Hello everyone.

Not long ago, my father was planning to scrap his 1996 Civic Coupe for good, but before he had that idea he stopped using it altogether and left it under the sun and rain for two years. Me and my girlfriend took pity of the car and decided to restore it. It became a bit rusty under the hood and the interior plastics suffered quite a lot from the constant sun exposure. Another important fact is that he used tap water to fill the cooling system, instead of antifreeze, I also believe that during the period he abandoned the car, tap water was left in the cooling system, corroding it much and overall this resulted in a lot of rust. I replaced the antifreeze in the reserve reservoir a few times and every time it accumulated a significant brown sludge deposit at the bottom.

The car also failed the emissions test. We visited a few workshops and, we were advised either to find another engine or repair the one we had. We decided to repair our engine and it costed quite a lot. The catalytic converter, O2 sensor, piston rings, muffler and other parts were replaced.

Now, I believe the mechanic in order to perform the engine repair, had to remove the intake manifold out of the way and disconnect the corresponding tubes. Before the work was done, two of the tubes connecting to it were bulging with some sort of corrosion from what I believe was caused by antifreeze. After his work was done, we were left with a antifreeze leak from one tube. The mechanic showed us the leak was being caused by a rusty metallic pipe that spits into to two ways, and is pressed into the intake manifold.

I have a photo to show what I'm talking about:
Coolant leak

Location

The mechanic applied a silicon substance to remedy the leak, but it keeps leaking substantially. He told us that the rusty pipe is the cause of the leak and they couldn't find a replacement for it.

I tried to find if that pipe had a part number of it's own, but it doesn't, it's part of the intake manifold. The part number of the intake manifold is 17100-P2P-G00.

The rusted pipe in question is the following: Intake Manifold diagram (little pipe that splits into two ways, above number 23); The link is for illustrative purposes only. I'm not promoting the website.

What would be the best solution for this?. Is there a way to repair it?, should we replace the intake manifold altogether?. The complete OEM has been discontinued, if replacement is advised, should we look for a used one or is there a good aftermarket solution?

Our car details if necessary:

1996 Civic Coupe EX
1HGEJ8, D16Y8 1.6 VTEC SOCH engine
2 doors, 5 speed manual

And thank you all.

 

Replacing the manifold will be the cheapest and most practical way to replace that nipple. You should be able to find one relatively easy from a junkyard or ebay or whatever. They don't really wear out, per-se, so just try to find the best condition one you can and you'll be good.

Get that cooling system flushed as best you can and get some antifreeze in the system. Tap water is about the worst thing you can put into a cooling system, the insides of the passages are likely crusted with scale and your water pump has been running without the lubrication that the antifreeze provides.