> Do the coolant hoses need top be removed or is there enough slack? Opinions?

I did that O-ring on my GL recently. It's supposedly a "rebuilt"
engine still had what appeared to be the original O-ring, hard as
rock, split in two places, without the "improved version" ears to hold
it on, spewing oil....

Unfortunately, there's essentially NO slack in those coolant hoses,
and getting the heat exchanger off and back on the hoses is a bit of a
chore. Some people have had luck tightening a secont retaining nut
over the first on the pipe in the center of the heat exchanger, but
most of us don't have a second nut, so it's the hard way for us. I
took the opportunity to change out both the little elbow hoses on the
bottom, the necked-down hose on the T-stat housing at the other end of
the long metal tube, and the fourth small hose at the other end of the
'C' shaped tube connecting the water pump to the heat exchanger. It's
pretty much a "can of worms" class job. It's easier to change the
O-ring if you just cut off the old hoses, and the job of getting the
whole thing back together is a little easier if you detach the two
metal pipes, and to get the metal pipes off you have to pull the AC
compressor and intake manifold. It's up to you how much you want to
do, but I would order the four hoses anyway, just in case you find
that going whole hog is the only way you can get everything back
together in without too much pain.

--
John Bange
'90 Vanagon - "Lastwagen"
'90 Vanagon GL - "Wiesel"