95 GA Heater Core bypass/Wet Floor

[gse2schmidt]

2 questions

lost my heater core in august, lost coolant out the drain in the firewall and the carpets never got wet! cut the coolant lines at the core and installed a bypass hose on the engine, runs and drives fine

1.)now when it rains the front carpets get wet and it sometimes soaks the rear carpets. When the heater core failed did it melt/damage some seal. I'm getting ready to have the heater core fixed, is there some gasket that might be a good idea to replace, or do I have plugged drains near somewhere that the winshield water runs off to drains or something.
The car has been sitting, so I don't know if it is an issue when driving.

2.)heater core hoses have a bypass valve molded in them. Is this really needed? would it really matter that the hoses have a bypass? I want to replace the hoses with just heater hose and not buy a bypass/hose assembly. Popped the old assembly apart. It just seems if there is too much flow to the core the bypass valve bypasses the core on pressure only. The spring could be thermally activated so what every other vehicle I've owned just had the 2 hoses to the heater core, but I don't want to cause a cooling issue(wouldn't it cool better without flow being bypassed, causing more coolant more places?

[skibum1111]

Sounds like you have a quad 4 motor. Yes, it sounds like you have plugged drains, remove the plastic tray by the wipers and clean all the crap out of the corners. As for the second question, buy the correct heater hose assembly, I know its kind of expensive, but it has that bypass valve in there for a reason. The heater core can't handle the volume of coolant the water pump puts out over approx. 3k rpm, which is why that bypass valve is there. If you just run straight hose to the heater core, there are 2 different sizes of hose used, 3 of the connections are 3/4 inch hose and one is 1/2 inch. By running straight hose, when you are running at higher revs water pressure forces the thermostat open, causing the car to run cold and you to have no heat when its really cold out. I found this out the hard way, and changing the heater hoses when its cold out is a miserable job.