Looks good!

 

Follow up on my appointment. The hose was crispy but not leaking. They replaced it anyway. The leak was from the thermostat O-ring. All warranty work.
Dave T.

 

Thanks Zmonsta! That is very reassuring for those of us with extended warranties.
Did your Porsche VSP platinum plan happen to be administered by SafeGuard?
Thanks again.
Steve

 

Yes, SafeGuard! I was trying to remember the underwriter name earlier, and just couldn’t recall it.. could only think of Fidelity, which for sure was not it..

 

Thanks! That is helpful to know for those on the fence about SafeGuard.
They were extremely easy to deal with for my Porsche SA on a TCC claim I made recently.
Much appreciated!

 

Thanks. I thought that plastic tubing connected from somewhere on the rear of the engine to somewhere on the front… so, what you are saying is that a tubing comes out of that bleed valve (attached to the air filter housing), goes to the rear of the engine, and from there, it is routed through the center of the engine to the front of the engine where is connected?

 

Thanks. I thought that plastic tubing connected from somewhere on the rear of the engine to somewhere on the front… so, what you are saying is that a tubing comes out of that vent valve (attached to the air filter housing), goes to the rear of the engine, and from there, it is routed through the center of the engine to the front of the engine where is connected?

If I understand @dethbrd 's post #181 in this thread, that's correct. I personally didn't follow the line from the back of the engine to the valve on the air filter housing. Maybe @dethbrd will chime in.

 

Yes, thats correct.

 

Thanks for the clarification. It was not as evident for me by just reading @dethbrd post, peharps I read it too fast or made assumptions with the photo. But when I saw @FRUNKenstein photos and saw the connection to the bleed valve, I said “hmmm wait a minute”… hence why I’m asking the questions.

Gentlemen, this is a good find and a good solution. Quicker too, if you don’t have to remove the intake plenum and all the rest of that crap. This saves hours of work.

After 140K miles, my OEM tubing seems to be holding. Two weeks ago I had to remove the coolant to change the pump and thermostat, and pulled full vacuum in the system to refill with coolant. Held the vacuum for 5 minutes to check for infiltrations and it held it very well. So, my tubing is still fine. But I may do this preventively because I feel is a not a matter of if, is a matter of when.

Thanks!

 

Sorry, im not much of a videographer or photographer, just a mechanic. If i wasnt clear originally, i also cut that quick release fitting at the vent valve from its plastic tube, and reused it on my new 1/4" coolant hose. I just rotated it 180 degrees and pointed it at the front of the car. And yes those are themoplastic hose clamps. I didnt want big clunky sharp worm drive clamps on there. Just trying to do as clean of a job as possible.

 

No issues man. It was a great job. We wanted to understand it a bit better. But all the credit to you!

 

They are relatively hard. I do like the oetiker clamps, but i dont have that tool or an assortment of them at home. I do have a heat gun though. So thermal clamps all around.

 

If someone started fabricating these …..people would buy them for the “day” , No doubt I would .

 

I would 100% buy one (if I don't make it first)

 

I was able to follow this tubing from the front of the engine all the way to the coolant bleed valve, using a new tubing (which I have) as a mock on top of the engine to determine where the tubing would end up on the rear of the engine. Used my borescope.

Once I located the tubing end point on the rear of the engine, I saw it connects to a small rubber hose. It makes a right turn and connects to a metal tubing… then that metal tubing connects to another hose, makes another right turn and goes to the bleed valve. Amazing and just mind blowing!

Re-routing this through the front of the engine is the best approach.

 

@dethbrd and @FRUNKenstein, when you removed the tubing, since this is a vent tubing, assuming it is not filled or is not significantly filled with coolant when car is cold.

So, as long as the car is cold, I won’t have to drain the coolant from the engine… to remove this tubing. Correct?

 

Mine was leaking and my bottle was almost empty. I did not lose more than maybe a few ozs of coolant. Yours might if its full, not sure.

 

My tube had broken in multiple spots, so there was a lot of coolant that leaked. If you are replacing it before it breaks/begins to leak and doing that on a cold engine, I would expect there to be some minor coolant spillage if you don't drain the coolant, but not much. Full disclosure, it was my mechanic that actually did the work on mine. We discussed it, I showed him @dethbrd 's posts and got the parts. But he did the actual wrenching. He didn't drain the coolant.

 

@FRUNKenstein curious who did your work in the KC area?

 

Where the "Y" ends connect into the block, is lower than where the single run of hose connects at the vent valve, but given the diameter and function of the pipe, I would think coolant loss would be minimal. There's a video HERE where the repair is done in the traditional manner (intake removed), and coolant is not drained.

 

Heres a few pics of the coolant tank after i was done.

 

I’m planning on tackling this over the weekend… with cameras on…

 

Looks like the hose from the expansion tank to the vent valve connects above the max fill line, so probably not much leakage even if the expansion tank is full. I'm sure there's some in the line of course. When I did my spark plugs, I disconnected the hose from tank to valve (at the valve) in order to move the tank out of the way, which you could probably do here if your still worried the contents of the tank might leak out.

 

Also cheaper hose from a reputable vendor if you're just cannibalizing the connectors: Porsche Coolant Vent Line for Left/Right Cylinder Heads Bapmic BF0437200010 6942409820718 946 106 026 60 94610602660 946.106.026.60 946-106-026-60 | Pelican Parts

 

Also cheaper hose from a reputable vendor if you're just cannibalizing the connectors...

Does the connector portion even need to be cannibalized from a brand new part? These things fail as a result of the tubing getting brittle. I think the thicker connector portion of the assembly, with the o-rings, which bolt into the engine, are probably fine to reuse. Maybe just refresh the o-rings.

I've never heard of a leak being from a failed connector.

 

Yes that’s what I was thinking about. And also not wanting to get stuck in the middle of the job if the old one broke. Bonus - you can assemble the new hose in advance.

 

Work done today… with car completely cold, I didn’t have to empty coolant… just disconnected the tubing fitting from vent clamp and slid through the side of the engine to allow it to drain below the level of the tubing I was going to take out.

This was all the coolant that drained…

When I removed the tubing from the engine, nothing came out. So it was a clean install.

Installation took a couple of hours due to (1) recording, (2) I’m too methodical… wanted this OEM looking…

More details to follow in the video…. This is a sneak preview. Now I need to reassemble things and test…

NOTE: my tubing was still fine… I actually had to cut it with plyers, and it didn’t come out in pieces… even the connecting fittings came out intact. I cut the tubing after the “T” and abandoned in place. I took the tubing connecting the metal tubing on rear of engine to the vent valve off… the rest is still there abandoned…. It will be fine…

 

Brought car to temperature and test drove the car… everything great. Coolant temp is normal.

Although the tubing fittings came out integral, they could not be reused… the o-rings were flat and were not in good shape. So, buy new tubing for $20.

 

Nice job! Looking forward to the video! Definitely a preventative summer project for me.

 

Have we deduced whether the $20 “Bapmic” pipe assembly is the exact same part as the $100 +/- “Porsche” branded part?

 

I don't think Bapmic is a supplier to Porsche. I bring it up as an option from a reputable vendor instead of a random one off eBay/Aliexpress that someone else suggested. I probably wouldn't trust it if doing the standard replacement given how much labor is involved, but to just get the connectors for the modified approach....well maybe.

 

I think that with all the money you are going to save by doing this, you might as well buy Porsche OEM and then forget about it... forever.