ChrisLovin

Today on the way home from work at a stop light my caution light came on and the coolant temp gauge was up so i pulled into a nearby lot (scared as hayelll.) popped the hood and found that the coolant was absent, not low absent. so i thought i must have been dumb enough to let it run out. and i refill with a silicate and phosphate free coolant 50/50 mix with distilled water and drive home. when i arrive home i pop the hood and again the coolant is gone so i look around and see a giant leak coming from just under the distributor cap area and a hose which i now know to be the water pump to heater valve hose has a large to me about just under half inch cut in it. it really looked like it was gushing so hard it seemed like it was coming from the cover the dist cap connects to and the waterpump also connects to.

Questions:
is this my water pump that has burst or just the hose?
does it even matter? i know i need to replace everything under those belt covers+ the waterpump and that hose anyways so maybe that is a moot question?
has this ever happened to any of you?

~Chris Lovin

fortysixandtwo

All of the hose is separate from the water pump. You can replace that one hose and be on your way, but all of the other coolant hoses are the same age and could very well leave you stranded and with possibly a damage the engine. It's time to replace all of them.

George D

Order a complete hose kit and get your hands dirty. It's a straight forward job. If you have never doen this before, take one hose off, match it to what is in your kit install that hose, and move on to the next.

turbo8

My fan shroud assembly came loose and the fan cut the big hose coming out of the water pump. Make sure yours didn't.

Van

Just that hose. I used to keep a spare in my glove compartment.... then needed it one day.

ChrisLovin

This is good to hear, thank you for the reassurance. What fan shroud are you talking about? And where would you all suggest me getting the hose kit from? Should I just lump this together with the other maintenance I planned on doing? Thanks again. I feel like you just did half the job for me. As GIJoe would say knowing is half the battle.

fortysixandtwo

Whether you do it all now or during future planned maintenance is really up to you. If the future maintenance means a couple of months from now, you're probably okay to replace just the one hose. If it means a couple of months, then put off to several months, then to a year and so on.... its better to do it all now. Besides, you're already going to have a coolant mess on your hands.
If you go the one hose for now method, I would suggest replacing the hose at the other end of the metal pipe, that goes over the header. It sees the same conditions as the hose that failed (high temperatures from headers, and no coolant flow when the heat isn't on).

Paragon, 944online, Lindsey all offer the coolant hoses as a kit. Lindsey brought a silicone hose kit to market about a year ago, which I've bought but haven't used yet. The long term durability hasn't been proven out yet, but will probably be fine.

Tedro951

Option one: replace the hose and drive.
Option two: take the car down for 2 years for tons of maintenance.

Your call.

Willard Bridgham 3

I replaced all the hoses when I did the engine......good not to worry about the cooling system on this car.

dillon410021

good time to flush the coolant

ChrisLovin

Well I don't believe it would be down for two years to do hoses TB/WP and replace those AFR nightmare (autothority) chips but maybe you're right I'll probably find 800+ other things I need to do in the process. Whelmed/me