieselsite for improving a product that, in my mind, did not need it due to the very low number of failures.
Seriously guys, how many of you would have had this failure and not say something, either on this forum, or to the manufacturer directly. I dare say none.

Could any of us name a single part that hasn't had failures, be it a stock one or a "mod"? Doubtful.

He already said they have received complaints about this exact failure so it's not "none" as you said, it's 'some'...

Perhaps you mis-read what I said?
I asked how many had failed and went unreported either on this forum, a different forum, or by contacting dieselsite....

LOL, my bad :-X18! When you read a thousand pages from bland law school texts a day one tends to :-X17 at the helm.

I realize you can add them on the $129 DS setup I think for $18 extra but at 125 shipped for the Sinister with ball valves, its hard to beat in my opinion. I didn't mean to ruffle any feathers, I was just stating why I made the choice to go with the Sinister setup vs the DieselSite. I actually ordered the DS setup from someone else but that didn't work out so well and by the time I realized that they were not going to ship out the DS setup, it went up another $10 + shipping.

I'm not a huge fan of the crimp'd fittings also but if you look under the hood, I think you will find quite a few of them. I know that they are all over my backhoe where there under a lot more psi. I don't think it would be that tough to take a dremel cutoff wheel and score the crimp'd fittings, remove them and replace with hose clamps. As far as the hose goes, it has a silicone feel to it and if i remember correctly those are more $$ than the standard heater hose but I could be completely wrong about that, as I don't mess with heater hose's often...

I didn't realize the kit was pre-assembled before I ordered it but it was a nice surprise, as long as there are not any leaks.