So, the other day I looked under my hood and noticed a little coolant leaking from the heater hose going to the nipple on my intake manifold. I got a pair of pliers and tried adjusting the clamp down a little onto the nipple.
Low and behold, the nipple broke into pieces and coolant went everywhere. I kept my cool and got the hose back on to whatever meat was left of the intake manifold nipple.
I let it set for a few days, panicking over what to do next. I ordered a Dorman intake manifold from Amazon, then canceled the order because it would take too long to arrive. I ended up buying the same one from my local auto parts for a little more, and then UPS shows up the next day and drops off the same part I just canceled the order on.
After looking at the quality of the Dorman part, I decided to return them both and get a Ford Racing with PI heads(whats on my car) or a Edelbrock(aluminum) 4.6 intake manifold if I decide to go forward with the replacement.
However, I ended up doing a little research and finding out that the nipples breaking off these 4.6 intake manifolds is actually pretty and a lot of people repair them.
So I got a 5/8 x 1/4 plastic heater hose connector, Permatex 500 high heat epoxy and a hose clamp with a wing nut. And this was something I was going to do anyway to be able to drive the car enough to move underneath my car port.
I ground down the outside diameter of the plastic heater hose connector to make it fit in the hole. I shoved it in almost all the way to the stopping point fitting snugly, tapped it a little farther with a rubber hammer, epoxied it in place and put on a hose clamp covering both the meat of the nipple and the heater hose connector.
Now, two hours later the epoxy is set. The new nipple seems very strong. I haven't tried running the car just yet but I plan on doing it after 24 hours so the epoxy will cure.
I wanted to use metal but I couldn't find the right size anywhere in a store near me. Maybe I was a little impulsive for doing it this way. It seems very sturdy though.
My question: Am I a complete moron for doing this? I'm going to watch it like a hawk whenever I try running it. Any advice? Anything you might have done differently? Lastly have you ever repaired an intake manifold nipple or heard of someone else doing it?
Well if you did it right you can last a long time there isn't much pressure in there I have personally used JB weld and they lasted for years and that's just a two two beatboxing
This makes me feel reassured coming from a real professional mechanic. I feel like I made the right choice. I ran the car a little earlier. The belt is chirping from the coolant spill and because it's raining outside. Other than that it's running fine. No leaks. No overheating. I appreciate you taking the time to respond. Thank you. Just an idea: Maybe make a video about intake manifold nipple repair. I think it would help a lot of people having this issue and save them time and money. An intake manifold replacement is normally like $1,200 for this design. Probably a lot more on other cars. Again, thank you.