Help please: Easiest way to remove the heater tees

[AFei]

Hello friends,

TL;DR: What is the easiest way to remove the heater tees for replace?

For a short person, I had to sit in the engine bay to try to remove the infamous plastic tees, which was so efficient to stop a "non-stoppable" "tank" and caused/is causing/will cause thousands of dollars damage. And only found this easiest task on the earth was so painful in the butt, and couldn't remove any of them.

My plan is to replace this "high quality" OE plastic tees with a "cheaply but beautifully made by 3rd world" stainless steal tees, which cost only 1/4.

Please forgive me not be able to find the answers through my own effort. I know there are hundreds of threads for this loving topic. I went through lots of them over the time, and still found it's so challenging when finally got my hands dirty to practice.

 

[Sacedog]

Replace the hoses at the same time, and use a razor blade to cut the old hoses off. This maintenance is one of the hardest "easy" tasks you will do on the LC.

 

[medtro]

Put the clamps back, run the engine up to normal operating temperature. Stop the engine, remove clamps, twist the hose ends slightly. That should break them loose.

 

[AFei]

Replace the hoses at the same time, and use a razor blade to cut the old hoses off. This maintenance is one of the hardest "easy" tasks you will do on the LC.

Thought about it, and may take this approach if can find the new hoses in a reasonable price. OE hoses are just too expensive...

 

[AFei]

Put the clamps back, run the engine up to normal operating temperature. Stop the engine, remove clamps, twist the hose ends slightly. That should break them loose.

So let the heat to expand the hoses a little bit to make it easier? Will definitely try it tonight.

Actually, I was thinking to remove the clamps, and then run the engine to let the pressure to push the hose leaking to remove it. I had drained/filled with distilled water 5 times already, and it's pretty much just water in the system. Is it safe to do so or better not?

 

[BullElk]

Do you know the exact size of the steel Ts? Where did you get them?

 

[AFei]

Do you know the exact size of the steel Ts? Where did you get them?

17mm OD x2 and 14mm OD.

Mine was purchased within the 3rd world. You can find similar on AliExpress, eBay etc. However YMMV.

 

[medtro]

So let the heat to expand the hoses a little bit to make it easier? Will definitely try it tonight.

Actually, I was thinking to remove the clamps, and then run the engine to let the pressure to push the hose leaking to remove it. I had drained/filled with distilled water 5 times already, and it's pretty much just water in the system. Is it safe to do so or better not?

I would not recommend anything that is not safe. Do at your own risk. I don't want to be responsible for your injury.

 

[medtro]

Hose removal tools.

 

[donco]

For stuck hoses, I grip and twist them near where the clamp was with either regular pliers or channel-locks, then pry between the fitting flange and hose end with a screwdriver, to open up enough gap to get the expanding pliers to slide the hose off.

Edit: my old plastic heater tee's disintegrated and was a bit of a chore to get the broken pieces out of the hoses. Again, expanding pliers to the rescue.

 

[Trunk Monkey]

DIY: Replacing heater hose pipe T's *important*

Today I replaced my Pipe T's for the heater hoses. This should be included in your 90k service, but most shops (even Toyota) usually don't do it. If your service was done at Slee, they are one of the few that do it. That should tell you something. It could leave you stranded and overheating...

forum.ih8mud.com

 

[rexington14]

Man, first you installed the eBay radiator and now metal heater tees from the 3rd world along with aftermarket hoses.

You are playing with fire.

I have a feeling your next post is going to be letting us all know you overheated and have a blown head gasket. I hope I'm wrong though. Good luck.

 

[AFei]

I would not recommend anything that is not safe. Do at your own risk. I don't want to be responsible for your injury.

No worries

 

[AFei]

Man, first you installed the eBay radiator and now metal heater tees from the 3rd world along with aftermarket hoses.

You are playing with fire.

I have a feeling your next post is going to be letting us all know you overheated and have a blown head gasket. I hope I'm wrong though. Good luck.

That's exactly what happened except for in the reverse order. The future "next post" has already been posted.

Fire has already been played.

I didn't witness that but it's reasonable to believe that the engine had already been overheated and the head gasket had already been blown, with the high quality OE plastic Tee. Since my ownership of 15k miles, 2 Denso radiators have decided to quit. My confidence to known brand isn't much higher than eBay products.

However, you do bring up a valid concern for future reliability. I have no way to tell the future but to make sure it works by stress test. So far the eBay radiator survived 30+ PSI for more than 12 hours. Making a kit to test the built-in ATF cooler at higher 60 PSI. For the SS tee, maybe the same test, although the first impression is pretty well made.

All right, already off topic a little bit. Thanks for the input.

 

[Shikha]

I used these......

 

[Dirt Ferguson]

I used these......
View attachment 3662218

Agreed, great set of inexpensive tools that's worth the $$$$.

 

[JZ100swamper]

Spray with windex , and use a small pic or thin plastic wedge ( like a drugstore tooth cleaning pick or the tip of a zip tie ) to get the windex to seep between hose and tee.

And : Your Tees are going to break , crack and disintegrate in the process .

Therefore : remove the tees and hoses while assembled , so that you can retrieve the broken T plastic pieces on the bench .

Before undertaking , pick up some bulk heater hose and spare clamps , this way you can affordably replace those hoses that are too brittle to reuse .

One caveat about bulk hose , there is one section that is hard to fit with straight hose from the roll … so that run you may want to reuse or replace with OEM .

If your Tees come out in one piece post a picture !! Almost never happens this many years on .

 

[take123]

I would personally get rid of all those worm clamps. They're terrible. Go spend the extra 1 or 1.5 dollars get yourself some solid OEM Toyota clamps that are legit. Make sure you get the right size as the Heater T's, they use two different size clamps (I bought the wrong one so had that experience

The worm clamps will eat into the rubber hose and cause it to crack. As seen in your pics they have indentations already. Definitely compromised situation over time not good. The Toyota OEM clamps won't do that.

 

[Dirt Ferguson]

If anyone wants the part numbers for OEM hoses, tees and clamps, I assembled everything last night and kept all the packaging for part number references.

 

[AFei]

I used these......
View attachment 3662218

This pliers works like a charm! It's much easier to remove the Tees and hoses together.

In my case, the Tees are still in good condition. However, the conventional worm clams just ate the hoses. Anyway, waiting for the delivery of aftermarket hoses to install the SS tees back. Would like to go OE but it's just too expensive, even the clamps. For the hose clamp, I found it's just easier in tight space to work with the worm clamp. However, will use the non-perforated with rolled up edge band type of clamps, like this one.