What is that plastic pipe that is located directly under the oil pressure sender? There is a hose going to it from the passenger side of the firewall and I ended up breaking the plastic part when I pulled the hose off of it so I need to give Ray a call but I have no idea what to ask for and I don't see it in the FSM under cooling or the engine section. :-/

 

If you had looked into the MAZDA manual, you would have learned that it is the water hose going into the heater.

 

I never understood why Mazda made that connection the way they did...seems like everyones had them break on them, after years of use they get brittle like the stock AST. I think a regular hose clamp would have done a better job.

 

I knew it was for the heater but I just don't understand why it's connected to a plastic piece from the engine side...didn't know if it had some special purpose or not.

 

It's a quick-disconnect. You can get a Dorman replacement kit for it since it's interchangable with a Ford Aerostar part.

 

Just remove the plastic and put the hose directly on the metal tube from the motor . Life is good .

 

This is the best advice in this thread (and everytime this comes up...). Keep the car as stock as possible. Especially when you can go to any AUTOZONE or O'Reilly's and pick it up for about $12.

 

remove it and put a hose clamp. that thing is just a problem waiting.

 

+1, make sure the hose clamp is nice and tight and it isn't going anywhere.

 

It does absolutely nothing except break and leak. The only thing I can think of is Mazda thought it would serve as some kind of quick release or maybe they thought the hose was less likely to get stuck to the plastic pipe vs the metal one. It does neither of these too well. I take those off on every motor I build and just slip the heater hose over the metal pipe, and secure it with a decent worm gear hose clamp.

 

Sweet thanks for the replies I didn't know if it had any special purpose like I said so I figured I'd just replace it but whatever I can do to cut costs on my current build up. Still need to place a second order with Ray

 

i recommend replacing the plastic coupling (stock)

the metal pipe doesnt have a lip, with just a clamp its likely to slip off

if yours hasnt slipped off yet, doesnt matter, my coupling hasnt broke yet either (but i replaced it anyways)

preventative maintenance

 

I have never had one slip off and how many have I done ? I will break , remove good ones because they will rot and break sometime down the road . Do it once and keep going .

 

I pulled the metal nipple out of the housing and cast weld up the holes on all three of my FDs. I do not run a Heater/AC unit. I know this may not be what you are doing but to those who do not run a heater you might consider this. Long ago I tried a hose cap over that nipple and after some age it started to crack. Loss of coolant here would be terrible.

You can't even tell a nipple was there.

 

It certainly is not a "quick disconnect" as there is nothing quick about figuring out how to disconnect it. Everybody knows what you are talking about when you say "quick disconnect" though.

Its there to make engine installation at the factory easier, as that spot is a pain in the *** to get to and by using it the installer doesn't need to fiddle with hose clamps. So really the part is a "quick connect"

 

It won't slip off it you use a proper clamp. Don't re-use the stock clamp in this application.