Here's the story.

My heater core went kablooie last weekend when I was stuck on the interstate in traffic. I had to turn on my heater to help the 2nd fan to cut on. My 1st fan doesn't kick on till around 245-250F. I know, that's hot, but that's just the way it is sometimes.

Anywho, I sat in the traffic for about 8 minutes before I was finally able to get over and turn the car off. My radiator, overflow tank & everything was fine. My car reached 255F before I was able to pull over with both fans going at it to keep my engine cool. I was happy my car didn't overheat (what a difference a new heavy duty water pump, new fan motors, new radiator and heavier cap will make!).

However, my heater core finally blew all over of my towels that I had set up underneath it on my passenger side footwell. My heater core started to go bad back in February so I just put a couple of towels to keep the carpet neat. It worked thankfully. Well, the heater core was out & I got home fine. I started the process of removing it & I had a new heater core on stand by.

A week later and the job is done! It took me 3 days and 4.5 hours to do the work and I'm so freaking happy about it because even though there is some a.c. condensation from the core leaking now it works! No more coolant leaking & now I'm beat from the job.

One thing I learned from this heater core job was that the dashboard DOESN'T NEED to be removed. Now I gotta put that thing back on and every single 7mm screw I took out. But for those who want to change out their heater core, don't be swayed, it's not as hard as it sounds & it takes alot of patience!

 

i too was nervous after reading the haynes manual for this task. but, like you, i found that as long as you can be a little flexible, you can get all the screws out without removing the dash. much better that the 87 taurus i had done before where the dash must come out....

 

You're right. My mechanic didn't really want to do the job because it's a long job and his hands are alot bigger than mine, so it would've been a pain for him. It was enough of a pain for my hands, lol, but it worked out in the end.

I found out yesterday that I didn't tighten the main heater hose enough so I had some coolant coming from underneath the heater core. I re-tightened the heater hose but I think this whole installation was more of a lesson for me since I'm tearing out the heater/a.c. system for my ongoing project.