I have a 1985 Firebird and the heater core just went out last week. I drove it for a while by just connecting the overflow hose from the core back into the engine. Anyway, I took out all the screws in about 45 minutes. They are all 7mm and 8mm. I took off the dashpad as advised in Chiltons and online, but did not find a reason to do so (except that I ended up putting new speakers in the front). The total job only took about 1 1/2 hours tops. I did break one screw off of the plastic housing, but no biggie as 6 seems overkill for that. Expect the core itself to be hard to pull out. Once of the pieces just to the left of the core itself is plastic and sort of like a flap (its triangle shaped)..just move that as far as you can to the left and you probably will have to yank the core out.) I pushed the core in as far as I could from the engine compartment side by pushing the core tubes in; that seemed to help with the final pull.

One thing to note: I bought a cheap core from Autozone. I had to bend the tubes every so slightly to get them to match up from the original core. I would NOT recommend bending them from Autozone..as they are pretty cheap and could crack easily. If I had to do again, I would buy and OEM as another member suggested.

 

My factory heatercore finally bit the dust last winter (YES OUT OF ALL TIMES IT DECIDED TO GO IN THE MIDDLE OF WINTER!). I had to lay on my back in two feet of snow for 4 hours replacing the damn thing. Once finished, I jumped for joy at the thought of not having to do this job again for another 25 years.

 

I had the guy do it because i didn't have the right knowledge to do it. The reason why it took them so long was because the heater core i bought from summit was an aftermarket one and didn't fit into the brackets, and when i was at the place the guy that supplies them brought the same one. After 2 hrs they found an aluminum core and they took the tubes off my old brass one and brazed them on. Nothing was broken, these guys have been working on these cars for 40 yrs. I tried doing it myself. I followed the chilton/haynes and i took off the whole dash and speaker pod and still couldn't get the screw. So i said screw it. (No pun) The easiest way is to just remove the ecm bracket. No reason to remove the dashboard or speakerpod. It's sad that i had to observe to actually realize how easy this job is.

 

As has been said, this is actually a very simple procedure, with the exception of two things you need to be aware of.

Ignore whatever TF the chilton manual says, here is the real deal.

1) Remove the lower hush panel from the passenger side of the dash. It really helps to slide the passenger seat all the way back, so you can lay of the floorboard. Luckily, at the time my heatercore went out, I had the passenger seat pulled to put in my new carpet. Despite it being winter, it actually picked the PERFECT time to go vs leaking coolant all over the floor AFTER I had put the carpet in.

You should be able to position your legs though up on top of the seat while still laying down. Almost as if you were sitting except your on the floor. Be sure to get used to this, because you will spend more time on your back than a hooker from Tijuana in the poor section of town during a soccer riot.

2) Remove the screws holding the heatercore cover. You will *require* a various combination of socket extensions here. All of the upper screws have their own trick to them, but are relatively easy. The one you are going to have the most trouble with is the top screw. Why they put this here I have no fricking idea. Be sure to remove the ECM and in my case I also had to remove the cruise control module. There several ways to get at the top screw, and honestly It's pick your poison.

- Remove the dash pad so you can look down through the dash and get an idea where the screw is located (Don't even try getting at it through the top of the dash).

- Remove all the screws except the top screw, and break the cover off from here. This is the easiest route, but I refused to go this way. Whatever works for you though, but keep in mind the screw will remain stuck up there with a small piece of the cover on it, and this will probably prevent the cover from seating right again resulting in reduced airflow through the vents due to the air from the blower motor escaping through the dislocated heatercore cover.

- Here is how I managed to do mine. I have medium sided hands, so for me I was JUST able to fish my hands up through the dash (With a few scrapes and scuffs) and lay it flat ontop of the cover. I then used the tips of my fingers to locate the groove that begins to form in the top of the cover. There is no way unless you have long skinny alien like hands, you are going to be able to feel the screw directly, but this groove that the screws sits in will tell you where it is.

I then took a long 1/4 socket extension and socket (I believe they are 7mm IIRC) and slid it up in this general area, and fished around for about 15 - 20 minutes VERY delicately until I felt the socket slip onto the screw head. I tried turning the socket to confirm it was actually on the screw and it did not turn (good sign). I then worked a 1/4 ratchet up in the dash and popped it onto the socket (tricky) and started backing the screw out. Go SLOW and gently at this point as it will be VERY easy for the socket to slip off the screw head. After this screw is out, you should be able to remove the cover.

3) Congratulations, the nightmare is over. But don't rejoice yet because step 3 isn't out of the way yet which is the lesser of the two evils of step 2. Pops the hood, and remove the hoses from the heatercore. Do this BEFORE you unmount the heatercore so you don't have coolant gush out into the car.

The tricky part is the hose that bends down behind the engine. Mine was stuck on the barb and would not come off no matter what I tried. I knew that the way this hose snaked down behind the engine, this would have proved the most difficult part of the job having to replace it. So I used an exacto knife to cut the hose off as close to the barb as I could. The remaining part of this hose had just enough slack in it to stretch back onto the new heatercore barb. Just be careful at this step. Coating the barb and the inside of the hose with some oil helps slip it onto the barb easily. I used a finger covered in ATF to lube both up.

4) Get back under the dash (Joy!), and begin removing the screws that hold the heatercore brace into place. After this, you will have to wiggle and work the heatercore out of the dash, but overall it is relatively simple. The tricky part here is the barbs will not want to back out of the firewall. You are going to have to go back and forth between the engine bay until you manage to get them through and are able to pull the heatercore straight out.

At this point, use some windex to clean up whatever mess the core has caused inside the dash. When seating the new heatercore into the brace, I removed the seemingly useless black piece from the brace that covered a decent sized portion of the core blocking airflow, and since the insulation around the edges of the brace had seen better days I used plumbers putty to seal the core to the brace for good airflow.

5) Begin reinstalling the core/brace combination back into the dash. Now, this is one of those parts where everything can go COMPLETELY wrong. Be delicate when pushing the barbs through the firewall. Most of the time, they are going to be off a TAD bit and will require CAREFUL AND GENTLE bending/tweaking in order to get them to go through the firewall.

You can either compare them directly to the position of the barbs on the old core or better yet try your best to get it seated under the dash, then go back and look through the holes in the firewall at which barb is offset by how much. Be CAREFUL! We do not want to snap the barbs off or even worse create a small leak that doesn't show up until everything is hooked back up and put back.

6) After you get the barbs through the firwewall, begin replacing the screws in the heatercore brace. Remember when slipping the hoses back onto the heatercore some oil or ATF helps slide them on easier especially the hose that snakes back behind the motor. Be sure not to overtighten the clamps as you could very well crush the barbs and create a leak!

It would also be a very good idea to use some more plumbers putty to create a seal around the barbs where they go through the firewall, as the foam insulation in these spots has probably lived past It's time.

7) Replace everything in reverse order of removal. As for that top screw, believe me when I say it will be 2 - 3x as hard to get it back in as it was to take it out. Do yourself the favor and leave it out. It doesn't make a difference as long as the cover is seated correctly, and you will thank yourself if you ever have to remove this cover again in the future.

8) Top off the coolant level, check the function of the heat and rejoice as you have just completed one of the most infamous "basic" repair jobs known to TGO kind. Drink a beer, smoke a joint or do whatever it is you do to relax because by this time you will probably be cursing Chevrolet, GM and six past generations of the person who sold you the car.

Over the next few weeks, be sure to check periodically for any leaks in case something went wrong. When I said to leave the top screw out, it was for a good reason. In my case, I did not have to end up removing the cover again, but for about a week after, I got a drop here and there on the carpet of residual coolant that was still lingering around inside the dash from the old heatercore.

BTW, you just saved yourself about $1300 vs having a dealer do this job for you and about $300 - $400 vs a shop. And all it cost you was about $40. Now THAT'S sticking it to the man !


That's it! Maybe I should submit this to TGO as an official guide. Can anyone think of anything I left out?

 

WHERE WERE YOU WHEN I WAS TRYING TO DO IT LAST WEEK! haha you should submit it. It's a lot better than the one up now. I have to put the plumbers putty like you said. That foam is probably disintegrating as we speak.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMhyHsYA2R4

 

Just an fyi, my mom's 2000 Dodge Durango heater core went out, and the shops wanted to charge $700-1100 for it, and it would have been 9 hours of labor. My dad and I ended up doing it and it took all weekend, and we replaced the air evap. The dodge dash looked to be about 3 times harder to remove than the camaro dash though, plus all of the extra wires/sensors and what not.

 

Yea man some heater cores are a nightmare. Alldata says on my roommates 98 taurus that the entire dash needs to come out. Not sure if its true or not but f*ck its a lot of work.

 

Possibly Ford and GM heater cores are a bitch and a half to get out.

 

is this thread really 2 pages long? lol

I think everything was explained in the first 5 posts.

 

Well FML, last friday my heater core went out...fogged up windshield and I could smell anti-freeze. It was a breeze, a lot easier than the dodge durango/dakota. Just read the manual or on here, you don't have to take out the dash at all. It took like 4 hours, not knowing what to do. Could easiely have been an hour and $28 for a new core.

 

Same thing happened to mine, just don't by a china unit...mine was $35 and took all of about an hour to do myself. You shouldnt have any problem except maybe a broken piece of plastic or two when messing around under the d'board.

 

need the same for a 305 tbi (lo3)