mike graycar

iTrader: (2)

question: how hard is it to change out a heater core in a 91-92 z-28? i had and have an 84 -87+88. i was offered 300 bucks to change out a heater core in a 91. the girl who has the car says the dealer wants big bucks to change it. none off my old ones were that hard. am i missing something?

mike graycar

iTrader: (2)

help, um, hello- is this thing on?

RBob

iTrader: (1)

Takes about 4 hours in a '92. When I did mine the first step was to remove the passenger seat. You'll thank yourself later. Dash pad comes off, console removed, gauge cluster, radio pod. I had so much plastic sitting around I asked one of the kids to carry it off and pile it elsewhere!

Then there is the airbag. You are working so close to the steering wheel. . .

RBob.

mike graycar

iTrader: (2)

thanks! will i need any special tools to do this job? and do i have to pull the computer? all the sudden 300 bucks hardly seems like it's worth it

mike graycar

iTrader: (2)

hey, when you said the guage pod do you mean the whole dash has to come out

fireturd350

iTrader: (8)

Ok here's how you do it... on my 90 bird it took me a weekend... you pull dash pad, take dash apart it has to unbolt from firewall and lay in the seats you take the hoses off the old core from under the hood and you unbolt the cover of the core from the cab area the core will pull out from inside the hood it helps if you have an assistant gently push on the tubes to get it out. I would pick up a Tech Book on it at autozone or something thats what I used. Really easy to do just got to take your time and remember where all the bolts go.... Shop said like 9 hours of labor to do it and that's if the guy has done it before on that style of car. That's an outrageous fee.... dang part was only 30 bucks at autozone.

mike graycar

iTrader: (2)

super, so i guess i'll start early. fireturd, did you take out the console on your bird?any ways to "cheat" on this repair?

fireturd350

iTrader: (8)

Well I just started tearing into things cause it went out acouple days after I bought the car... imagine that..... *stupid people covering up the problem*.... anyways like I said go to autozone or a parts store pick up a manual for your car. The way I remember I didn't pull any seats for my 90 bird.... Let's see if I can remember how I did it.... You start by doing normal stuff disconnecting the battery and disconnecting the air bag connection under the dash (the manual walks you through that) and then removing the pad it has acouple screws by the edge then 4 up by the center vents near the windshield. After that I took the passenger and driverside panels off there held on by like 3 screws on passengerside and 3 or 4 on driverside. I can't really remember the rest but I know you have to drop the steering column which is easy you just take the 2 screws out (hidden by little pegs) and pull the curved panel off under the steering (make sure you don't lose your metal pieces on the side they like to fall off at times. ) The column is held by 2 little nuts that are on a V shaped metal piece take those off while your holding the column with a knee cause it will drop and just lower that to the seat and let it sit there. After that it's mainly like I said taking the dash apart and unbolting all the screws from the firewall (I think I even pulled the radio and AC out of console don't know if you have to do that) then you just lay the dash in the seats. Might sound complicated but it's really easy just time consuming. I had no clue what I was doing and it came out ok just by reading the manual. The core is inside a lid once you get dash apart held by 4 screws each on a corner... I was able to get 3 of them out but my extension couldn't reach the last one.... far left and upper one if I remember right... by that time I was getting pretty made... cause here I just bought a car and I had to tear it apart to fix something so I grabbed the lid and just yanked and ripped the corner off the side that was still bolted.... Course I wouldn't recommend that. The core comes out pretty easy you might have to cut the hoses if they don't come out but try to pry them off with a screw driver or something first cause there special curved hose and I cut fine then I used part of the old cores copper tubing to make the angle out of 2 new hoses... It worked just wasn't all that pretty.

Mainly like RBob said your going to have plastic laying all around. If you don't have a manual for the 3rd gen f-bodies I would just buy one there well worth it.... I've used fine several times but heck just using it once for the core pays you back like 6+ times.

As for tools don't need anything special just sockets rachets, maybe acouple screw drivers.... Once you have the dash out you have it made it's easy after that.... just got to remember to put all the bolts and nuts up somewhere I like using zip lock baggies and putting labels (dash pad, gauge cluster, pass. pannel, dash top to firewall) with perm. marker on them so I know exactly where they go when I start reassembling. Makes it a lot easier when you go back and you just spent acouple hours cursing and throwing parts and now you have no idea where all these bolts go.

mike graycar

iTrader: (2)

thanks, i'm almost done. what a pain in the ###

larsulrik1

My 92 just left me a puddle in the floorboard. What's the difference between the 82-85 and 86-92 that makes one an upper dash pad and lower passenger pannel removal of the earlier models compared to the 86-92 entire dash and console removal? I read the tech article and I like the two dash pads and some screws version a lot better than the lengthy post above. Thanks!