Thanks for responding, madspeed. I was just trying to figure it out before I went to town for parts and/or wrestled with those hose clamps between the engine and firewall.
Anyway, for the next curious customer, the hoses are 5/8" and 3/4". The Dorman, Help! 3/4"x5/8" hose connector does not work with the OEM quick connect fittings.
So, I replaced my stock hoses with a 1' length of each size, clamped with existing hose clamps, and connected together, bypassing the heater core, with the Dorman quick
connector, clamped with screw-tight hose clamps. The hoses are a bit long. I actually could have probably gotten away with half the length of 5/8" hose, but I didn't cut either
and tucked them in between the A/C bottle and firewall to keep them away from the exhaust (EGR?) tube. I got a lot of good info on the site, just not the particular question
that I asked here, so I ain't hatin'. It seems like this crap always happens on a holiday or in the middle of an ice storm. LOL Whatever, I'm just glad to not have to worry about
more coolant in the carpet and happy to wait a little while before replacing the heater for the THIRD time in less than a years. This last one started leaking withing four days of
the installation.
For a component that is such a chore to replace, these parts are VERY poorly made. I could see the solder joint where the tube attached was very
poor quality and expect to find it broken when I get around to removing the POS.
(eta: I just noticed my question lacked info above. I meant to ask whether I needed to replace the existing hoses [with new hoses] without quick connect fittings. LOL oops)
