legacycentral bbs

i was going to do my coolant tank move the other day and cracked the nipple off where the cap is...but before this i was going to remove the small hose on the rad on the top pass. side, i noticed that the hose was split by the clamp so i took it off and pulled the hose further up the metal line so the split wouldnt cause any problems, well it did, i took the slack out out of the hose and that caused a pleasent drive to work this morning, i hit the highway and gave it gas, causing the engine to shake and all of a sudden i could smell fluid, i thought it was coming out of the cracked nipple on my fill tank. i noticed the temp shot up but i got her off to a safe spot before it got to Hot, i hope. anyways i opened the hood to a massive cloud of steam and when it all cleared i noticed the nipple on the rad upper pass. side had cracked off because that hose i mentioned had no slack and when the engine shook at throttle it put to much force on that god damn mother ****** cheap little plastic nipple. sorry...

so i started doing searches and noticed i was not the only one this happened to and guys threw in koyo and n/a rads. so i was gung hoe about the koyo for 220$ shipped but noticed it had no tranny hook up lines so now i am turned off of this.

after doing some thinking and looking at what i could do i was wondering

could i tap the steel part on the engine that my upper rad hose goes to and thread a brass fitting in their and just reconnect the hose and plug the broken nipple off, has anyone tried that, i was hoping for a cheap and easy fix for now???? thanks in advance and thank you subaru for using these nipples

you can do what i did, i reamed the hole just to the point were a threaded brass hose barb would thread in, then using a generous amont of jb weld sealed the fittings to the plastic. now this was an a jdm coolant resevoir that i did this on but it should still work for your use.

just make sure to sand any plastic you apply jb weld to, and also let the jb weld dry at least 24 hours if possible.
one more thing, make sure all surfaces are dry you are gluing.

good luck

thanks, but that whole piece on the rad is thin and i can see hairline cracks in it, i ordered a new rad from lordco for 195 bucks and i will be installing it tomrrow, i'm wondering if i should do the upper and lower rad hoses as well

If they are more than four years old, change them. Now would be a good time, you're drained. They don't cost that much.