Stupid Question

[Willy26]

I bought a 1994 LX wagon for parts and since it passed the emissions here in Ontario I put it through a safety and only needed to replace the right front strut to put it on the road and since it only cost me $300.00 I figured why not.

Now my problem is the heater core, ya I know take the whole dash out to replace it, but I was wondering if there was a way around that? My idea is to use the air conditioning Rad or evaporator whatever under the dash and turn it into a heater???? The air doesn't work anyways and what I was thinking of doing is cut the lines outside the firewall and get rid of the canister below the lines then flush out the whatever it is under the dash and then adapt the heater lines to it. Is there a problem with that???? I only paid $300.00 for it so if I get the winter out of it I will be happy and I bought it for parts anyways.

Now if that is not workable due to contamination, would it be possible to take just that side of the dash and get rid of the air and then adapt a heater core in it's place???? I don't care what it looks like because it is just a courier car and by next winter it will be scrap anyways. I was thinking of mounting the core in there somehow and then have the lines run through the firewall and have those lines covered with metal and clamped down so that the edge of the firewall doesn't cut them. Does any of these ideas sound feasable to anyone and worth looking into more???? Any help would be greatly appreciated as it is getting cool up this way and I will have to do this soon.

Thanks for your time.

Willy

Sorry I didn't realize that this had posted twice and a mod can get rid of the post marked stupid as that's how I feel now.

[mightymoose_22]

Just a courier car...

If you are not concerned with looks, you could get a new heater core and mount it to the passenger floorboard. You would have to come up with some creative ways to get the hoses and air ducts connected. Anyway... do all your jimmyrigging down there then put a cover over it... maybe even pull ou thte passenger seat if that is an option.

Sure... there are a number of ways you can make things work if you are creative enough. However, to get that other core out... there are no shortcuts.

[Black2000Ranger]

I think you could cut the firewall with some sort of saw, then take it out, but then your firewall becomes that much weaker.
Goto walmart and buy a heater that plugs into your cigarette lighter.
That's what I would do
Cheap, works a lot faster than escort heat, and then you dont have to tear your dash apart.

[mightymoose_22]

Now that would just make too much sense :P

[KimMG]

The only stupid question is the question not asked. Go ahead and try using the condenser as a heater core. After all what have you got to lose. Just flush it before hooking it up to the cooling system. I don't know if you are going to have problems with air pockets in the system or if the size of the tubes is going to be compatible with the heater hoses or if it is going to corrode and leak in a short time. May have to get an electric heater to augment it, but you possibly won't have to do any time consuming modifications to make the defroster work.