So your coolant hose that connects from overflow tank into cabin heater core split or came off from the plastic tank connection?
If your hoses are wearing out and fairly greasy ( dirty an/or brittle) you should replace both hoses if you're comfortable.
You mentioned temperature sensor, is this the transmission fluid temp harness or the engine oil temperature sensor?

 

The connections at the plastic pressure and overflow tank are good. The engine coolant temperature sensor is on the back of the engine next to the fire wall in what I believe is called the water outlet. I think the water outlet is plastic.

Is the water outlet a known failure part? Anyone that has replaced these hoses did you remove the water outlet, rubber hose and metal coolant lines, or leave the the water outlet and remove the spring clamps in place.

 

The connections at the plastic pressure and overflow tank are good. The engine coolant temperature sensor is on the back of the engine next to the fire wall in what I believe is called the water outlet. I think the water outlet is plastic.

Is the water outlet a known failure part? Anyone that has replaced these hoses did you remove the water outlet, rubber hose and metal coolant lines, or leave the the water outlet and remove the spring clamps in place.

Yes to all the above.

Replace the outlet and the hoses at the same time. You will probably have to pull the vacuum pump to accomplish this. It is a good time to replace the valve cover as it also has all the PCV valves and by the time the hoses/water outlet has problems the PCV valves should be replaced as well. The entire valve cover includes all the seals and bolts and everything to make the job complete.

 

What a pain, can someone confirm (12659311) is the hose that blew?

in

 

That hose comes as part of the outlet assembly. No need to buy it seperately if you buy the outlet.

 

Look at the picture a little closer the hose that blew (passenger side)is not the one that comes with the outlet.

GM parts Direct was going to take a couple of weeks to get me the parts so I went to advanced Auto they ordered me the GM outlet and vacuum pump seal. I went in the back a found a hose that hopefully is close enough.

This truly is a terrible design.

 

Again, you are talking about the only PITA engine item there is to deal with on the LTG, ie, vacuum pump and water outlet and hoses.

In regards to service life, of course I am talking abotu the hose and the water outlet. In looking at the design, I am certain people would argue they should have went with a metal outlet hosuing, but considering it holds a thermostat internally and the temp sensor, making it out of plastic and forcing replacement of those parts at a given interval (say 150k+miles) is not such a bad design given the fact that both elements are critical to long-life and should be replaced (kinda like a tune-up).

In regards to packaging and placement in a given vehicle, the LTG was put in many vehicles. MOST have it mounted transverse (ie, sideways) for FWD/AWD applications (Buick Regal, SUVs, etc) and EVERYTHING is accessible in those applications. It just so happens that on the Alpha chassis they went longitudinal and that meanty stuffing it back against the firewall with little space in back with the only things back there are the vacuum pump, water outlet housing and the noise insulation panel bolts all facing backwards. I am sure if they ONLY expected to use the LTG in a front-to-back application they would have made some other changes, but as far as it being "engineered wrong" that is not the case. As evidenced by your own running for 195k miles over 11 years and finally having to deal with these elements is proof of the robustness and sutiability to application for these parts.

Everyone just gets upset because they have to do work on a vehicle with high miles. That is NOT the engineers fault. It is just what happens on older vehicles.

Again, this is not a N/A engine with low power production. This is a high-strung turbo engine with great output and fuel economy for what it is capable of.

 

I agree the LTG was designed to mount transverse. It seems the tables have turned in the 80's and 90's they were putting RWD engines in FWD cars and they were huge pain to work on spark plugs against the fire wall (V6) front of the engine against the frame rail. Now it's extremely hard to find a car with the correct drive train (rear wheel drive and manual transmission!) I have been debating selling while it would bring a reasonable sale price or I could run it in the ground. I can't decide what I would replace it with. I Have two kids so having something the good rear leg room would be nice they complain about not having enough space in the ATS. In a perfect world it would be a V8 manual transmission RWD four door sedan, made by Ford or GM.