BucfanTitan

Is it possible to replace the hose that runs from the radiator to the Tb. I can seem to find anything on the web, plus it looks like it is a special connection with the T that is connected at the radiator.

The hose is starting to degrade.

95, LT1, auto,

thanks

Silver96ce

If you have the hose assembly that has two hoses tied together -
1. One hose goes from a connection on the surge tank to the top of the radiator then to the throttle body. It has a metal tee at the junction at the radiator.
2. Second hose goes from surge tank to white overflow bottle near headlight.

If this is the hose it is no longer made.
I replaced it by the following method:
a. I got 3/8 Goodyear Hi-miler hose from Ebay. Yes it is expensive but I watched and got a 50' roll for $80.00 plus shipping. You can use silicone hose but it is also expensive.
b. I got a 3/8 plastic heater hose tee from NAPA. Dorman makes them and they should be available at most good auto parts stores. Dorman also makes a (Chinese) brass 3/8 tee.
c. fashioned new hose to replace and ran it to the metal pipe the 90 degree outlet hose from the throttle body goes to thereby doing the throttle body bypass at the same time. I dreaded trying to find that little 90 degree hose.
d. Put 3/8 vacuum caps over throttle body nipples (cosmetic only).
e. drilled out connectors with second hose and reinstalled second hose from surge tank to overflow. You will have to reroute a new hose because the headlight bucket will rub on a new hose. The old hose is not under pressure and if it breaks I can still get home - I can use duct tape to temporarily repair.

Good luck.

BucfanTitan

Thanks for the great information. Do you have any pictures of the completed project.

Thanks for the infomation I now know how to work on repairing the hoses.

Do you know did you spill alot of fluid when you opened the hoses.

Silver96ce

I don't have any pictures but I guess it time I figured out how to take and upload them. I'll have my tech savvy daughter show me how to do it hopefully tomorrow.

I did not spill any coolant as I was doing it as part of a large maintenance project on the car. I had already drained the coolant and flushed the system, replaced the water pump, thermostat, sparkplug wires, sparkplugs and all other hoses in addition to other maintenance.

I just got it in February of this year and the prior owner thought that if you don't drive it, it won't deteriorate. I was lucky though because I read as many of the threads on here that I could and because of that I had already factored in the costs of repairsand overdue maintenance before I bought it.

If you haven't already done it, you may want to remove and clean the radiator, radiator enclosure and ac condensor while you are at it. I was amazed at the amount of junk including leaves and pine needles stuck in there. If you do it, order a 7mm Gearwrench online (stores don't carry it) to get the top small bolt on the side of the radiator enclosure out. It took forever with a regular 7mm wrench and I went down the next day and ordered one from Grainger so next time it won't be so hard.

I try to get on here at least once a day, so I'll post pictures as soon as I can. Good luck

BucfanTitan

Thanks for the advice. I ordered goodyears HY-T hose. The high miler is nice but little expensive. I looked at silcone and then they talked about ordering special hose clamps and decided againest it.

I had the radiator replaced about four years ago or about 7000 miles. So I am going to attempt this with the hopes of losing as little fluid as possible to avoid having to drain all the fluid out. That should be fun.

Hopefully I wont make a mess on the garage floor.

Also just an FYI you can still get the elbow. Davies corvettes sells them in Florida for about 13 dollars.

BucfanTitan

Any luck with the pictures? Wanna see before I start the project

Silver96ce

Sorry I haven't been able to take any pictures as I have been feeling a little under the weather lately. I will definitely try tomorrow to have my daughter help me take pictures as she will be home.

desertmike1

You should be able to reuse the fittings, just dremal cut the Existing swedge fittings carefully, and reuse the Aluminum fittings...

On a side note, if your Antifreeze is four years old you may want to replace it anyhow.

Silver96ce

Here are the photos - I hope they upload correctly as I had to figure it out myself (daughter went out).

Silver96ce

The replacement hose is blue - that's the color Goodyear hi-miler comes in so it is easy to see the entire replacement hose.

BucfanTitan

awsome thanks for all the great pics. I really appreciate it. Looks like the upper hose to the lower overflow box is still in place. That was most of my concern. It looks like the headlights might get in the way when the head lights rotate, since the orginal is a metal pipe. I will mess with it and see what I can come up with.

Thanks for all of the help. The hose has arrived and I belive I will be able to work on this next weekend.

Silver 96 thank you again for your help.