Date: Tue, 23 Apr 2002 13:59:08 -0500
Reply-To: Max Wellhouse <maxjoyce@IPA.NET>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Max Wellhouse <maxjoyce@IPA.NET>
Subject: Re: coolant pipe repair (long)
In-Reply-To: <001001c1eafa$9641c1e0$e6cffea9@oemcomputer>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed
I'm not familiar with this repair kit, but am familiar with repairing
various plastics. If the VW coolant lines are either polyethylene or
polypropylene-based plastics, good luck getting any kind of bond to create
with anything short of a $100/gal. urethane based resin and even those I
wouldn't trust. The repair might "stick" to the hose end, but not
bond. It would be worth it for me to have it fixed rightthe first time if
you calculate the cost of lost coolant, being stranded in the middle of
nowhere, blah blah blah.
My 1/50th of a dollar
Dimwitted Moose and Flying Squirrel.
At 12:10 PM 4/23/2002 -0700, Bob Whitby wrote:
>Condition: Three of the four ends of the long, plastic coolant pipes on my
>'87 Westy had separated from the pipe and were sticking out between 1/2
>and 3/4 of an inch from the pipe. As I understand it this is how these
>pipes fail. The metal sleeve/flange insert at the very end rusts, and
>slowly gets pushed out of the pipe due to cooling system pressure. When
>they fall out altogether, the hose then shoots off the pipe and all your
>coolant makes a break for it. This could be bad when driving down the highway.
>
>Remedy: I noticed that other than the problem with the ends, the pipes
>were in fine shape. They're tough plastic and if it takes a Styrofoam cup
>50 years to break down, these things will last 1,000 easily. My first
>thought was to replace the entire pipe with marine exhaust hose from West
>Marine. The stuff looks like radiator hose from hell -- I can't imagine
>the chemical or physical insult that could harm it. Rocks would bounce
>right off. Tough stuff. Of course it's also $7.95 a foot. You'd need at
>least 20 feet to do the long pipes, so you'd be looking at $180 plus for
>all the hose you'd need. Given that you can buy original, plastic pipes
>for $250 from the dealer, I decided to try something else.
>
>On the shelf at West Marine, right next to the exhaust hose, was a product
>called "Pipe and Hose Repair Kit," made by DuraPower Products. This is
>basically a strip of fiberglass repair cloth pre-impregnated with an
>air-cure resin. The cloth comes in an air-tight pouch. You simply rip it
>open, dip it in water and wrap it around any kind of pipe --- metal,
>rubber, plastic, etc. According to the box it resists temps up to 600F,
>and pressure up to 150 psi. I think I'm well within those parameters so I
>thought, why not? After all attempting to repair those pipes is one of
>those "can't lose" situations -- you succeed, you save bucks. You fail,
>hey you needed new ones anyway. The kit repair kit even comes with
>disposable gloves. I'm keeping one in my van from now on. (No affiliation,
>just a good idea.)
>
>I did the repair in several steps.
>
>First I cleaned the ends of the pipe, and the portion of the metal sleeve
>jutting out, as best as I could with sandpaper. I sanded until I got down
>to shiny metal, and the plastic ends that had cracked were smooth. Then I
>mixed up a batch of JB Weld (love that stuff) and smeared it on the ends,
>and the metal sleeve. With a hammer and a block of wood I drove the ends
>back into the pipe. I was surprised how difficult this was -- those things
>are very tight. It took 15 years and 158,000 miles to protrude that far,
>so I surmised that this problem develops very slowly. But I bet it
>develops in virtually every plastic pipe out there. Take a look at yours.
>
>Once the ends were flush I let the JB Weld set up overnight. The next day
>I roughed up the body of the pipe with sandpaper and put on the pipe
>repair kit. This is essentially to seal that external crack that allowed
>the ends to separate in the first place. I wrapped it three or four times
>around the crack, then down the body of the pipe. It cures in 40 minutes.
>Then I sanded everything smooth. It's hard to tell there is even any
>reinforcement on the exterior of the pipe. Plus I preserved the original
>flanges, a very important feature in helping keep your radiator hoses in
>place. In fact that was one of the big drawbacks of using marine exhaust
>hose -- you get rid of the original flanges. That and I didn't have to
>take those pipes out and replace them.
>
>I flushed out the pipes to get rid of any crap and hooked it all back up.
>So far so good. I'll let you know if the repair gives out, but I don't
>think it will. With the JB Weld on the inside and the fiberglass outside,
>it could well be stronger than the original pipe.
>
>Yours in affordable Vanagoning,
>Bob W.
>87 Westy
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