Coolant leak fix - thoughts

Guys.

Sorry for the long post! I begin....

I replaced my radiator ( and flushed the system) in my GTA over the winter and when I filled her up with new coolant she started to leak somewhere new! It started to leak on the top coolant pipe in the engine bay from (or to not sure which) the radiaitor. I traced the leak to a small pin hole in the pipe just before the clamp to the inner wheel arch. Now I know that replacing this pipe involves removing the engine so I took a mechanic friends advise and patched it up with chemical metal, which he assured my would last. Unfortunately on Sunday whilst out in the car it spung a leak again in the same place. I was luckily near home and I got back before too much coolant went out and she did not overheat.

I would like a more permnant fix but do not want to remove the engine. So I was thinking of cutting the pipe just before the leak and fitting in an extra piece of rubber hose instead, to replace the bad pipe? I can see two issues with this:-

a) The top pipe on my car has a small pipe welded to the top of it in sections that diverts off to the inner wheel arch. I assume this maybe a breather pipe from the fuel tank and that it would be ok to cut the welds off and free this pipe from the main pipe so that I can cut it?

b) As where I cut the pipe there will be not be a 'lip' will a jubliee clamp have a tight enough seal in order for it not to leak at the joint?


Has anybody done anything similar on there GTA? Thoughts?


Thanks,
Brad

Who told you the engine needs to be removed?! It's not the easiest job in the world, but certainly not impossible to do in-situ. As to the pipe itself, I got one in for Darren's car fairly recently and it was in stock in the UK for a pretty reasonable £40ish if memory serves.

Hi,

Thanks for the reply. It seemed through searching previous threads on here that it was an engine out job as the way in which the pipes route themselves? Also quotes on this site were for appprox £170 for the pipe so £40 sounds a lot better!!! Where was this from ?

What is involved in doing it in-situ? Assume a large pit and removal of a lot of the centre under trays? How hard is that in itself?

Also can anybody confirm that the small pipe welded on top of this pipe is a fuel breather? I need to cut this away from the main pipe but cannot see it on pictures of other engines I have seen?

Thanks
Brad

[BIG_MVS]

I have an 88 car and the breather pipe is not on the car. The 1990 car I broke a few months ago however had this metal breather pipe extending all the way underneath the car and was attached to one of the coolant pipes.

I assume they did this later revision to try and stop petrol fumes from entering the car at standstill. A previous owner had drilled two holes in the filler cap on mine though

Think I am still going to go down the route of chopping the pipe and putting in a new section of hose, as the rest of the pipe looks good?

Cant understand why it has got this hole from? The pipe looks like it may have a small hairline crack in it,but I am the second owner of the car and know it from new, and I know that it has never been in a crash so the pipes have never been damaged?

WIll the joining work without the lip to seal the jubliee clip? I will probrably use a joining pipe for the main join?

Thanks
Brad

If you have enough clearance, you could try cleaning up the pipe around the hole and soldering it. Solder should plug the hole and give a better fix than chemical metal. You would need to get the metal nice and shiny and some flux paste on it and then get the pipe up to temp so that the solder will melt and flow. Will need a small blowtorch to get sufficient heat though so maybe too much risk of melting something.

The small metal pipe that takes water away from the bottom of the turbo and has a T-junction onto the cylinder head is soldered together - found that out when I broke it and took it to be welded. Bloke told me that it was soldered so I just fixed it myself. But the pipe was out of the car so no issues with getting plenty of heat into it.

I would have thought that a rubber hose would hold without the lip if you get the jubilee clip tight enough - they are a reasonably tight fit if I remember correctly.

Why cut the pipe anyhow - can you not just grind off the smaller pipe/bracket and slide a bit of coolant hose down the big pipe and over the bit where it leaks and put a jubilee clip on either side of the leak? That way you can leave the pipe in place.

'Why cut the pipe anyhow - can you not just grind off the smaller pipe/bracket and slide a bit of coolant hose down the big pipe and over the bit where it leaks and put a jubilee clip on either side of the leak? That way you can leave the pipe in place'

mitchella - thought of that but wasnt sure if would be able to get the pipe over and far enough up if it is a tight fit? Will have a go first before cutting the pipe thats for sure!

Does anybody know that diameter of the pipe off hand? (being lazy now!)

Cheers
Brad

As for soldering, just remembered the fuel lines are just above the pipe so not sure that would be wise?

Thanks
Brad

32 mm.................I'm sure if you wrapped it with self amalgamating tape it would seal .Chemi-weld it again then stretch wrap with the rubber tape ,this will form a rubber tube ,then wrap with the material tape then again with the stretchy stuff then material .............................

Clee,

Thanks for the reply.

Tried self amalgamating tape around the chemical metal and still leaked :0( Just a bit worried that this is not really a permenant fix and would hate to go on a long journey (i.e Le Mans) and have it leak on me again?

Thanks
Brad

That's half the fun of any GTA trip ........................trying to work out the French for Radweld and coming out with a packet of Smash ..................

sorry are you talking engine bay hoses or the hard metal pipes? I think I got the wrong end of the stick... *crawls back under rock"

the pipes rot from the inside out.

i would just replace both the pipes and then you have total piece of mind for the future ( only with the metal pipes!! ).

one days labour should have the subframe etc out, new pipes fitted and the build up.

you will spend more time pissing around 'trying' to fix/bodge it.

Well yes ,that'sthe best idea but it could open up a whole new world of pain

Well 12 years of ownership and first major issue,so cant be bad (mind you only covered 12000 miles in that time )!

I am going to start stripping it down tonight and cut off the welds on the top pipe later this week. Might take me a little while but I will let you know how it goes

Stunned Monkey - Yes it is the metal pipe.

Clee - My french stretches as far as beer and cheese and ham sandwiches!

Cheers
Brad