Radiator line ?

[ifidie2nite]

I have been in the process of repairing a blown head gasket and cracked radiator, and during so, I managed to crack a line by tightening, rather than loosening a line (yea im that stupid...). It came (as you face the front of the car) from the bottom left of the radiator and has a 2 golden connectors on it. It's a relatively short silver line that goes into a silver cylindrical thing. The cracked part to the right is the connection that went to the radiator. I was wondering what this line is and what it screws into. Here's a pic:

[jsgold]

You sure this goes to the radiator? Looks like an air conditioning line that would run to the condenser(located in front of the radiator, attached to it so looks like part of it.) It is flat and is visable thru the front grill. Did this hiss or anything when you broke it? What year and engine type is your car? The silver thing you refer to sounds like the dryer unit. Different setup than on my old 91, but am positive this is what you broke. Would need to repair line, flush system, and recharge. if A/C did not work in the first place, might want to forget it. If you plan to fix A/C later though, go ahead and replace this line to keep out any additional dirt etc.

[ifidie2nite]

Originally Posted by jsgold

You sure this goes to the radiator? Looks like an air conditioning line that would run to the condenser(located in front of the radiator, attached to it so looks like part of it.) It is flat and is visable thru the front grill. Did this hiss or anything when you broke it? What year and engine type is your car? The silver thing you refer to sounds like the dryer unit. Different setup than on my old 91, but am positive this is what you broke. Would need to repair line, flush system, and recharge. if A/C did not work in the first place, might want to forget it. If you plan to fix A/C later though, go ahead and replace this line to keep out any additional dirt etc.

Yea it hooked into the radiator. I had to take it off so I could remove the radiator. The cylindrical thing (Im guessing the dryer unit then?) is to the left behind the left headlight. It didn't hiss when it broke, and the car is a 1995 Chevrolet Corsica 4 cyl. 2.2 liter. The A/C worked fine as far as I can remember. My cousin who is a mechanic said it might be the a/c line too. Thing is there's another silver line with a golden connector on it that goes into the silver dryer unit and then drops down and goes off somewhere, I'm guessing this one goes to the transmission? Another thing is after I took it off, I had reddish drops coming out. Not dripping or anything, but a drop every now and then.

[jsgold]

Yours is set up slightly different than mine, as mine is a 6 cyl., but it is for sure an a/c line. Runs from the dryer straight to the condenser, and has connection points on back side of radiator.The condenser is attached to the radiator and will come out with the radiator unless you unhook it. Best thing to do is buy another hose and take it to a shop to have the hose put on, system flushed, and recharged. If you want to give it a whirl you can buy the hose, new seals, and a recharge kit and do it yourself. If yours is still R12 you would have to convert to R134. Advance has a neat kit I just used on our old 91 that runs $38 or so, converts it right over and recharges it. Pretty fool-proof. You might want to try and flush the system yourself, there is stuff out there to do that with too. The other lines that actually run to the radiator itself are transmission cooling lines.