OK, it is clear to me your preference is for the right reason. Smashing an old hose is always one of those considerations that would prevent me from using a pinch-off device, e.g. the 12mm hose between fuel tank and main pump, where the crud and deteriorated hose could break off and clog close-tolerance stuff like the rollers in the injection pump. I use a cork there.

Or you'll see suggestions now and then around here to clamp off a nylon fuel hose.

And where the heater hose is concerned, the wrong clamp, such as a heavy one, could wind up doing just the same thing my friend's Home Depot bypass did, if positioned wrong.

I really do like the idea of a "suitably-sized barbed hose plug with the correctly sized hose clamp over it." Bob most certainly lives near a marine store, and I checked; the hoses are as you recalled, 5/8" ID. That dimension makes it no sweat (ouch) to use a pair of 1/2" street ells from the plumbing dept. I would much rather leave these $1.69 plugs under the hood than leave my hose pinchers. But I wouldn't know where to find the barbed plugs except on line.



Thanks Tony, for your patience with me.
--
Art Benstein near Baltimore

King Ozymandias of Assyria was running low on cash after years of war with the Hittites. His last great possession was the Star of the Euphrates, the most valuable diamond in the ancient world. Desperate, he went to Croesus, the pawnbroker, to ask for a loan.

Croesus said, "I'll give you 100,000 dinars for it".

"But I paid a million dinars for it," the King protested. "Don't you know who I am? I am the king!"

Croesus replied, "When you wish to pawn a Star, makes no difference who you are."