Hello,

I have a 93 Maxima that I am in the process of replacing water pump/thermostat and timing belt/tensioner. During the process I found the coolant pipe on top pitted badly. Being me, I started scraping clean the surface and scraping off the soft white stuff. Before I know, the surface started looking like the crater filled moon.

I am thinking that I can clean it up better and put some QuickSteel epoxy putty on it. Getting it to shape nicely by grinding sanding before putting the hose back on.

I would love to hear any other ideas.

Cheers,

 

I've noticed that more often than not on my cars and other cars I've worked on over the years. I always just scrape all the crap off (exposing the craters) and leave it be.

 

i would just clean it up, glob a bunch of JB weld on the pitted areas, let it cure for 24 hours, then sand the JB weld down smooth

 

This is probably why the thermostat housing is now included with new VQ thermostats. Might be a decent idea to replace it with at least a nice used one, you wouldn't want chips breaking off, circulating in your cooling system.

 

Any epoxy and sanding is going to take a lot of time, effort and relative cost for virtually no benefit. I've seen this same problem on many VGs, yet I've never seen one fail even with 300k+ miles. Since aluminum has a large thermal expansion ratio, and your epoxy may not be impervious to coolant, your repair might not be a permanent or even a long lasting one.
If you really feel like you can't leave it alone, coat it with some gasket maker. It's cheap, fast/easy and flexible enough to remain bonded with the aluminum while tough enough to prevent corrosion and improve the hose's seal at the same time.

 

You were taking the proper steps by actually cleaning parts unlike most auto owners. I'd either finish cleaning for reassembly(shouldn't leak) or replace with new/new used if your planning to restore entire Maxima.

 

I cleaned all the powder off w/ a scotch bright disc on my die grinder and painted it w/ engine paint (alil over kill but it was what was in arms reach lol) haven't had a drop of coolant since

 

Sounds good...