I was not in the mood to but the entire octopus heater hose assembly. Because I am awaiting the arrival of my new nameless performance cats I found the mystery coolant leak. It was above the passenger side cat.
You can only make this repair with the cat removed. In order to get to all of the cats four studs you will need to remove the valve cover which when this is done all is accessible. I bought a 3/4 to 3/4 straight plastic connector and cut out the norma connection and inserted a new3/4" x 3" piece of reinforced heater hose. It was necessary to remove the metal connector tube. There are two bolts that hold this tube to the base of the throttle body. With this metal tube out of the car you can make up your connections. Since I was at it I replaced the heater hose from this metal tube to the coolant pipe. This was really easier than I thought. I used my fish tape. I fed this in from the front under the coolant pipe, under the intake and out the back. I then made a wire hook and hooked one side to the front of the new heater hose and the other to the fish tape and pulled it thru. At this point you can now connect the straight connector to the three way octopus.

 

This repair can easily be done from the top just take the breather tube off and its easy as cake. Thanks for the info daddyo!!

 

It's even easier with the transmission out! ;-)

 

I know this is an old thread but this is exactly the solution I am looking for on my XJ8 with a leaking Norma connector. But using the metric system, how do I convert this to mm? " 3/4" x 3" it says in the post but it looks like its a hose with the same dimensions on each end? Thanks a lot.

 

I think he means 3/4" diameter by 3" long.

 

 

Many thanks, appreciate it.

 

I had the exact leak. A slow drip on the RH cat. It's hard to determine where it was leaking since it burned off as quick as it dripped, but I could smell it and with a hand under the norma connector I could feel wet and the norma connector was even slightly loose. I did the 3/4" heater hose with a hose connector. So, if you smell coolant and can't find the leak, check it out !

 

JimmyL,

When you did this repair to your 4.2 car, what size hose connector / hose barb did you use? To me, a 3/4-inch hose barb looks to be too small for the 4.2 octopus hose end....

 

Easy conversions to remember: One inch = 25.4mm, 61.024 cubic in. =1000cc. Not sure why someone in the metric system would bother/care about inch/SAE measurements but sometimes you need it. It still a mixed up world out there, LOL. I have many, many tools of both measurements in my box, but no Withworths thankfully, I'm confused enough. TM

 

We have the same problem with construction blueprints. Depending on which engineering firm does the prints it can be in metric, imperial or a mix of both.

 

Jon89, I can't not respond, but it has been a while since I did this repair. But as best as I recall, it was just 3/4" heater hose and a connector - from the metal pipe to the octopus.