argh! cracked heater hose plastic T

[Rhett]

I just did this by accident with my wrench, while loosening one of the heater hoses...cracked the plastic...will it leak coolant?

 

[Blee1099]

That kind of looks like a heater control valve. Thats an easy swap.. Most parts stores have em in stock and its under $20. And yes it will leak coolant.

 

[Rhett]

I do not have another vehicle to which I can go to the store. In your opinion, will I be able to nurse it there, once I get everything back together?

 

[Blee1099]

Theoretically, you can probably temporarily tape off the cracked hole and plug the heater hose that came off and run to the parts store. That should work, I replaced mine a few years ago when mine started to crack. It would leak thru the crack. I think you'll be fine as long as you aren't driving 20 miles or so..

 

[spindlecone]

Can you clamp the hoses off

 

[EMG7895]

Put the hose back on and you can nurse it there just fine, if you are real worried about it just bring some water.

 

[ryf]

can you use a piece of pipe fitting to connect the hoses , block or plug the hole with a bolt??? would unhooking the vacuum line from it might keep it from dumping, depending on which part you broke and its role in the valve.

someone ought to figure out which hose does what so we can switch the the chevy s-10 version which is metal. I think this is 3 different heater valves in 2 days... mines a '94 as well... so we'll assume ford put around a 10 year life expectancy on that part then.. well goot luck, its an easy fix, and if you aren't needing to be anywhere for a few days advanceautozone.com will deliver it to you.

make sure you get all the plastic pieces out of the hose, great way to ruin something else.

 

[prozachappy]

I believe that is the return side. As long as your heater is in the off position then the heater valve should be closed and no water circulating on that side. You should be able to get to the store and back without any problems. Like stated above, you can also either clamp off both heater hoses on the engine side of the control valve or remove the valve all together and just connect the hoses straight up. A lot of the early model explo's and rangers didn't even have a valve there, the heater hoses connected straight to the heater core.

 

[ryf]

woops I meant, advance or autozone.com will deliver... hahaha. sorry.

 

[Rhett]

I called a friend and he got a new HCV for me and brought it over.
The new one is also plastic and flimsy as hell. The old one was literally disentegrating after 11 years of use...After I got it separated from the hoses, there were pieces of plastic HCV in the hoses--which I had to really work to get out, but I think I got it all.
I better have.

So chevy S-10 HCV's are metal, huh? I guess a stainless steel HCV would be the best of both worlds, no corrosion and the strength of metal. I'd use one (yes I would put a chevy part in my ford) if I knew they fit and had all the right outlets/inputs.

 

[Rhett]

By the way, I am a moron mechanic tonight...and not just for cracking the HCV with a wrench...after I got everything back together, I realized that I forgot to put the fan shroud back on. Had to take fan back off (what a pain) and do it over.

 

[ryf]

a chevy s-10 heater valve for the 4.3 is definitely metal, and its made well enough that you can't get it at autozone or advance (vehicle is a 1991), which means they don't have enough demand... so it would be a junkyard part or Chevy dealership. I have one sitting in my garage, the hoses appear to be the same size, has similar vacuum cannister. I'll try and get some photos.. in my opinion though, leaving it out all together would be a better answer than putting in a ford part. if you live somewhere cold, it would probably be cheaper and easier to bypass it and leave it that way...

 

[boominXplorer]

By the way, I am a moron mechanic tonight...and not just for cracking the HCV with a wrench...after I got everything back together, I realized that I forgot to put the fan shroud back on. Had to take fan back off (what a pain) and do it over.

I did that after I did my water pump 3 months ago. Every day I go in my garage I trip over the shroud on the floor