bad heater core?

LKuilder

LKuilder

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Joined
Jul 10, 2008
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So I've had water on my passenger side floorboard off and on all summer. And noticed more and more anytime I turned the temperature control towards heat a bit of a smell of antifreeze. And now I've been noticing more and more that anytime I have even just the heat on my windows are fogging up. And leaving a horrible film on the windows as well. Its even worse when I actually have the defrost on as well. I'm assuming this is a bad heater core?

If so, how much of a pain is it really to change it out? I'm not really in the mood to mess with it right now with as busy as we are in the shop with our race trucks and a few projects we're working on for others. Any idea of a rough guess of how much it would be for say a dealer to put one in for me?
 
Just got in the house from changing one in dad's truck tonight... I've done quite a few but I did this one in a little over an hour. If you get a core from Autozone that has the swiveling lines that go from the core to the hoses on the other side of the firewall, all you have to do is loosen the 5 8mm bolts on along the top of the dash, the two 13mm on the right and left side (under) the dash, the 4 10mm bolts under the plastic cover on the center of the floorboard, and loosen the two 10mm nuts that hold the steering column to the dash and you can slide the dash back 10-12 inches.

You need to take a sawzall and cut the lines of the stock heater core to remove it without loosening the HVAC box, then you just need to fight the new one with the swiveling lines into place...

Lavon
 
They aren't terrible to do, but they are time consuming.

I've heard mixed reviews on the swivel ends - I put one in and it lasted all of a year before it was leaking. You can install one without the swivel ends without removing the HVAC box and disconnecting the A/C. Its a pain, but it can be done.

I'd say plan for at least a few hours for your first one.
 
j-rod said:
They aren't terrible to do, but they are time consuming.

I've heard mixed reviews on the swivel ends - I put one in and it lasted all of a year before it was leaking. You can install one without the swivel ends without removing the HVAC box and disconnecting the A/C. Its a pain, but it can be done.

I'd say plan for at least a few hours for your first one.
Click to expand...

Never herd of the swivel ends myself. I have seen a few guys just splice the lines in the cab. Cut them off and leave the lines from the old one, cut the new cores lines to mate to the old ones and tie them together with some heater hose..

I did mine last fall, not bad at all after doing my buddies 96. His was terrible! But the newer interiors and dash setup are not nearly as bad.$.02
 
Thanks for the replies. Anyone have an estimate of how much a dealer or repair shop would be for replacing the heater core? Just trying to get a ballpark guess.
 
Dealer I think charges either 8 or12 hours to do the job and around 300 for the core. I know when I had them quote me back in 2003 for the one in my 2000 I decided then and there I would buy aftermarket and schedule my next day off accordingly.
 
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