There's no plastic connector in that location in my truck. It still has the original, I guess it's called molded, hose with branches coming in from the heater and reservoir. I suppose that's its own time bomb waiting to happen.

The top hose got replaced 8½ years ago, a few weeks after I finished replacing the headgaskets. With the system pressurized again after the headgaskets were replaced the next weakest points in the system were revealed.

First was the throttle body heater, and then just a few days after that the bleeder screw fitting in the original hose blew out while I was driving home from work! Scared the crap out of me with steam everywhere, right after I'd declared victory with the headgaskets! I was able to plug the hose just enough with a golf tee and duct tape to limp home. Whew!

 

"First was the throttle body heater, and then just a few days after that the bleeder screw fitting in the original hose blew out while I was driving home from work! Scared the crap out of me with steam everywhere, right after I'd declared victory with the headgaskets! I was able to plug the hose just enough with a golf tee and duct tape to limp home. Whew!"

mln01, that is a total MacGyver move!! Talk about using what's available.....

 

Since K-mart is no longer around in Canada since the late 1990's, I found this mechanic creeper at a local pawn shop for $10. Brought it home, did a light sand and a dab of orange wax, cleaned the wheels and add a shot of lithium grease. A reborn of the 1970's. No more crawling around on the grass trying to work under the Land Rover.

1970's vintage K-mart mechanic creeper

 

 

Those gaskets are damn near paper thin. The scraping has to be gentle with no gouging and good cleaning.

 

I tried, between scraping the old one off (can't promise there was no gouging..) and messing around with the stupid pinch-clamp (that's what I'm calling it) to get it over the new water pump fitment I scraped up and bruised my knuckles and my ego. I'm bowing out of this one and taking it to the mechanic tomorrow. Fingers crossed I don't blow a head gasket getting it there!

 

At least you are looking at 2-3 hours of a mechanic's time.

 

 

Before I even start, some are going to say I'm stupid or I shouldn't do this or whatever, but just remember, to each their own and I bought my d2 for this reason in mind. So, we had a few inches of rain the other day and I decided to head down to the river and check it out. Well, of course it was up and there was water in the road. I grew up on this river and know it I side and out. I came to a spot where the road dipped down so I decided to see how this thing would do. I haven't really done any upgrades other than my 285/75/16 Wildpeak A/T. I've replaced some things but not upgraded. The water was at the bottom of the door, then half way up the tire, then over the hood for about 5 seconds. I made it to the other side and finally exhaled! But then remembered I had to cross it to get back, luckily, had absolutely zero problems. Truck acted like a champ, during and after, minus just the small amount of water through the doors, just enough to make the carpet by the door wet about 4" inward.

I honestly, expected to be stuck either in the middle or on the wrong side lol. I'm pretty amazed.

Now, last "flood" when crossing mud, I wasn't so lucky. Going one way was fine, so going back should be the same right? No. Not the case. I was going to slow on the way back across and there was a log under the mud that I couldn't see and front tires hit it, and I just stopped. I lost all momentum and was high centered. Well, mybuddy came down in his big John deere 4x4 tractor and that wasn't enough, had to have a second big John deere 4x4 tractor. Once I broke the crust of the mud, I was done for. To my surprise, still absolutely zero problems. I even crawled under the truck the next day and there wasn't any mud under there. I've been real impressed how, other than oil from the engine, nothing sticks to the bottom of this thing. Lol. Here are a few pics of the mud, I'll try to get video of water on YouTube soon.

and the last picture is just for fun, truck, side by side or 4wheeler, it's all about having as much fun as possible.

 

Clean the gasket surface with a green scotch bite pad. Also, no need for glue, sometimes it can cause the gasket to move around.