1st where is the heater core located? 2nd how do i change it and how hard is it? Thanks in advance for all the help John

 

i have a different year than yours, but one thing i can tell you, is that it is located in the passenger compartment, behind the passenger side of the dashboard... gotta drop the panel down, should be a cover over it. can't help you much from there, but it can be easy or hard. mine took a while. the heater hoses are inside the engine compartment, and can be a bitch to get off sometimes. someone else will get on here with more detailed help, but you can do it yourself... they cost about $20, by the way. good luck to you...

KAM

 

Thanks KAM I figured it was going to be challeging Hopefully someone can give me some tips and tricks. Thanks again!!

 

theres an atricle on here u can reach from the home page but it must not apply to mine cause I don't know about yours, but my 85 iroc has a plastic casing after i got the box-like cover (that is located under the passenger dash region and there is one bolt on top that is a bitch to get for the cover, but all bolts should be 9/32 heads for a socket and you'll probably will need a small 9/32 wrench as well) off that has the clamps to hold the core in place. What year is yours and if I find anything out I will let u know n vice versa!

 

Its an 88

 

HITHERE'm taking this one on tomorrow. One of the first and best things you should do to make the install easier is to remove the passenger seat.

 

ii replaced the heater core one time on an 88 Formula ii used to own. ii removed the cover under the passenger side dash and the cover for the core. some of the screws you wont be able to see so it'll be sort of aa pain. you'll have to feel your way around. the hardest part for me was tryin to stick the tubes in thru the firewall without damaging them. but the overall job wasn't as bad as ii had thought.

 

If you use the search function of the boards (once they are back to "normal") you should be able to find some helpful threads. You do not need to remove the passenger seat, but it does allow some more working space. You also do not need to remove the upper dash pad, but it can make the job â little easier, although no faster.

 

You know, I just gotta point something out here. Every car I have owned, no matter what make/model, to change the heater core you had ot remove most or all of the dashboard/interior. I was looking in the chilton's that I had for my old 84 Mercury Marquis. The book also had repair specs for the same year(s) Ford T-Bird, due to both cars shared engines and general components. To change the heater core in the T-Bird, all you had to do was take off a panel on the firewall in the engine compartment, and pull out the heater core. Now, why couldn't Chevy do the same? Seems like a good idea to me!

 

I beg to differ, the seat DON'T have to be removed, the dash DON'T need to be taken completly out, if none at all.

When you take the box off, theres I think 4 screws ones up top, that one is where u might have to take the top dash out to get too but that only makes it easy. theres 4 bolts that hold the heater core along with its casing. However the tricky thing I got held up on is theres a metal strip in the upper left corner that the top of the casing for the core gets held up on. I moved that and it slid in n out with EASE! Theres even a screw (all is 9/32 head bolts) to take off so u can move it aside but it might be a lil trouble getting it back in cause its a reach but all u need to do is move it up a lil ways with your finger and if it worked like it did for me, she was simple. I can change one in 10 mins now. I feel oh so gifted, I hope this helped cause I got frustrated with mine until I took another swing and waited another day n took my time n looked at ****. Good luck

 

No, you don't have to remove the passenger seat, but it makes it much easier to get at some of the bolts if you can lay on your back in the floorpan where the seat used to be. I found that the best way to get at the top screw on the box is to remove the plastic ECM cradle (so you can get your arm up in there) and then use a 9/32 deep well socket with a 1/4" drive ratchet and small (2.5"?) extention. That way the ratchet can hang just over the side of the heater box for you to use with your left hand while you keep the socket centered on the screw with your right. When I was done I didn't put the top center screw back in. The box snapped into place and with the other 4 bolts (3 along the bottom and one in the top right corner) holding it there is really no point to putting the top center screw back, it will make the next time you change the core a LOT easier.

 

lol, yeah the top screw was for sure something I didn't return back. The box is tight w/o the aide of it.

 

If you remove the large hex-head bolt from the lower right corner of the dash panel, the dash can be flexed backward far enough to reach up and over the heater core case and remove the top screw with a ¼" ratchet and about 10" of extension. The dash pad doesn't have to be removed, niether does the seat. I did the core replacement in about 25 minutes, including cleaning up all the leaked coolant from the case, foam insulation, and trim. I added about another 45 minutes in just getting the heater hoses off and back on from under the hood - what a PITA! Whatever you do, remove your core and take it with you to the party store so you can make sure the replacement has the standpipes with exactly the same angle. I went through several before finding an acceptable one.

 

I noticed Napa has a $19 heater core and a $63 heater core for my 83 z28. Does anyone know if the $63 one is worth the money?

thanks

 

Sure it is, if it's made out of GOLD! Honestly, I've never seen a heater core, no matter how much it cost, that didn't eventually leak. On our cars, the proximity of the core and heater hoses to the passenger side valve cover means that just about any time you do any work to the passenger side valvetrain you are gonna flex those heater hose. After a couple of times of this, you can be assured that you are either out of a $20 heater core, or out of a $63 heater core.