Hey everyone, I am going to be changing the upper coolant elbow on my car Friday night and from what I have seen on the youtube video's it is fairly straight forward
Remove serpentine, remove upper cross bar, remove rad reservoir, remove top bolt on alternator as well as side and lower back bolts and lift up then remove elbow and ensure all parts are out of the holes, and then lube up the o rings with some penetrating oil and reinsert and then reverse process back to having everything put in.

Now is there anything I am missing? or does anyone have any tips that are nice to know before hand?

as always any and all help or information is truly appreciated

 

There are two coolant Elbow's..
They aren't hard to change ..

 

The o-rings do have a dry lube on them. I would not use a penetrating oil (as it can damage the o-ring material).

I have used the thinnest application of vaseline or plumbers lube (both have been used for o-rings in faucets) on the edge of the elbow going into something (but not the back, so don't lube the entire ring). The reason is:
- Thin application, going crazy with it and it's asking to have it slide out.
- On the surface going into a port so it is lubed going in, but should not have much if any lube to back out.

 

and another thing to add, i think we should encourage all of our members to go with is.... DORMAN ALUMINUM COOLANT ELBOWS, once you put these babies on you will never need to replace them again...and they do look slightly cooler

 

Thanks for the advice guys, it is appreciated, I saw on the video the guy recommended lubing the o rings, but didn't mention to go sparingly, so I will prob use the vaseline and keep her to a minimum.

I am not doing the aluminum elbows as I just don't have the time to wait for them to be shipped as no one local has them here. So it's going to be a job that will be done again, but I'm thinking it will give me a reason to rip things apart again and add some goodies while I'm doing it

 

Good luck, it really isn't that hard to do & it was $350 to have done at a local shop. Was lucky had the Aluminum elbows local so hoping it is a one time repair.

 

well I got them changed tonight, without much difficulty at all, but did need an extra set of hand for putting the serpentine back on. Both of the elbows were cracked off at almost the same spot, the part that get larger with the o rings around them, the upper one was so clean of a break I honestly thought it didn't come with an o ring.

Thanks for the advice and tips, as always it is greatly appreciated.