Coolant leak in coolant tower line connection (Solved)

[letsgetstoked]

I've got a slow but steady leak in a line (judging from the Bentley diagrams) that runs to the heat exchanger (it's the line furthest to the right in the engine compartment). It's at the lower connection pictured. Since a coolant flush about 3500 miles ago, it managed to empty the coolant reservoir before I realized and refilled back to the max line. How might I tackle this leak?

[SCM]

I'm not sure what you're refering to when you say "heat exchanger". My old air cooled Bug had a heat exchanger (on the exhuast) but no water cooled vans do.

If my memory serves me right (and it usually doesn't) that hose is attached to the bleeder ring at the top of your engine bay and to the coolant tower at the bottom on the opposite side of the firewall. If the hose is leaking, just replace it with a new one. You won't lose much coolant and it the system should self-bleed after a couple drives.

BUT, it could also be that the nipple on coolant tower that the hose attaches to is broke - especially if it's the original plastic version. If that's the case you need to replace that and the job is a bit more messy.

Regardless, you're in for a future of coolant leaks if your hoses, coolant tower, t-stat housing are original. Might be timne to start thinking about replacing that stuff.
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'91 Westfalia GL Automatic (GTA "Turbo" Rebuild w/Peloquin) and 2.3L GoWesty Engine

[letsgetstoked]

Sorry, yep, misread the diagram. This is the top hose connecting to the "distribution unit", aka, the plastic coolant tower junction. It looks like it might be leaking on both sides, though it's hard to tell for sure. It's possibly original. The coolant lines have been replaced and are stainless steel. They look to be in good condition.

Clearly the hose connecting to it is ancient. Not sure why it wasn't replaced when others in the system were. That's just plain 8mm coolant hose, yes? Presumably I could start by replacing it to see if that solved the issue.

If I still have a leak and need to replace the junction, do people feel like the stainless steel coolant tower is worth the price of upgrade? A plastic one from GoWesty is ~$30, whereas the stainless steel replacement at VanCafe is $145 including the silicone cooling hose kit.

[do.dah]

The plastic towers have a tendency to grenade.
Replacing the tower is fairly challenging.
Stainless means future you/future owners, will NEVER need to think about replacing it.

[jimf909]

You haven't mentioned tightening the hose clamps. Have you tried that? If the hose is leaking replace it before it ruptures.

The low cost of plastic parts is attractive but having had plastic parts fail on the road I've replaced most (all?) with $$$tainless or aluminum parts. Granted, the plastic parts were decades old and modern cars have a lot of durable plastic parts but plastic replacement parts seem to fail. Having confidence in these cooling systems is a big plus.
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- Jim

[letsgetstoked]

To close the loop, it was the hose. It basically disintegrated as I removed it. Seems to have solved the leak issue. Baffling why the previous owner replaced most of the other coolant lines but not this one. **Shrugs**
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Current: 1987 Vanagon - full camper - 2.3L GoWesty engine, GoWesty EFI

[Wildthings]