remove heater core without removing whole dashboard

[teambilly]

http://www.airsept.com/Articles/Recy...cs_SR03.03.pdf

this is interesting! too bad i just found it last night after i spent the last week removing my entire dashboard steering wheel/column. etc.

[shorod]

That is very interesting. I'll be curious to see if anyone has the misfortune to try this, how it works for them. That may be a very excellent find.

Thank you for letting your first post be a helpful one rather than a question (not that we don't enjoy questions)!

-Rod

[teambilly]

Bummer...

now i seem to have the same problem others have had:

new heater core -
flushed radiator -

put everything back together and car warms up good (98 ford Taurus)
Hoses are all warm and working, bypass hose is hot - but hoses going to and from heater core are luke warm at best.

I checked the hoses and none are plugged, water pump is pushing water with good pressure...

It seems the hot coolant is taking the path of least resistance - through the bypass hose instead of through the new heater core...

I have seen other post's where people have pinched off bypass hose or removed --- but i just can't see Ford putting in that bypass hose, and having 99% of the hot water go through it and bypass the heater core...

thoughts???

thanks,
bill

[medicmandan]

Originally Posted by teambilly

http://www.airsept.com/Articles/Recy...cs_SR03.03.pdf

this is interesting! too bad i just found it last night after i spent the last week removing my entire dashboard steering wheel/column. etc.

I came across that when I was searching how to do my core as well.

Did you replace the water pump? When I took mine off there was nothing left of the blades. Replaced it and my heater works quite a bit better. I wouldn't say 100%, but better. Next step is to find a way to restrict flow through the bypass some. I had some vice grips on there for a while but didn't want them cutting into the hose.

[TaurusKing]

My 99 has excellent heat, however many don't... seems it may have something to do with the system of heater hoses, I don't have the answer, haven't had the problem yet, but people all over the web seem to have this issue.. I agree with teambilly

[teambilly]

you were right medicmandan --- i just took off the water pump - and the blades are gone!..

off to autozone tommorow to get a water pump and see if i can get my heat back!

[medicmandan]

Originally Posted by teambilly

you were right medicmandan --- i just took off the water pump - and the blades are gone!..

off to autozone tommorow to get a water pump and see if i can get my heat back!

I've had to flush my heater core 3 times since I replaced the water pump last October. Just FYI.

[rick444]

My 2000 had rusty coolant, failed bottle and rotted pipes to the heater core; also poor heat.
I fabricated a rubber hose and some copper stubs and flushed heater with air pressure and water from garden hose. Just let some compressor air in at about 80 psi...take it easy...thru a slit in the water hose and the mix of microbubbles restores the heater core.

The system is ok now, and the microbbbles were a great dislodger and restorer.
I think the problem started when the oe coolant went bad and the bottle failed due to the air leaking in and hurting the coolant. I learn that "special"
coolant is now admitted by ford to be no good. Sorry to say I have to live with the leftover rust forever despite my cleanup effort, altho sucessful.Its been 25000 miles. That coolant fiasco should have been compensated!!!Agree???

Has anybody else suffered from this coolant misadventure?

[mwt47]

I spent twenty minutes looking for a picture of it but Ford finally added the bypass kit in 98 or 99 and a major part of it is a braided ground wire that goes from the water pump to the heater core.

Also the Impeller on the Vulcan waterpump is notorious

If you run a bottle of Prestone Super Radiator Cleaner it will help.

I had the Brown Coolant problem on my 99 Vulcan.
I flushed my system until it was nice and clean only to have it come back.

My 99 had the Bypass hose kit installed but did not have the ground that goes from the heater core to the water pump.

EDIT: didn't realize I posted in the 2 year old link. Sorry

This is how I finally made it go away and it hasn't returned.

1.Totally flush the system with the Prestone Radiator Super Cleaner.
2.Pull the Heater hoses and flush and flush and then back flush and back flush
Flush and flush and flush then
Back flush ,backflush,backflush
Hook the hoses back up and run it for a while with straight water

3.Change the water pump
4.Run another bottle of Super Radiator flush for the proscribed 6 hours.
5. drain and pull the heater hoses and flush and flush and well you get the picture.
6. make sure you install the ground wire. I grabbed one from the salvage but you can just make one.
7. Change the Expansion tank/resovoir with the current updated version.
8. Fill with the proper amount of anti freeze.

It's been 4 winters and now brown coolant or no heat problems.