Have to say - probably one of the easiest heater cores I've ever done. Even the FSM says just remove the two lower dash panels and you can get to the upper housing bolt. Super easy. About 1.5 hours total and honestly I took my time and cleaned inside the ducting as much as I could. Got a used core ($20 free shipping on ebay), and had my local radiator guy re-core it for $156. I wanted to be sure it would never leak again so he went a little nuts on the solder. The bigger the glob, the better the job. Here's some pics for anyone needing to do this. It's quite easy though.

You can see the screw everyone has problems with in the upper middle of the pic just peeking out over the top of the heater box cover
Here's a close up of it.
Make sure you do a function test of the flapper doors while you have the box still open after you get the core fully seated. Here they are both open.
One door closed
Both doors closed
You will need to remove this bolt as well to pull out the core assembly. Doing so will make the lower flapper door pivot come out of its home. So you need to get that back in and then do a function test on the flappers before it gets buttoned up.
New (re) core.
Extra solder. Because I only want do this once.
Remanufactured. New core with original set of end tanks.

 

The bigger the glob, the better the job.

What do the reman cores that never seem to fit cost?

And thanks for this nice, simple & clear write-up.

 

Reman cores that don't fit? Do you mean the aftermarket aluminum cores? I wasn't aware of any reman cores available that aren't one-off like mine. I must be misunderstanding.

GD

 

Yes, the aftermarket ones that everyone complains that the tubes are not in the correct locations, wrong angles, etc.

 

They are anywhere from $20 to $40. Pretty much everyone agrees that they don't heat as well and they typically only last a few years. Not what I wanted. And I really don't want the offshore junk. I wanted good heat and to never have to do this again so I figured money well spent.

GD

 

It's true, thirdgen heater cores aren't too bad.

Another thread on the topic - https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/cool...placement.html