Hi all. I am working on a heater core project. I have my old one out and sitting next to my new Delco unit. However the Delco tubes point about straight up and my old core's tubes point at a 45 degree angle. So I go down to Autozone, Schucks, NAPA and sure enough they all look like the DELCO one and different than the one I pulled out. What gives? I can't get the DELCO unit in the car because the tubes aren't shaped right. However my old one goes back in very easily. The DELCO tubes would have to move at least 1.5". Anybody else have this problem? How did you fix it. BTW the one I pulled out of my car is a Harrison.

Thanks
John

 

I bought mine at Advance and it wasnt too much of a problem. I did need to bend them some, but not nearly 1.5". I just got it close, then stuck the rubber handle of a set of pliers through the firewall and bent it where I needed it. I'd say it was like 1/4 inch though, you cant do this 1.5". Sounds goofy to me...do you have a pull a part near you, just go take one out of a car there maybe.

 

sounds like you have the wrong core. I just replaced my core a little while ago and i also got the wrong one the first time around. Seems to be some confusion over part#'s or the stores software

 

I don't think so. I checked GM, Autozone, NAPA, and Schucks. They all looked the same, and different than mine.

 

John, I carry the one for your car with the bend.If your stuck let me know. Here's a link to them. Camaro Heater Core

T

 

Tony do you have any pics of the actual product? I'd like to see the tubes before I buy. If it looks good I'll buy from you.

 

Sure here you go

 

No good Tony. Yours looks like everyone elses. If you look at your picture, on my old core the tubes point more towards the top of the picture instead of out of the computer screen.

 

Thats strange. I looked into this deeper for you over here,that should be the one for every camaro that year.

 

Yeah I can only imagine what happened. The more I think about it the more I suspect I bent the tubes of the old one when taking it out of the car. Which ironically makes it really easy to get it in and out of the two firewall holes. So I bent my new heater core to look like the old one, and it went in really easily. However the tubes through the firewall now point a bit towards the driver side of the car instead of straight ahead.

I would like to get this correct, even if it involves buying another core.

So maybe I'm being dense installing this thing. The core sits in the heater box. When you remove the heater box cover you see the core sitting behind a plastic door thats held closed by two screws. Agreed? When you remove the two screws the door can open a little and you can get to the metal clamp that holds the core to the door. Two more screws holds the clamp in. Remove the metal clamp, open the plastic door all the way, remove the old core. Sound right?

 

87............Yes the tubes won't be straight coming out of the firewall. At
least after it put a core in my 84 it didn't! But I did have to bend them a bit
to get them thru the firewall holes with help of a friend and a tool or 2.

Its funny that I have read here that others had to drop the whole heater/ac
box down to replace the core. Funny I read how you just unbolted the little
door and there the core sits!!!!!!!!!!! Same deal for me too !

 

I believe there were multiple setups for the core. My father's 82 was a pain to get at 1 screw on the top of the cover. My 87, the top screw was fairly easy as long as I could get my hand in there. I also didn't have any issues with the core install. I bought an AC Delco heater core from a Delco distributor. The tubes were perfectly aligned and went into the firewall easily. I just needed a dowel from the engine side to guide the tubes thru the rest of the firewall. The hardest part for me was getting the hoses off the tubes on the engine side. GM had the screws facing down so I couldn't get at them.

 

Interesting Scott. I wish I took some pictures while I had it apart. Let me explain what mine looked like and can you tell me if that sounds the same as yours?

1. I already had the hush panel, ECM, kickpanel, dash pad, speaker out for a dynamat project.

2. remove hoses from heater core at the back of the engine bay

3. remove 4-5 screws to remove the heater box cover, the top one wasn't to bad with the dashpad and speaker out.

4. with heater box cover removed, you can now see the middle of the heater core, the outside is framed/covered by a black plastic door. You can see two 7mm screws. With these screws removed the black plastic door can 'open' a little, which moves the heater core with it

5. the heater core is attached to the black plastic door on the other side by two more 7mm screws and a little metal bracket. The heater core also is held in on the door 'hinge' side by a metal clip. remove the 7mm screws and bracket, now the black plastic door can open all the way giving you access to the heater core.

6. remove the heater core, it will easily slide out of the metal clip on the door hinge side

done, does that sound the same as yours?

For installation what did you do first?
-attach the heater core to the black plastic door, then close the door hoping the heater core tubes would fall through the fire wall
OR
-get the heater core tubes through the firewall then try to attach it to the black plastic door

 

Have to attach it to the door first. The door can get held up on some linkage, which will drive you insane and make you want to rip all of your hair out. You might need to notch the plastic if it does get caught up on the linkage. No biggie. My ends were off a little and required some bending too. It's just what happens.

 

Sounds the same as yours. The screws I was referring to are the hose clamp screws. To remove the hoses, I fought for hours to release the screws since they were facing down. I couldn't get a tool on them. the removal and install of the heater core was the same as you mentioned and I did install the core back to the door before installing it under the dash. My installation was as simple as it could get.

 

Thanks guys, I guess it wasn't my time to have an easy install. I did get it in by the way. But I had to bend up the tubes a lot, then it slipped right in. So the tubes aren't quite straight in the engine bay but it should work fine.

Scott,
I know what you mean about the stock hose clamps. Actually I dont, I replaced the hoses and put on new clamps when I had the engine out.

 

It was your time. It's just a heater core, and in 90% of cars, you're better off selling the thing than doing a DIY heater core! :P Thirdgens are really easy, in comparison to most cars. Have to agree with Scott though, after cutting the hoses off of the nipples on the outside of the car, I then had problems getting the new hoses onto the pipe that sits behind the engine. >.< I used thumb-tightening hose-clamps on them though. I can change those hoses in a parking lot now. :P