Any ideas how to repair a heater core in the vehicle?

This ain't real encouraging guys.

The Escort I can probably do through the firewall, wish I had known the core was bad when I had the engine out.

The Camaro is a whole nother can-o-worms. Ever see under the hood? Looks like someone grouted the engine in. I think you have to pull the rear brakes off the car sitting next to this one to replace the core.

The motorhome won't be too bad, it's so old I can probably just knock the extra rust off under the windshield and access through there. It's a '77 GMC that came with factory rust around the windshield anyway.

The truck is easy enough ('86 F150), done that one 'afore.

The Thing has a gas heater.

JohnF

Reply to
JohnF
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AIR, most have a cut-out panel on the passenger side of the black container under the dash. Remove the hoses from the engine side. Remove the glove box and using one of those hacksaw blade thingys or a hot knife, can cut through three of the sides around the panel and bend the panel out. Remove the core and take the core to a radiator shop, get one from the yard or get a new one and reverse the procedure. I think there is a repair kit you can get from the dealer to reseal the container. R. Wink

Reply to
R. Wink

I had an old clunker of a car when I was going to college. The heater core started leaking during the coldest part of winter. The radiator shop in town wanted $20 to fix it after I brought it in. No big deal taking it out but in

1965 $20 was beer money for the month. I called my POP collect of course and asked him if he knew of a quick fix. He suggested getting a can of coarse ground black pepper and pouring a tablespoon at a time in the radiator until the leak stopped. I did what he suggested and sure enough in about 20 minutes the leak stopped. I drove the car for two more years and it never leaked a drop of water after that. It worked for me maybe it can for you. Good luck, Dennis
Reply to
Gunluvver2

John, I'm faced with the same problem. My 86 Cadillac Cimarron has exactly the same problem. I had the heater core bypassed when in was discovered leaning in the spring, but now with winter approaching I need heat to defrost the windshield.

A replacement heater core comes in at about $50. Since you have to dismantle the entire dash to install it, labor estimates here are around $250 (Boston suburbs).

By contrast, I had a heater core leakage in my 1997 Ford Country Squire. The core itself cost me $40, and I was able to install it myself in around an hour.

It is for reasons like this that I am doing a complete restoration on my 1990 Ford Bronco XLT that I purchased new.

Unfortunately, since I live in New England, an operational heater is not an option!

I wish I had an option for you, but I'm faced with a very similar problem.

Harry C.

Reply to
Harry Conover

One point that can not be stressed too strongly is that every one of us should pay attention to what happens when you go too long without flushing your automotive coolant! Right now is a good time .. go get one of those little back-flush kits, install it, backflush your system (use a $5 can of flush if you care to, I did) and then fill with new antifreeze. It's called 'winterizing' and this is one of the big reasons why to do it. The other is that your radiator and heater hoses age much more quickly without the proper chemical balance in the coolant, and they can fail.

Lecture mode off ..

Grant Erwin

Reply to
Grant Erwin

I'm surprised I haven't heard any real horror stories here. About

10 years ago, someone I worked with paid a dealership $1700 to replace the heater core. IIRC it was a Thunderbird, and they had to almost completely remove the interior to get to it.
Reply to
Ken Finney

I turn my heater on for a few seconds once a week in the summer to keep stagnant water from sitting in the core. I also keep my cooling systems clean and flushed... I don't live in cold country, but try to do a flush once a year or so anyway.

Must be doing something right, I'm almost 51, and personally have never had a heater core go bad in one of my cars.

Knock on wood...

Erik

Reply to
Erik

Be glad it's not a Jag. Had one (older 4 door largish sedan)in the shop years ago with a bad AC evaporator. I had a very experienced Jag mechanic working for me. To get the evap out, the dash had to come out. To remove the dash, the "A" pillar garnishes had to come out - which meant the trim above the door had to come out, which meant the "B" pillar garnish had to come out etc on back the line to the "C" pillar garnish, and the screw that held it in was covered by the rear seat back cushion, and to remove it, the rear seat cushion had to come out. The only exposed screws in the whole process were those 2 that held the lower cushion, with each part from the back forward covering the screw that retained the next part that had to come off. And each of those trim peices was exquisite Walnut. TWELVE hours of labour got the beast dissassembled and reassembled - I'm sure it would have taken me half again that long.

Reply to
nospam.clare.nce

I have on several occaisions, on vehicles that were not worth the cost of a new heater core, much less the extensive labour required to change it, resorted to a couple ounces of "iron tite" boiler sealer.

On any of the vehicles so treated, the leaks were stopped, and the heater continued to function properly. In one case for over six years (the old crate just would not die).

I have also used Knights Aluminized Rad Sealer with mixed results - I say mixed results because it worked well when installed in cold coolant and run untill fully warmed up - when I removed the thermostat before installing it - but when installed in a hot system it just made a mess everywhere, and in a cold system with 'stat installed it fouled the 'stat.

The old "stop leak" cube also worked well on core leaks, and never gave me a problem with blocking passages. Not sure if you can buy them any more (about the size of a "bovril" or "OXO" cube)

Reply to
nospam.clare.nce

The local shops in town want $800.00 to do the Escort, god knows how much for the Camaro! I'll run heater hose on the floor and around the seats before I'll pay that much for a heater core replacement. The pepper thing worked for me in the past but I'd like something a bit more dependable as I've had mixed luck with that. The boiler stuff sounds like a "definate maybe". I didn't think about looking into cutting out some plastic though....sounds interesting and a hot glue gun would patch it up nicely.

The heater cores in most newer(?) vehicles flow all the time so there is no stagnant water in there, all the heat is channeled by flaps and doors vacuum controlled. I have noticed on most of the ones I've worked on that the in/out ports are at the top of the core as installed instead of at the bottom so there will be sedimentation.

Thanks, guys!

JohnF

Reply to
JohnF

My neighbor who has been an auto mechanic all his life swears it takes a short amount of time to cut it out through the fire wall. I recall my '62 Galaxie was a bitch. Dashes wouldn't be so bad if you had a clue to how they come apart and that they would stick to one type of driver.

Reply to
Sunworshipper

I'm not trying to bad mouth your neighbor here, bud, but you don't "cut it out through the fire wall". If this fellow has been an auto mechanic all his life doing this kind of work, I'm surprised he's still in business. Heater cores on most vehicles are really a tough replacement. I just changed one in my youngest son's hot rod El Camino and was pleasantly surprised by how easy it was. Every other one I've done, the heater core came down the assembly line as the first component and they built the vehicle around it.

Garrett Fulton

Reply to
Garrett Fulton

Sure, you don't if it's a vintage Corvette. If it's a beater, sure, you do. I know a guy who does it routinely. You imply there is something wrong with cutting the firewall, which there may well be. For the benefit of the rockheads among us (me being one) please say explicitly what is wrong with it. I know you give up a little fire protection but to some people who can't afford $1000 to pay a mechanic to replace a heater core and who have to have a heater and who have to have a car, maybe it's worth it. It seems to me it is a valid technique and one worth considering.

Grant Erwin

Reply to
Grant Erwin

If you've got a car that's such a beater that you don't mind that kind of maintenance being done on it, then I'm sure it's okay. I've never had a car that I hired out a heater core change to someone else. Never had a car that I cared so little about that I'd chop a hole through the firewall to get to a heater core. If you're okay with it, then I'm okay with it. On your car. And you probably don't really lose that much fire protection if the nasty repair is pop-riveted back together nice and tight, I reckon. Every factory service manual I've ever read does have good instructions on how to do the job, however. But it usually is an all day knuckle buster. I concede the point for people who won't do their own maintenance. What is that Gunner always says? "Shrug"

Garrett

Reply to
Garrett Fulton

I saw this too and wondered what car this "mechanic" was cutting up the fire wall to get to the heater core. I have replaced quite a few heater cores over the years and not one would have been accessable by cutting through the firewall. Every time there was another housing that you needed to get into to get to the core. It was not just magically on the other side of the fire wall. Greg

Reply to
Greg O

Ever see the size of an average heater core/evaporator/blower motor plenum assembly these days? There's about 2-3 feet long, 1 1/2 feet tall, and a foot deep. Must be one hell of a hole he cuts. And then there's the ductwork, AC lines, wiring, vacuum lines, brackets, etc. holding things up. If you're very lucky and your heater core has straight inlet/outlet tubes, you may be able to cut a hole in the plenum and extract it that way, but there aren't many cores like that.

The idea of getting one of these out (through the engine compartment no less), by simply cutting a hole in the firewall is laughable. I'd love to hear his technique for removing the rear core on some SUVs

Reply to
Rick

What's a heater core? The car I learned to drive - in cold weather, you wore a warmer coat. If you had to drive in freezing rain, just light a couple candles, prop them up close to the windshield and look out through the space between the flames. Mind you, they did make a heating duct to mount around the exhaust manifold and run the air stream through the rad, past the manifold and into the passenger compartment. I never had one of these because there was way too much leakage through the exhaust system gaskets once the were reused more than three times. Gerry :-)} London, Canada

Reply to
Gerald Miller

It takes good design. That was one of the better features of even the older air-cooled VWs, IMO.

Unfortunately, the old ones (I don't know about the newer ones) worked off of waste air from the cooling system, which caused three problems. First, there was never enough of it. You could freeze your buns off waiting for some heat, and, if it was below 10 deg. F or so, it never came. Second, there was never enough flow to do a good job on the windshield. Third, if there was an exhaust leak somewhere else, and if it found its way into the cooling air, you could still get gassed.

Aside from the third problem, there was an easy solution: buy a $35 blower (or two, one for each side, preferably) from J.C. Whitney. They resided under the back seat. And they worked like a charm.

Ed Huntress

Reply to
Ed Huntress

The device I refer to was designed for the model "A" and was simply a duct mounted to surround the exhaust manifold and direct the heated air/exhaust leakage int the passenger compartment. I owned a '63 VW - the first to get the gas fired heater after market installation, worked great the first year the needed a new control thermostat every year thereafter @`$150.00 per.

Gerry :-)} London, Canada

Reply to
Gerald Miller

I can't believe anyone would do this. I would NEVER cut through a firewall. That would be like cutting a hole through your hood to remove the engine, or change the oil. Yes, some heater cores are a royal BITCH to get at. But cutting the firewall? Not an option in my book. There are just too many things that could be a "gotcha"; cutting wires, clamps, cables, creating rattles and other problems. Nope; no way, no how, would I ever do it.

Lane

Reply to
Lane

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