turbo coolant hose under the PS pump [now heater valve]

[Kenneth Keith]

Hi List,

I replaced the turbo coolant pipe delivery hose, from the water
manifold.  I ended up moving the pump out of the way, and unbracketing
the PS reservoir with the hoses connected to give me some more slack. 
I was able to change the hose without removing much else aside from
some coolant hoses.  While I was in there, I replaced accessory belts
and the expansion tank.

Then I go for a test drive, and aside from my low, WG spring-only,
boost issue that I have to get into again, it ran normal.  That is
until I pulled into the Wal-Mart parking lot and saw a combination of
smoke and steam wafting from under the hood.  I popped the hood and my
whole motor was burning off the oily residue from the valve cover and
basically the whole motor.  It was hot!

I notice that my expansion tank is bone dry, and then I notice the
heater valve has broken and the afterrun pump and coolant pressure is
spraying coolant between the motor and firewall.  Crap.  I run a
couple gallons of water from the trunk through the expansion tank, and
then let it cool off (well, "warm off" would be a more appropriate
term, since it was over 110f that day it seems) for the rest of the
evening.

What apparently happened was that everything was fine until I turned
off the car, when the heat soak increased the cooling system pressure
past the point that the valve could hang with.  I thought I might have
driven it without coolant, but the way it all happened, it didn't dump
the coolant until I was parked.  The valve was very brittle when I
removed it, the pipe portion broke off the cone-shaped part that was
crimped or sealed or whatever to the other side.  It actually split at
the crimp, and then broke during removal.  Very fragile stuff it was.

I returned with a spare used heater valve, put it on with no issues
thanks to my trusty 1/4" drive ratchet and 6mm socket instead of flat
blade screwdriver on the hose clamps, which I had used just earlier
that day.  Topped off the coolant, started it and didn't notice any
problems so I drove it home.  No apparent issues.

The same failure happened back in the day on my '88 5kcstq.  Now I
need a new heater valve.  There is an all-metal one that I found at
Napa, here:

http://www.napaonline.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/ExecMacro/NAPAonline/search_results_product_detail.d2w/report?prrfnbr=15568088&prmenbr=5806&usrcommgrpid=62950594
.

That one doesn't have what appears to be a water temperature sensor in
it, which my originals had.  I do like the all-metal construction of
that Napa piece, but do I need to get the factory plastic one with the
temp sensor in it?

Thanks,

Ken

On 8/26/05, Taka Mizutani <t44tqtro at gmail.com> wrote:
> Ken-
> The easiest way is to remove the timing belt cover and water pump, it
> is easily accessible that way.
> 
> Taka
> 

> On 8/25/05, Kenneth Keith <auditude at gmail.com> wrote:
> > Hi,
> >
> > What's the best way to gain access to replace the small rubber coolant
> > hose that goes from the coolant manifold and the delivery pipe to the
> > turbo that wraps around the front of the head?  This is the little
> > hose that is basically under the power steering pump.
> >
> > Mine has a big leak so I need to swap it out.  It looks like there may
> > be more than one way to get to it, altho' it may be that the whole
> > area needs to be opened up.>