Just had my car dyno tuned and the operator thought I had a blown head gasket(Scared the crap outta me). anyway, def wasnt a blown head gasket from checking all around and what not. He says its a bad heater core but reading a little bit on the tech site makes me think maybe something else is up. I have no fluid leaking anywhere and my accessories work just fine. Some insight would be great.

 

If you smell coolant from the vents, the core probably has a small leak. Open it up behind the glovebox and check it out before it gets worse.

 

Alot of times if the heater core has gone, you will notice a puddle or wet spot on the passenger side floor board area. Check there to make sure.
I smelt coolant in my cabin and while doing some checking under the hood, I noticed two 3inch cracks down the front of my radiator. Even though the radiator is at the very front of the car, I could still definately smell coolant. Does your temp gauge act normal or is it a little off (hot)?

 

I think a lot of ppl have this problem. It's prolly not a head gasket. I had that smell about 2 months after I did my headers. When I pulled the heads two weeks ago when i started my heads/cam job, the #2 cyl's metal band of the head gasket was slighty eaten at (nitrous backfire whoops, but the smell started before the backfire), but no tears or rips or holes for the coolant to leak. I put new head gaskets on, and put new heads on, and about 30mins of driving it, i caught a wiff of it. I know my head gaskets are fine, it's prolly the heater core or something.

 

floorboard isnt wet at all...not a drop. And this only started happening after my header install. Its only a slight wiff but obviously that isnt something normal. How will I know if the heater core has gone bad? simple inspection will probably tell me im assuming? Ill go through my ALLDATA prog to see if they tell me how to get to it without askin here first. thanks