I've been driving this 84 Z28 for several years now without a heater. I'm way past tired of it. I discovered the leak in the core when I found a puddle of antifreeze on the passenger side floor.

What is involved with removing and replacing the heater core?
Can it be done without ripping out the dash?

Thanks.

 

If im correct, you need the dash gone. It would be nice if you can get to it from just the bottom fill panel but it depends how small your arms are. Removing the dash is a pain to because you got to remove the center console too, or at least seperate the 2.

 

there must be somthing wrong with them cores in the 84s i have to freinds with 84 camaros and the core went bad on both of them, i wasnt there when they replaced it but they both said it was a Pain the the A$$

 

Well, its what I thought. I looked at a Haynes book back then and I recall seeing that the dash had to come out. Hence the reason why its still not replaced.
I spoke with a fellow a couple years ago that said it "could" be removed without pulling the dash, but it was still tedious and you should be a pretty skinny guy. Well I'm way far from skinny so that aint gonna happen. I was hoping I might hear a trick for an easy way, but I guess its unanimus. Its a PITA job.

Thanks all.

 

Helpful hint - don't try to take shortcuts over what the Haynes manual says. I thought I was smart and didn't need to drop the dash - wrong.

Since I underestimated the job so badly, I ended working on the car in the dark in my driveway. Start early in the day so that you can take the 5-10 breaks to be pissed off and still finish in daylight.

 

Well granted I have air tools it only took 1 1/2 hrs. How bad is that? Yea it seems tedious to rip it all apart but it is well worth it. With a 10mm, 13mm, 7mm, and #15 torx you can do the job. Just start by completely pulling the console (5min) and the drop the column completely. Pull the cluster and dash pad. Take out the four remaining corner bolts. Remove the center brace and speakers. Just go to it and it gives you a couple feet to play with. How bad is that?

 

Well, it's a hard job, but I managed to do it without taking apart the dash at all...

Just make sure you have someone there with small arms that can access all the little hidden bolts.

Jon

 

YES ,YOU CAN DO IT WITHOUT TAKING THEDASH OUT BUT IT IS VERY TIME CONSUMING ANG FRUSTRATING . JUST BE PREPARED TO LAY UPSIDE DOWN FOR A WHILE AND HAVE ANOTHER PERSON TO HELP YOU.

 

There's only one bolt that isn't easily reachable from below without removing the dash, the top-most one. On both of my cars I just ripped the cover off without taking that one bolt off, lol. The plastic tab Broke off around the bolt perfectly and worked fine, everything went back together on both cars 100%, no problems... Took like 45 minutes for each car. There was no way I was going to reach that sucker without taking the dash apart though I don't think.

Getting the actual core out of there is a little tricky too as it's tight. When putting it back in the car have someone with a flashlight looking into the engine bay at the holes on the firewall where the two tubes on the core need to pass through. They will be able to see the tubes when you're getting close and tell you which way to move it for them to go on through the holes. That helped me a bit.

 

So, it "has" been done successfully without pulling the dash...

Thanks sooo much for the helpfull replies fellas, I really preciate it.

If I go that route I may pull the passenger seat first so I don't break my back/neck accessing the backside of the dash. I think thats the worst part about underdash work. The damn seats in the way.
Lousy weather this weekend. Maybe next weekend will see the project start.
But then you know how it usually works out... perfect weather Mon thru fri.... and then rain.......

The last time I had the console out, it was a real pain. I couldn't separate the shifter extention. It was too tight and I was afraid that I would tweak something in the transmission. So I had to pry it up (the console) over the whole length of the shifter. everthing was in the way, the dash , seats etc. I ran out of daylight getting it back in. I was replacing the rubber shifter boot that bolts to the floorpan. The previouse owner had cut it out for some reason, and there was conciderable road noise and some fumes eminating from it.