2001 Antifreeze smell

Have an ocassional antifreeze smell coming from the heater. Probably a leaky heater core but I have not seen any antifreeze leaking anywhere. Anyone know how hard it is going to be to get to the heater core to check it? Looked through the manual and it says to empty the air conditioner to get at the heater.

it's possible the heater core could be fine. If you don't see any evidence such as water on the floor or condensation on the windshield inside the truck I wouldn't worry about it and I sure wouldn't attempt to get at the core, it's a pain.

If the heater core was leaking there should be more than just an intermittant smell. You could be smelling the radiator overflow which doesn't indicate any problem at all. Personally unless I saw evidence of problems that cause coolant smelling issues such as a leaking manifold etc. I wouldn't worry too much.

All you need is a pin prick in the heater core to get a smell. The little fluid just might be going out the drain tube.
I would get it check out asap before the snow flys and you need the heat.

I smelled anti-freeeze twice with my 97 Burb; first time at 40k miles it was a pin hole leak in the middle of the radiator and the fluid would evaporate before it hit the ground, and only leak when it got up to full pressure. The next time was at 63k miles when the water pump shaft seal slowly leaked and again, not enough fluid to puddle.
My rule of thumb is: IF YOU SMELL ANTIFREEZE IT'S LEAKING FROM SOMEWHERE, FIND IT!
And I do agree, if your windows don't have moisture on the inside then it's probably not the heater core.
I also had the heater hose that "plugs" into the intake manifold leak but it just looked like battery acid corosion.

There has not been any moisture on the windshield and I have looked throught the procedure to remove the heater core and I would rather go to get teeth pulled! I have not noticed the smell for several weeks now but I am going to check all hoses and and any evidence of leaks in the motor.

I had a 96 k1500 and had the same problem, only smelled antifreeze when it was hot . Could not see any puddles/leaks so i bit the bullet and took it in to have it checked out. It turns out that the rear intake seal was leaking only when the engine was hot and it was leaking onto the block and evaporating.....maybe GM has not fixed this known problem like many others. And i agree about it not being the heater core, if it was leaking your windshield would steam up on the inside and you would have a greasy feeling film (antifreeze) on the inside of the windshield as well.