I will tell you with the utmost confidence that these break....
Our '86 mercedes 300E left me "over heated" quite a few times but completely
randomly. When a coolant pressure test was done, it was found that the
plastic nipple on the radiator was starting to crack. By the time we made it
to the shop it had burst and it had to be towed one mile. I've seen at least
3 or 4 other '80's mercedes in the shop for the same thing this summer too!
The vanagon Coolant system may not be much better, but it's bad in different
ways. I need new coolant pipes right now because someone at VW didnt think
that "Ok what causes rust on steel.....lets just fill a few feet of steel
pipe with water and put it on an unprotected undercarriage in direct spray
from the rear wheels".

-Craig
'85GL

On Dec 3, 2007 4:52 PM, Allan Streib <streib@cs.indiana.edu> wrote:

> Scott Daniel - Shazam <scottdaniel@TURBOVANS.COM> writes:
>
> [...]
>
> >  Now that is a tough cooling system, and some of those parts are 37
> years
> > old.
> > And they are not plastic either - lol !
>
> Not then, but in the '80s or so Mercedes (Behr actually) started using
> plastic on some of the cooling system.  Main hose nipples on the
> radiator are plastic.  Prone to get brittle and crack or break off
> over the years, some people swear this is accellerated significantly
> by using generic "green" coolant.  Anyone have that experience, here?
>
> Allan
>