It takes more than a leak to sink the Bird.

After doing some errands and eating some food a half hour from home, the beautiful sight of steam billowing from beneath the hood of the bird appeared! Further investigation revealed a hole spraying coolant directly onto the hot exhaust manifold. Since this exact scenario happened a few years ago while driving the Mont, I was prepared. We grabbed the duct tape, hose clamps, screwdriver, and extra coolant to patch it up quick. Unfortunately, it was done spraying and dark out so my first patch attempt missed the hole, which then began spraying again several minutes later. We were quicker on the draw the second time and started patching the hole while still being able to see where it was leaking. The trick is to cover it in duct tape (the heat seems to melt it on and seal it up fairly decent) and then put a clamp [ideally] directly over the hole, or on either side to isolate it inside the duct tape, or just as good as you can get it. Ran it for a minute to check for leaks and we were off.  It held up for the half hour ride home with no problems – sweet. A new hose and it’ll be good as new…

Update: after putting in the new hose, I tore the tape off the old one, and it turns out there was a deep, 3″ long crack in it! I’m not sure how it got there, but it was probably leaking in a couple places…