I have a 97 LT1 formula and my heater used to work JUST FINE! i took the car to dealership to take care of a couple questions and sure as you guys know they always say "oh this is bad, that is bad, da da da da"

so, they told me that my heater cores are bad and they need to be replaced and i was like ok. well, ever since they did that job to my car, my heater NEVER worked. well, this was like 2 years ago.

i wanna do the job myself, please somebody guide me how to fix this. I would really appriciate it.

I am selling my 03 cobra and i will drive my LT1 from now on and i need to get this thing up and running soon!

thanks a lot!!!

 

Help please!! I need to get this thing taken care off! it is freezing out there!!

 

First off... are you sure they said cores and not core.. because if I remember right there is only ever one of them. Second, the only reason it would not work would be if water is not passing through it, or your fan does not work. If they replaced it there is no reason it should not work. There are no moving parts to it lol. jsut a small radiator really. The first thing I would do I guess would be to check if the hot water is passing through it. generally you could feel the hose connected to the exit side of the core to see if it is hot. If not, then the core is probably plugged up. If you have heat on the pipe. then something else is wrong.. like maybe they were shady and did not connect the heater core and just ran a hose.

Overall. there is no reason anyone needs to replace a heater core unless it is leaking.

As far as changing it out.. that requires moving the dash out a little i think to open up the heater box.. figure about an hour to 2 to get that done if it is your first time.

 

I had the same problem every winter in my 94Z, the car was stored every winter before I got it and the heater core was full of sediment. I had it flushed by a shop the first year and it was fine for that winter. The next year it was back to little or no heat, if the core was just replaced it may just be an air pocket. It seems the air in the system liked to gather in the heater core on mine, just a few options. Might want to try bleeding the cooling system or check the lines to see if there is any heat in them, the door might be stuck closed too blocking the core.

 

Make sure your coolant is full---and just don't rely on the over flow bottle---check the radiator it self. Check your floor boards under heater core to make sure you don't have a leak.

If your coolant is really old and has lots of acid in it, it can destroy a new heater core in a nano second.

Otherwise, as suggested, check to see if you have hot coolant in the lines.

And, of course, if you core is plugged you need to flush it.JMHO

 

Flush the heater core. No heat is probably THE MOST asked question when the weather turns cold.

 

I'm sure, I was asking the same question about 4 years ago.

 

Thanks for the suggestions guys. I will take a look at those.

but here is another question

1- how can i bleed the heater core?
2-how can I check and see if the heater core is pluged up and fix it?

 

Well you could take off the hoses going to it and take a garden hose and spray into it and try to get all the crud out. But yet heater cores are not normaly exposed to that high of psi that some hoses could push out into there if it is cloged. But I say it'd be worth a shot. If you break it, big deal you were going to have to replace it anyways if you didnt do that.

 

Oh, and also as to tell if its cloged or not, measure the temperature of the input hose and the output hose, there should not be a huge difference between the 2, but if there is there is a restriction.

 

There are a couple of bleeder screws, one is on top of the intake elbow/thermostat housing I think (its been a while since I sold my Camaro). You'd actually be bleeding the cooling system not just the heater core, once its heated up open the bleeder and wait until a steady stream of coolant comes out and it stops blowing bubbles. Depending on how long you need to run it like this you'll have to continue topping the system off to prevent it getting too low. It may be hard to tell with the heat coming off of the manifold but you could also check the hoses going to the core, if one is hot and the other is cooler the core may be plugged again. The garden hose flush isn't a bad idea to start if thats the case.

 

Irrelevant. It's an 11-year old heater core made of skinny tubes that get scaled up. I guarantee you don't have anything that will clear that stuff, pressurewise. Especially if it's been two more years you've waited.

Replace it. It's not a job that calls for pulling the dash to get to it, if memory serves correct.

30 minutes, if that, and done.

 

I'm wondering if they replaced the core, if it's the hoses themselves? On my Sunbird, the coolant overflow would never go down. Pulled the hose to it off and it was 100% plugged with what looked like bran.

Take out the 160° thermostat if you have one and go back to the 180°.

 

You might want to check the vacuum lines that control the heater box controls. Your heater box could be stuck in the A/C cold side which would not allow the fan to blow heat through. There are little black vacuum lines under the hood that could have came off while doing any general maintenance under the hood. This has happened to me before and is a very easy fix once you find the vacuum line.

Good Luck,

Matt

 

Thanks bros. I will try to do this ASAP. i just gotta wait till my alternator arrives so i can install it and then be able to starts the car!

I will get back to you guys. I better fix that thing cuz it is really freezin here!