Ve coolant leak from heater core pipes

[johnni]

Hey all

I noticed the other day that I have a leak coming from the heater pipe connection which comes out from the firewall closer to the brake booster. When the car warms up its a slow leak and I thought the factory clamp gave up and changed it to a hose clamp but that didn't help.

With the Heater pipe that connects to the heater core pipe through the firewall,are they connected to a metal pipe or some sort of aconnector which will cause it to leak due to old age?

I havent had a chance to look but thought to get some info on it and what's the best way to fix it?

Thanks

 

[Fu Manchu]

You do t want the problem to be those pipes because changing those is a whole interior dash out job to get to them. Huge job. Huge.
It’s also highly unlikely to be the problem.
Those clamps put on by Holden work far better than the ugly hose clamps many swap them for. The quick clamp or spring clamps are a design masterpiece.

Buy two new heater hoses.
Clean the pipes up with some scotchbrite or 800 grit wet and dry sandpaper. Hopefully they aren’t all corroded.
Replace lost coolant (should be red) and bleed the air out of the system.

 

[J_D 2.0]

My VE SSV had the same leak a while ago. I changed the clamps out for worm drives initially but the problem persisted. Then I pulled the hoses off and sandpapered the metal pipes up as they had corrosion on them that was allowing the coolant to weep out. All fixed now.

You will probably have to slice the old hoses and peel them off as they will be well stuck on there and rubber hosing is a bucket load cheaper and easier than pulling the whole dash out to replace the heater core because you reefed on the hoses.

I think I used a hose from a VS commodore to replace the small pieces that I needed to. Mine is on LPG so there’s a T off on both hoses to the LPG converter system up near the firewall so I only had to replace the right angle bends for a few inches or so.

 

[lout]

and pray the whole time you do the job
as fu mentioned, it is a horror job

 

[Fu Manchu]

There is a special tool for breaking the seal on the hoses. It’s like a giant pick. Has a right angle bend and pointy end.