Leak in metal cooling system component

[mlatten]

Hey guys, long time no post. Just finished the rod bearings, heater core, scrubbed the interior, etc. As I'm in the bay area at the local Lincoln/Mercury (failing inspection for some bad rear struts) I notice that there is a coolant drip - but the technician didn't, so he caught a drop in the eye, lol. Anyway, I get the car home and I'm digging into it, and I find that it's the metal routing tube on the rear of the engine. I'm talking about the 5/8 pipe that draws water from the block and feeds it into the heater core pipe that's closer to the middle of the bay. To further distinguish it, it bolts right to (I think) to the head along with a huge electrical harness. I think I'm making this too complicated - it's the pipe with the temperature sensor in it.
So, my luck, I go to the junk yard to grab a few things (this pipe, sunroof motor, price out a subframe...) and they just scrapped all 3 that were there! And since that's the only decent u-pick around, I gave up.
My question is if this pipe is SHO specific, or if it's common to Probe, Contour, Crown Vic... I don't have very high hopes, and I'll probably end up ordering a new one, but I figured I'd give it a shot.

Thanks in advance,
Matt

 

[projectSHO89]

IIRC, that hose has been discontinued for some time.

You can replace it with bulk 5/8 heater hose. You'll have to make some provision for the CELO switch if you want to keep it in circuit.

Steve

 

[sdpatt]

To follow up on Steve's suggestion on the use of the bulk hose, you can retain the portion of the metal line with the fitting for the temperature sensor and attach heater hose to both ends of the short section of tubing that will be left. You can also just cut out the leaking section and replace/splice with rubber hose.

 

[mlatten]

Thanks for the responses!

Believe it or not, what I ended up doing was cutting the sensor out of the pipe by leaving about an inch and a half on either side and throwing the rest out. Then, as you guys pointed out, just using some bulk hose to bring the line from the block to the sensor and from the sensor to the heater core.

I love my sawz-all.

Thanks again,
Matt

PS, the tech that got the drop in his eye is wearing a patch now, but he should be OK, lol. later