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Those hoses are soft because they are 20 years old and about to split. While you have the coolant out replace ALL the hoses, the radiator, and the coolant bottle. Your head gaskets are probably compromised now and will fail in less than 10k. Classic Rover situation.
thought they got brittle when they were starting to fail? Anyway, is it possible to know for sure there’s a head gasket issue? Guess it’s inevitable anyway. If it is a head gasket issue I guess I’ll be doing some major stuff to the engine then.
hindsight being 20/20 I had a heater core leak that probably lead to this situation.
I'd replace all the cooling hoses, especially the plastic tubes that run from the expansion tank to the throttle body heater, and the expansion tank to the radiator. They snap with age.
I replaced that plastic hose with a HPS brand silicone heater hose 6' long x 5/16" ID.
You can sort of see it here...
