>Also, anyone that has done this repair and has some tips it would be much
>appreciated.

Copy of a recent post by Bill Kasper [dragonlist@IPMTS.UCSC.EDU]:

i just replaced one of my long coolant pipes with wet exhaust hose.  i
tried to run it in a single piece from the front to the back, but the
longest length i could get was 10'.  i had bought 30' of 1 3/8" hose
which was TOO SMALL in diameter to fit over the flange on the radiator
stub and on the plastic distribution T.  so i got 10' of 1 1/2"
shieldsflex II (series 250) wet exhaust hose from my local west marine
and it works fine.  i used the original stub hose on the radiator end
(the one that goes on the flange that sticks straight back out of the
radiator, and is bent a couple of times before attaching to the long
hose), but then cut the shieldsflex an inch too short! and had to use
most of the trimmed piece to make a spacer section.  to connect the
spacer to the long hose, and the long hose to the front stub hose, i
used dremel-trimmed pieces of the original plastic pipe and two
stainless steel clams on either side of the join...used about three-inch
pieces of the long coolant pipe.

bled it out and so far, so good.  gonna keep an eye on it for a while,
and do some freeway driving to make sure it's all ok.

shieldsflex II costs about $7/foot.