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I recently had a problem when my 1988 Volvo N/A 740 nearly overheated because of a substantial coolant leak. Smelling antifreeze from the engine area, I opened the hood and found that a nipple had broken off of a metal valve-type thing stuck in the middle of a heater hose leading from the engine block to the firewall, so the connection to the hose had been broken and coolant was escaping. I put on my MacGyver hat and used a piece of a plastic bottle to splice the two ends of the hose together, in effect bypassing the valve, and it held together well enough to make it the 160 miles home. So, my question is, what is this valve, what does it do, do I need one, and how should I go about replacing it? I think it must be the thing that the Haynes book refers to as the "heater water valve," but the book doesn't really explain what it is for. So far, driving around with it bypassed doesn't seem to be hurting anything. Maybe I could just rig up a more permanent and secure splice and eliminate the valve entirely. I assume, though, that it plays a role in the operation of the heater, so I will probably want to have it in a couple of months when cold weather approaches. For now, I just kind of laid the old valve off to one side of the intake manifold. I kept it in place so that I wouldn't lose the little vacuum line that leads to it. Also, I was kind of hoping that it could be re-used, although with the nipple that attaches it to one of the hoses having been broken off, it's probably garbage. Besides, the little butterfly-type valve inside the nipple looks pretty nasty and trashed-out, so it may be a good idea to get a new one anyway, assuming it's not too expensive. Please give me some advice on how to proceed. Thanks.
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