97 k1500 5.7 heater core replacement

My heater core is leaking bad! Want to do it myself, but I talked with by buddy that works at goodyear and he said that I will have to remove everything on the dash, even the instrument panel!!! He also said that the ac needs to be messed with and the freon done again. Is this true or is there another way to do it that the mechanics book doesnt tell him?? Any help is greatly needed!!

thanks

Heater cores can be a real bitch!
Not recommended for the feable minded.
you need to be fairly mechanically able and pocess a wide varity of small hand tools to even attempt one.

If you decide to go for it buy a book, and plenty of band-aids.

Opposite the heater hose connections at the fire wall (cab side) is an air handler plastic box, inside of it lives both the AC evaperator coil, and the heater coil, your job if you decide to take it is to go inside and remove the heater coil, to do this widely varies from vehicle to vehicle, and you do not necessarily have to remove the AC coil, as far as the instrument panel is concerned, the last one I did I had to remove the gauge cluster in order to facilitate removing air ducting behind the instrument panel.
Take your time and be very patient this job requires many hours of labor.

GOOD LUCK-

Mike

I went and looked at the factory manual in the shop where my buddy works and it looks to be worth the 400.00 in labor charges for him to just do it. This little stuff is not my thing. I have done clutches, breaks, shocks and that kind of stuff. so i think i could do this. but puting the dash back together seems to be another story.

thanks for the input.

RJ

I have a 1996 Tahoe had a hose leak and had to do some inside clean up, I looked in all the manuals except the factory sevice manuals and they all say remove everything way tooooo much work so I studied my tahoe and I found to get to the heater core all I had to do is remove 7 small screws from the bottom of my case ( look where the heater hoses enter under the hood then look under the dash ) remove the hoses and a clamp the core was out, no removing the dash or ?, you might have to move the carpet out of the way to find the screws in the back. $400.00 to do the 10 minute job I do not think so.
hope this helps

I will look at it. if that is true, then I will be really happy to save some money and get it done. So there are seven screws that come out on the bottom. Will look at it and see what i can do. I went and looked at the chilton book and tha said i needed to take out that whole box with the fan, the mechanica book said the whole dash, box and a/c had to come out!! maybe that is the hard way for increased quoting prices, and the job really only takes 10 min.

thanks for the input.