Yeah, I hear you on the heat with the tape (that dawned on me as well). Patching with goop is kind of tough though given the hole. It's more of a "dig" out of the hose where it melted back or something or got cut into by something. This means in this one tiny little spot its actually like half a hose, and I'm worried goop anywhere near it would just close up the hose entirely (though I grasp what your talking about whit a hose over a hose kind of thing).

I'm thinking the best route is going to be to either cut out the small section of damaged hose and put in a little pipe around which teh ends of the hose will fit tight. Kind of like the T splitter connection used in the turbo vacuum lines and discussed by aleekat.

The other option would be to get another foam fitting thing like the one on the end of the hose (where it connects to the valve) and use that as a splice. Its the same dimensions and already prevents a leak at teh valve, so I figure it should be good for the middle of the hose as well. I can probably find one on any junker as well, which makes it easy.

Right now I just have it taped up with packing tape, though it is apparently "storage tape" from 3m "specifically engineered for extreme heat and cold" so... :)

Thanks for the post and the ideas.

-rt