Pesky Heater Hose (PHH) and that Pesky Bottom Bolt (PBB) (1 Viewer)

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Typing and trying to remain calm at the same time. I finished a head gasket job on my buddies 80 while he was out of town. Like with most HG jobs there was a lot of extra jobs added to the list including replacing all the hoses with new OEM stuff including the PHH. He had the bypass job which looked cheap and horrible. With so much access to the engine we put in a new OEM PHH - happy days....or so I thought. I've been doing some small trips to make sure everything is back together nice and tight and this morning I noticed the small puddle of coolant on the garage floor. I hooked up the pressure tester and sure as sh!t the damn PHH is leaking where the pipe and hose meet. What is even more infuriating is that this join is the one sealed by the OEM with one of their "corned beef can" clamps. Has anyone ever had this happen before?

I'm not really in the mood to start fighting this trough the wheel well. I'm thinking I will pull the throttle body and upper intake. If I remember correctly this should give me plenty of access with less swear words....
 
Cut that hose in half if you can but I was able to just pull it off. You will be surprised how weak it is. It only appearing to be on but sure as hell, I just pulled and it slid off INTACT!

I was about to buy a small knipex to get in their
 
So the leak appears to be coming from the hose on a new PHH pipe assembly??

Can you post up a photo of the leaking area?
 
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Those ratcheting box ratchets are amazingly useful. I use them all the time.
 
See attached

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So the leak appears to be coming from the hose on a new PHH pipe assembly??

Can you post up a photo of the leaking area?
Yep. Barely done 300 miles since it was installed. No photo but the link below is a video and in the very first second you can see the coolant dripping down at the joint.
 
I agree with others about the factory sardine/beef can clamps that come on some pre-assembled factory pipe/hose assemblies. IME they seem to allow water/coolant to get between the pipe and the hose accelerating rust.

Having said that IMHO/IME it's much more likely that the leak is from the engine side clamp spraying or blowing outward/down to the factory clamp.

A couple of close up photos would really help. Maybe reach up in there with your phone and take a dozen, a few might come out OK.
 
Honestly I wonder if removing the bolt while the engine is hot would help. Sucks to be laying on top of shot engine but maybe I wouldn’t have snapped that bolt since it had some heat on it :meh:
 
I did both of my bolt on the PHH pipe with a 12mm standard ratcheting combo wrench.

I tried the ICON wrench (bought the whole set) and all that succeeded in was rounding the head of the bolt.

I did it entirely by feel from the top with all.my heater hoses and heater valve removed.

I installed a Toyota hose and used two new squeeze clamps on it.

I did remove the LF wheel and worked through there for the hose part of it.
 
I used my 1/256 German heritage, gudentight (good n tight) but in all seriousness, the 8mm on the constant torque clamp, I just did it by hand with some extensions through the wheel well tire off and did some tugging before I tightened the pipe on top. It’s been holding up and no leaks thus far
 
i know this doesnt help but In AUS changing the PHH is much easier cause we dont have all the EGR stuff there to scar knuckles and curse over plus being RHD the brake booster & associated bits n pieces are on the other side :)

I did mine when I had the HG off
I’m only mad because I’m jealous
 
What are your thoughts on just pulling the upper intake when doing the PHH?

That's how I ended up doing mine, I had to for my wiring harness replacement but once it was off everything is much easier to access, including the other pesky coolant hose to the throttle body.

I thought about keeping the PHH hard pipe but it came out without much trouble and the bypass will be easier to deal with in the future, so I went that route.

In addition, one it's opened up you can do the fuel filter, all of the little vacuum hoses to the VSVs, deep clean the throttle body, valve cover gasket, etc..
 
IIRC removing the entire intake plenum is the factory method to replace the PHH?? Agree, if you have the energy it's a good time to do all the PM in that area including putting at least the upper intake plenum into a parts washer. IME you can spend way too much time cleaning the upper intake while reaching in and bent over 90 degrees at the waist.
 

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