60 Front Heater Core Clean-up

[gregnash]

On my way back to the office from lunch I stuffed my hand in the dash after having run around a bit to see if I could touch the heater core pipes. Not exactly sure what I was touching but it was hot to the touch, not so hot to instantly burn but definitely only could hold the fingers on for a few seconds before it started to hurt. Think I was either touching the bracket that holds down the top pipes or one of the pipes themselves.

This would lead me to believe that the heater core is accepting the heated coolant so the hot air is either not getting through the core (due to shmootz in the fins) or something else is going on. I did notice that when I flipped the switch to HEAT instead of Defrost that the two vents next to the stereo did not produce any air. Never noticed this before but I almost never run it in HEAT mode, always defrost.

 

[georgebj60]

The "heat" setting should direct the flow to the floor. Nothing should have come out of those vents. Use the "vent" setting for the dash vents.

 

[gregnash]

Ah ok that makes sense now. So on the way home from our club meeting last night I stuck my hand in the dash again to check things as the heater vents were luke warm at best. Was able to feel around and found the pipes, oh did I find the pipes!! Just about burnt my fingertips on them, couldn't touch the pipes for more than a couple seconds.

So the heater core is definitely getting hot. This would lead me to believe that the fins are blocked up which is causing it so the blower is not able to push air over the fins and through the system? Is that about right?

 

[georgebj60]

I would be very surprised if anything is blocking the fins. Both my heater cores were perfectly clean/clear, even though the rest of the system was plugged. See the attached picture of one of my fans.

Most of the junk gets caught either in the fan itself, or the AC evaporator. Maybe check the function of the flap doors to make sure air is being directed over the heater core. I attached some pictures of the heater core box too.

 

[georgebj60]

One more....

 

[gregnash]

Looking more and more like I am going to have to dismantle the ducting and everything... BLEH!!

 

[ModisetteJ]

Greg, did you ever flush? Did it seem to fix the issue? I'm having the exact same issue with my heat, and I've also had the head rebuild/ new t-stat.


Here I am, the beginning of spring in Washington, just now looking into this. But it's finally drying up here, so maybe that's why I finally feel like working on my cruiser.