Frank_and_Beans

iTrader: (10)

Help!!

My car was warming up, idling in the driveway after doing a 1.8L swap the other day. When I looked in the passenger compartment, I noticed 1/2" deep puddle of coolant on the driver floor!!! Crap!!

I looked under the dash and saw coolant gushing out of one of the copper tubes going from the firewall the heater core. The coolant was acutally gushing upwards into the dash, then falling down on the floor. ARGHHH!!

Anyway, I ordered a new heater core from Autozone, and it came in last night. I pulled the old one out by cutting the long tube that is attached to the heater core, so I didn't have to pull the dash. In any case, that worked fine, BUT - the leaking part is coming from the other long tube that doesn't come with the heater core!! So, while my heater core could surely use a replacement, I still haven't fixed the leak by buying a new one.

I looked at the Mazda parts catalog, and it appears that the separate copper tube is not sold separately, but as an assembly with the heater core. But aftermarket heater cores don't come with them. I'm not too keen on paying Mazda $300 for a new heater core that I already have - just to get the extra copper pipe.

So, does anyone with a track car have one of these copper tubes that they could sell me? Just to be clear, I need the tube on the far left - the one that has the rubber pipe and clamp right at the heater core.

Frank_and_Beans

iTrader: (10)

Forgot to mention this is for a '90. Not sure if NB is different or not.

Frank_and_Beans

iTrader: (10)

Also - I went to home depot and bought some soft 1/2" copper tubing to try and hand make a replacement piece. Nope, that didn't turn out well at all... I can't get a tight enough bend radius to duplicate the stock piece. I can sorta get it to fit from point A to point B, but then it isn't supported by the stock bracket that holds it to the heater core. Also, then bends look like **** - kinda crushed like it was made with a Harbor freight tubing crusher (I mean bender). Woe is me.

hornetball

iTrader: (4)

Personally, I'd take it to a radiator shop. Those guys see this all the time.

Otherwise (and assuming you don't get a pipe from another member), you might try:

1. Stop drill the ends of the crack in the existing copper tube.
2. Cut a section of rubber heater hose long enough to cover crack.
3. Slide heater hose in place (use lots of lube -- this is mt.net after all!).
4. Secure with clamps.

As you can tell, I'm just winging it.

wackbards

iTrader: (2)

Is the copper split, or did you just buckle the nose when you reattached the rubber hose in the engine bay? If the latter, you can repair it with a pipe swaging die:

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Husky-Pr...-111/304341669