[V8] Disappearing coolant line

[Dave Saad]

Not to worry!! at least not yet...

You need to remove the coolant pipe/manifold thingy on the back of  
the motor. You will want to get two new "O" rings and which ever  
hoses you need to replace. Hope the two heater hoses are not bad -  
they are expensive and not fun to replace. Be gentle with them. The  
short piece you are describing is just a piece of straight hose.
And - do not remove the mount screw for the pipe that goes to the  
front of the motor. If you wiggle it loose you will need to remove  
the intake manifold to fix it. That will suck.

btw, this disappearing pipe is the thermostat bypass line I believe.  
It attaches behind the thermostat.


Dave


On Sep 21, 2007, at 6:29 PM, Mark Kalbskopf wrote:

> I'd been losing coolant very slowly and needed to top up every month
> or so with no apparent leak, but Wednesday it started coming out
> quite fast.
> So as I needed to the steering damper anyway, I started dismantling.
>
> Examining the back of the engine, I see that it was coming from a
> very short hose (about 3" long) underneath the airfilter box. This
> hose  joins 2 metal pipes that go to the heater, the expansion tank
> and the other side of the engine.
> The hose is a real pain to get at but here's the strange voodoo part
> that I'm worried about.
> On the engine side, the hose connects to a steal pipe that disappears
> under the inlet manifold and ends up hidden somewhere near the front
> of the engine.
> This whole pipe comes loose, (at least it does if you take off the
> two bolts that attach it to the block. Probably a bad move I know!)
> Of course you can't take it out. It's way too long. But what on earth
> does it go into at the other end? Or, more to the point, how on earth
> does it make a water tight seal if I'm just pushing it back in, kinda
> blind?
>
> Where's the coolant expert?  Don't say I have to disassemble the
> front of the engine too?
>
> Mark.
>
> PS. You know, if the engine was out of the car, all this nonsense
> would be so easy!!!
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