Camaro Heater Hose(s) Assembly

[bowtieguy]

my wife's camaro has a busted heater hose that needs out of the ordinary attention. if my cookies will allow, here it is...http://www.gmpartseast.com/Page_Prod...=18F&Year=1997. out of stock, or no longer made?

anyway, chevy(GM) in their wisdom put crimped hoses to aluminum, and i can't seem to find the entire assembly for the heater hose/pipe replacement. i know, i should go to a camaro or chevy forum, but i'm not a part of one so...

in the mean time, i suppose i'll cut the hose(s) short, tying in plastic fittings, but naturally this is a temp fix. thoughts? btw, they cannot be "recrimped"...they are an unusual type...i tried at napa...no go.

[bowtieguy]

for those that are interested or curious...yes, that is the belt tensioner in the pic as well. brilliant engineering running the cooling system thru it!

[theholycow]

Got a photo?

Would a junkyard part do the job?

[bowtieguy]

the model changed the next year(1998), but i'm not sure if this part changed. anyway, 1997, 98, even 2000(last year made)? it's likely junk yard parts would be degraded as well.

[bowtieguy]

Originally Posted by theholycow

Got a photo?

is the link no good?

[bowtieguy]

well, i revisited the link, and it looks like the entire assembly is avail for ~$133 shipped. gonna have to think about this one

[theholycow]

The drawing at the link doesn't really satisfy my curiosity...I was wondering what your assembly looks like as a whole and specifically where it's failing.

[bowtieguy]

sorry...the rubber hose at the fire wall to the heater core burst. problem is, everything is original, so my concern is that other breaks in the rubber will occur again soon. actually i think the drawing would be better than a pic as my issue lies behind the dash--very difficult to see.

all the rubber is old and soft, so i may bite the bullet and buy the entire assembly.

[bowtieguy]

repaired the heater hose and flushed the core. as i suspected, the rubber in the entire assembly is in bad shape. gonna order it via my link.

[Ford Man]

My '88 Escort had a similar set up. When I needed to replace the rubber part of the hoses I just cut the metal off right behind the crimp fitting and got a large enough inside diameter hose to fit over the metal tubing and put regular worm drive type hose clamps on to hold it in place. I've been running like that for 10-15 years with no problems. I think for $10. worth of hose and clamps it would definitely be worth a try before paying $133. plus shipping. The only difference in my system and yours is that the metal portion of mine was steel and your's in aluminum.