Had a leak on my 2000 xk8. So far have replaced the valley hoses and a new metal thermostat tower. Pressure tested the system and it is holding 15 PSI. I have the octopus hose and was going to install it but have a issue. Whoever worked on this car before used some type of sealer on the hose connections that holds like a expoxy. Any hose to metal connection required the desrtuction of the hose to get off. My first question is on the spider hose and the two connections to the "water heater" metal or plastic? The plastic to hose connection came apart with normal effort.

And if I put it off replaceing the the spider hose for now in the future can it be done by just removing the throttle body.?

Unfortunately if the water heater connections are metal I would likely have to pull it out with the spider hose, no idea on how hard that would be.

 

I guess you mean the two connections to the heater core ? They are metal spigots on the firewall. I used hose pliers to get mine off, but you really need to be careful because if one of them gets damaged, it will probably require a new heater core - and that's a massive undertaking. The old hose is expendable. The heater core is not, and those spigots sticking out of the firewall are part of the heater core.

 

I've used PB Blaster to seep into the joint of coolant joints and wait a bit, have a beer. Come back and they come off pretty good most the time. Be careful not to squeeze to hard on heater core hoses as you can "out of round" them pretty easy, then they leak and on to heater core endeavour....