I have an 89 2.8 Firebird. The other morning I started noticing a haze on the windsheild. So I turned on the fan and sure enough that dreaded smell of anti-freeze. I thumbed through the haynes manual and I like to have fell out. Is it really as bad as it looks? And,does anyone know of any shortcuts?
Thanks

Before you get to involved in changing the heater core check the two rubber hoses that go through the firewall to the core. I could smell antifreeze and even had some dripping into my Camaro and all it turned out to be was that one of the hoses was bad. I replaced both hoses and no problems.


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Dale Earnhardt was a scholar of the race track that drove with the spirit of a warrior.

My Camaro: http://home.earthlink.net/~singleton052095

I did it with my buddy on his car and with us both working it was not a bad job.. I did one side of the dash he did the other...

Give this credit for this list to JOHNY Ray havent seen him on here in a while if u see this reply to this post but here you go have fun i got to do it took me 11 hours

First off all make sure you have a day where you don't have nothing else to do. Take your time.
This is what I had to do to change the heater core on the '92 Firebird, perhaps the Camaro is similiar.

1. Disconnect the battery.
2. Drain the cooling system.
3. Remove the heater cores hoses from the heater core inlet and outlet pipes. If you find them hard to remove just cut a slit up the side of them to remove them. It's a good idea to replace them anyway.
4.Remove the lower hush panels from your instrument panel.
5. Remove the dash pad. The retaining screw are located in the defroster vents and along the underside of the rear edge of the pad.
6. Remove both front speakers. Also remove the right side speaker bracket.
7. Remove the screws side window defroster ducts, the front carrier braces and carrier shelf and remove the side defroster ducts.
8. Carefully disconnect the ECM box and set it aside.
9. Remove the radio trim plate, the upper console trim, and the glove box assembly.
10. Remove the parking brake handle grip, the screws retaining the console body and position the console back, out of the way.
11. Remove the trim plate underneath the steering column. Remove the two nuts retaining the steering column and carefully lower and support the steering column down out of the way.
12. Remove the two nuts and four screws retaining the instrument panel to the firewall and move the instrument panel back far enough to access the heater module.
13. Remove the screws retaining the heater core cover and remove the cover.
14. Remove the screws retaining the shroud. Remove the shroud and the heater core.
15. Installation is reverse of removal. Be EXTRA careful when you put the new heater core back in. Don't bend anything when slipping it back through the firewall.

Thanks posters for the help. I replaced it saturday took about 6 hours. It wasnt as bad as I thought it would be. I just have to make an appointment with the chiropractor now to get my back adjusted. I didnt have to pull the dash from the firewall,but things were pretty tight. It looks like it had been replaced before , must be a common problem.
I replaced the coolant with DEX-COOL it is supposed to be much better as far as corrosion control.
Thanks Again,
Len