Fleetwood (or any LT1 car) heater hose valve replacement

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Adam
Posts: 2240
Joined: Wed Oct 23, 2013 9:50 pm

Fleetwood (or any LT1 car) heater hose valve replacement

Post by Adam »

So I was pulling off the highway and noticed clouds of steam billowing out from under the hood. Further inspection revealed one of the nipples on the heater hose restricter valve (aka Coolant Flow Control Valve) had broken off causing hot coolant to spray all over everything. Conveniently, I had replaced this part in the Caprice relatively recently, so I knew I had a spare good one. Unfortunately, I forgot how annoying this swap was. Ed was kind enough to remove a large section of the Caprice's heater hose assembly and bring it to me in a random Shell station parking lot where the "repair" was made. Some time later everything is fine and the Fleetwood is now the proud owner of a couple pieces of HD silicon heater hoses. For now.

The issue with this system is several of the connections between rubber hose and plastic value/tee are crimped on by compression clamps, like what you see on A/C hoses. When I did the Caprice job initially, I managed to reinstall the valve without needing to remove the compression clamp somehow. When removing parts from the Fleetwood, I also managed to destroy the tee in the system, so I was forced to use that part of the Caprice assembly too.

I ordered some replacement valves and tees to replace all of the old ones on the LT1 cars here. So I will upload pics later of my attempts to either reuse the compression clamps or (more likely) remove the compression clamps and the overall rebuild of the heater hose assembly. Valve: http://www.rmsautoparts.com/proddetail. ... 423&cat=83, tee: http://www.rmsautoparts.com/proddetail. ... d=12522867

Hey, at least I found out what the slow coolant leak and occasional smell is from! In hindsight, that valve should have been the first thing I checked.
kevm14
Posts: 15200
Joined: Wed Oct 23, 2013 10:28 pm

Re: Fleetwood (or any LT1 car) heater hose valve replacement

Post by kevm14 »

I wonder how long RMS's website will continue to work.

I believe that valve is just a restricting orifice. I know on some TBI cars (maybe 91-92?) there was a more complicated vacuum controlled heater valve. My 93 has the regular orifice.
Adam
Posts: 2240
Joined: Wed Oct 23, 2013 9:50 pm

Re: Fleetwood (or any LT1 car) heater hose valve replacement

Post by Adam »

kevm14 wrote: I believe that valve is just a restricting orifice.
Yeah, there is no vacuum attachment or anything on the valve. It is straight through.
kevm14
Posts: 15200
Joined: Wed Oct 23, 2013 10:28 pm

Re: Fleetwood (or any LT1 car) heater hose valve replacement

Post by kevm14 »

If your heater core is clogged, bypassing that valve will make it work like it never has. But you run the risk of springing a leak (I think that was the point of the orifice). The thing is, my Caprice even with a restrictor, puts out ridiculous 160°F+ heat, on a 283k heater core...the Maxima has sucky heat by comparison. Actually, all my cars have strong heat, except the Maxima. But I'm derailing your thread now...
Adam
Posts: 2240
Joined: Wed Oct 23, 2013 9:50 pm

Re: Fleetwood (or any LT1 car) heater hose valve replacement

Post by Adam »

kevm14 wrote:If your heater core is clogged...
Pretty sure I cleaned al the rust out of it, but maybe not.
Adam
Posts: 2240
Joined: Wed Oct 23, 2013 9:50 pm

Re: Fleetwood (or any LT1 car) heater hose valve replacement

Post by Adam »

So I finally got around to preforming the repair. A job like this is easy to put off when you can borrow working parts from one of your other cars.

Here is the assembly. Basically it connects the heater core to the water pump and the overflow bottle. There is a plastic tee and an inline restrictor that tend to degrade with age. The plastic becomes brittle an cracks which shoots hot coolant all over your exhaust manifolds. The parts are cheap and available from GM. I got mine from http://www.gmpartsdirect.com. The restrictor valve is PN# 10157988 and the tee is PN# 12522867.

The assembly.
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Here you can see where the plastic broke apart. The restrictor at the top of the shot should have two nipples on it.
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The difficult part of this project is to remove the compression clamps that are built into the factory assembly. There is one on the tee and one at one end of the restrictor valve.
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Start by using some tin snips to cut a notch into the compression clamp. Be careful not to cut the rubber hose.
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You can use the tin snips and do the other side too. You can then use a file or dremel or angle grinder to cut across the center part of the compression clamp. I used a file as it was easier to not destroy the rubber hose underneath.
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You can then use a pry-bar or something to pop apart the clamp if you couldn't cut all the way through.
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Pry it the rest of the way off with pliers or something.
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Do the other one the same way. You can use a brush to remove any corrosion or gunk from underneath the clamp once it is removed.
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Attach the new tee and restrictor with some new clamps.
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Fixed! Now put it back in the car.
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