I decided to put a heater core in my 89 rs today. I was prepared to fight with the car, but it was actually very simple to do. It took me approx 1hr to dismantle the dash and get it loose, so i could get at the heater box cover. I included some pictures because before i did the job, everyone told me it was going to be a nightmare. well, here's the pictures:

 

pic #2

 

u could have saved some time instead of riping ur dash apart. what my brother did in his 86 after he got it. he just took the bottem cover from under the dash off and just turned upside down to work on it and took him maybe like 2 hours or less to complete everything and start the engine. well just my 2cents.

 

Well, first i did just take the cover for the heater core off, but then i realized that my old box gaskets were rotted. So i went ahead and took the whole dash out so i can put new seals in it. Maybe that way some air might blow out my vents!

 

That's great if you have an '86, but we don't all have that luxury; I had to take out the whole dash, too. Damn, bradkeith - that is some fast work! Took me more like 6 hours to do mine.

 

6-8 hrs is what the guys told me it'd take. But i just went out started working on it and 60 bolts/screws and about 1hrs later it was off. With my luck it'll probably take 5hrs to get back together that way it'd even out.

 

Well, you know disassembly is the easy part. It's reassembly that separates the men from the boys

 

Ohhhhhh, 1 hour to get it out, yeah, ok that seems more like it.

You haven't put it all back together yet? Yep, that's the fun part! :lala:

 

hey joel what the hell do u mean by luxiery huh? since when is a 1986 sport coupe luxiery? answer me that okay. and the only camaro that i know is luxiery is the berrlanetta ( or how ever u spell it).

 

Calm down man. He didn't call an 86 camaro a luxury car. That's not something to get pissed about anyway. The luxury of having an 86 or earlier camaro is that you can get to the heater core from underneath the dash and it only takes a half hour or so to change. After 86, you have to disassemble the dash to get to the heater core.

 

i wish i had read this board b4 starting my heater core... i already removed the center console, instrument panel, etc. anyone have some directions i can follow when i finally get to the core?

 

Well with everything out you can do some good cleaning.
As for the heater core, my 86 luxury IROC took about 2 hrs.
The only hold up was the top screw on the heater box, pain in the @ss, took 30 min to get it out, 0 min to put back in.