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Heater Hose Quick Disconnect Snapping Off

423 views 0 replies 1 participant last post by  Evilcowboy420 
#1 ·
I figured I would share my experience with this happening in hopes that it may help someone for when theirs breaks off.

Mine was made of pot metal which is typical of the stock OE fitting. The little bit that holds the plastic fitting at the top had broken doing valve cover gaskets. So it needed to be removed from the intake. I gave it a decent turn to twist it out and it didn't budge at all and boom snapped off at the base flush with the manifold.

I attempted several different methods to fix it from using an easy out to trying to catch the edge with a chisel and tapping it lightly to reverse it out. The only method that seems to work is to cut it down the sides with a hacksaw. When doing so you should feel when you hit the threads however unfortunately you will still be unable to really budge it. So I made a couple more swipes through it and ended up cutting into the threads a little. I then knocked out the old parts in sections which 3 of em fell into the intake. Trying to retrieve them is almost impossible so I had to shopvac out the hole and it took about a quart of antifreeze with it but low and behold it sucked the pieces out as well.

Then after doing so it is necessary if you cut into the threads to put a small amount of rtv on the threads to take up the gap in the threads that is missing. I have read a lot of folks run a tap to straighten the threads out however the replacement is made of steel and if your intake is aluminum like mine you can just send it home as the steel fitting will straighten out any thread irregularities.

From what I understand if you attempt to remove this fitting it will certainly snap on you. So that was a bit of a project today and takes around 2 hours to do with the engine in.

Again only use the RTV if you have cut into the threads. If you have not cut into them then there is no need for it. The new one went down with minimal effort which is how you know you did it right. If you are sending it down with a lot of effort then you are probably cross threading it and that will require you to drill it out ad tap it larger or get a new intake.

I cannot also stress enough how important it is to get the chunks that fell in out. Otherwise you will end up blocking up your heater core, Patience is a virtue on this particular problem. Save yourself a lot of time and just jump straight to the hacksaw method since it is really the only one I can confirm as working. I would have saved myself about an hour if I had done that.

Anyways that was my story for today and it is quite a crappy thing to have happen to anyone. Hopefully it helps others when faced with the same thing.
 
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