Radiator Hose

I changed a top hose on my Cummins once on the road when I could get no one to fix it.....Took me all day to fix a 6in long hose. It blew on Sat and I had someone come get me and I went back Monday after everything cooled down and attacked it. No wonder no one would come fix it. Awful job and dirty to.

If your going to replace the lower then replace the upper. rubber rots from the inside out,why take a chance.that way you can drain all the antifreeze,save it, replace the hoses, then put the antifreeze back in run to test for leaks, let cool then top off with new.

I'm not familiar with Cat Diesel engines. However, when its coming out slowly it's pulling antifreeze from all the nooks and crannies. Removing the lower radiator hose to empty the system will probably make a large mess. Be sure to use only the antifreeze recommended for your actual engine. Do not use a universal substitute.

I replaced the upper and lower radiator hoses in my 98 Tradewinds with Cat 3126 engine. It is on a Freightliner chassis, so don't know if its the same as yours, but mine had a total of 6 rubber elbows to be replaced. The upper and lower hoses are metal with a rubber elbow at each end, and there is a 3rd hose crossing from left to right under the engine that also has a rubber elbow at each end. Got all 6 radiator elbows from Freightliner. They were no more difficult to remove than car radiator hoses. A little tight getting a wrench on one or two of them. Check your owner's manual on the refill procedure - you don't want to create an air bubble in the heater hose lines when refilling the system.

K&M

I changed the hoses on my 2000 model, and my experience was like what K & M just posted.

Be prepared to get wet when you pull that lower radiator hose.

There is an excellent writeup on how to change the coolant on the Cat 3126/C7 by Brent Wolfe (Wolfe10 on this forum). The writeup can be found in the thread linked below...just scroll down to the third post by Wolfe10.
coolant change thread

Fred