Heater Core Part 1 - 10/23/2004

In my quest for heating and ventilation, I decided to replace my heater core and fix the broken diaphragm that regulated the vents. I knew this would be a long process, but it would be worth it in the end.



The goal...



Gotta remove the hood...



Outer fender removal... The fender is in quite nice shape, a little surface rust on the inner wall.



Take off the inner fender...



Another view...



This crap was between the inner fender and outer.



The AC box is removed.



The firewall area where it was...



The inner box with core is removed.



Inner box is disassembled and heater core removed.



The old core.



New core goes in box and box is reassembled to go back in car. One broken diaphragm is repaired with epoxy.



Box back in car (complete pain in the butt).



Foam sealer applied to the air box. The original factory seals were so dry rotted they needed to be scraped away and replaced.



Put the fender back on.



Put the hood back on. Notice how it is night time when this is finished...

Long day. AC box completely sealed, heater core replaced, all wiring cleaned up and put back in proper place underhood. Total time: 8 hours. Now I have to hook up the entire interior dash controls, vent system, and install the new heater valve plus test it all out... tomorrow. At least the front end doesn't have to come off for that.

On a side note, that AC foam sealer is like superglue. Put superglue on your fingers and work with dirt and oil and instantly get black hands that doesn't scrub off! Good thing I don't work in hand modeling.

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Last updated October 23rd, 2004