Broken quick disconnect nipple

After studying some good advise on this forum, I tackled my leaking lower intake gaskets this weekend and have a few tips to offer on the water nipple to the manifold. Make sure you pick up the quick disconnect nipple from the dealer for the heater hose to manifold connection, it IS going to break off and you have to replace it anyway because the plastic seal is going to be in pieces inside the nipple when you disconnect the hose. I decided to drill thru the center of the broken nipple by starting with a 5/8" bit and the reason is, the drill is hard to control with a bit that big and if you try a 3/4" or something bigger, you might get off center when you start (like I did) so the smaller bit gives you some room for error. Once you break thru, you can take a small cold chisel or good screw driver and carefully chip down and away the material from the threads. This thing is made out of "Pot Metal" so it will break away farely easy. Be careful not to damage the treads if possible or you will be buying a big pipe tap to clean up the treads. It can be done, just go slow and don't gouge the threads up. I ended up with one slip that made a long chisel line down the threads, which I just cleaned of the burrs from the alum. and applied a little extra teflon thread sealer to the nipple to be safe.

Why did you go to the dealer and buy that potmetal POS? Most auto part stores carry that part and it is made out of steel and costs less than GM.


After studying some good advise on this forum, I tackled my leaking lower intake gaskets this weekend and have a few tips to offer on the water nipple to the manifold. Make sure you pick up the quick disconnect nipple from the dealer for the heater hose to manifold connection, it IS going to break off and you have to replace it anyway because the plastic seal is going to be in pieces inside the nipple when you disconnect the hose. I decided to drill thru the center of the broken nipple by starting with a 5/8" bit and the reason is, the drill is hard to control with a bit that big and if you try a 3/4" or something bigger, you might get off center when you start (like I did) so the smaller bit gives you some room for error. Once you break thru, you can take a small cold chisel or good screw driver and carefully chip down and away the material from the threads. This thing is made out of "Pot Metal" so it will break away farely easy. Be careful not to damage the treads if possible or you will be buying a big pipe tap to clean up the treads. It can be done, just go slow and don't gouge the threads up. I ended up with one slip that made a long chisel line down the threads, which I just cleaned of the burrs from the alum. and applied a little extra teflon thread sealer to the nipple to be safe.