Hi all... sorry for this 'off-topic' question, but I'm hoping that someone else out there has been thru this before that could give me a few tips....

My wife's car is a 95 Pontiac Grand Am w/Quad 4. Just an hour ago while coming home from dinner, the heater core blew! Seeing that my 3rd Gen in on jack stands right now, I get the wonderful task of R/R the dang thing tomorrow on Christmas Eve!! Believe me, it's NOT what I had planned on doing!!! (I actually planned on putting the finishes touches on my freshly built 305 TBI and hoping to start it for the first time tomorrow...that ain't gonna happen now!!)

Anyway, I don't have a repair manual for my wife's GA and was hoping someone here has done one and can give me ANY tips what-so-ever to help ease the pain (IE: what actually has to be removed, what doesn't, estimated total time, etc...).

Any and all help is greatly appreciated!


Thanks and Merry Christmas to all!

Mike

 

A word of advice in general. When you get the old one out, take it to the auto store and make sure the one you get has the same exact angles on the tubes. I know Vader and I, have both had the auto store punch in the number in the computer and they gave us cores that had slightly different angles on the tubes. When I got back it wouldn't go in, so I tried to slightly bend the tubes, but trying not to break them. It still wouldn't fit, so I took it back to Trak and they gave me another one, but I had the old one to compare and still the angles were slightly different. I went to the local auto store and got one that matched perfectly.

 

I too am having major probs with my heater core.First it was leaking a slight bit but in about 4 weeks coolant cant seem to stay away from my passenger side,though it doesn stain my carpet or anything,it stinks as hell and I have to try to dry it up as much as I can and not use my heat which I cant stand seeing my windshield fog up in a blink of an eye.Then after one of my teachers at college,my engines teacher puts in stop leak and at first I thought it wasnt working,now I think it worked too well cause not only did the leak stop,my heater doesnt even come on anymore and it will eventually start steaming,not smoke but steam,and my temp guage goes past red line and at times the coolant in the reservoir is boiling actually bubbling and I have to leave the cover off it to maintain a respectable temp.My car temp guage will reach past red line in about ten mins after starting it up even in this cold wheather of canada.I have no clue whats wrong but I know it wont be cheap to fix the heater core and now maybe my rad is f'ed up too.Any suggestions or comments about what might be wrong and what I can do even though Im broke and just about to replace all 4 disc brakes.

 

I replaced the core on my mother's 94 Grand Am with the Quad 4. It wasn't that bad at all. The only major piece I had to remove from the car was the lower console. Once you get that out of the way, there's a black panel right there with bolts in it. Remove the hoses by jacking up the car. They're right at the lower center part of the firewall. Once you do that and you've removed the cover panel inside the car, you can pluck it right out from inside the car. I did the whole job in just a couple of hours on mom's car.