A couple questions on the front heater core. I can tell by comparing the temp. on the hose feeding the heater to the temp of the air coming out that my front core must be slugged with crap. Is it a nightmare to get out? It sure looks like it, and when/IF I get it out can it be cleaned or is there a cheap oem replacement I can pick up? I just got done fixing the rear core tonight, that was alot of careful work with a small torch, it's the only thing heating my cruiser right now.
Heater core (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter folsom50
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Giving some indication as to what model we are working on would help, as removing a front heater from a '72-40 will be far different from an 84-60, concerning the pieces that will need to be removed to access this.
Get the heater box out, and remove the core. There is a chemical that you can pour into the core that should knock loose the junk that is blocking the flow. (Forgive me for not remembering the name of this stuff) I have a few known good heater cores for a 40; let me know what you are working on.
Good luck!
-Steve
Get the heater box out, and remove the core. There is a chemical that you can pour into the core that should knock loose the junk that is blocking the flow. (Forgive me for not remembering the name of this stuff) I have a few known good heater cores for a 40; let me know what you are working on.
Good luck!
-Steve
- Thread starter
- #3
Sorry, it's a '78 fj40.
Not that big of a deal to remove, pretty strait forward. Hopefully, you have not filled the coolant back up from fixing the rear heater yet. Four mounting bolts to bulkhead, remove air tube from blower motor housing, remove defrost tubes, and disconnect the hose/tube assemblies that supply coolant. The top housing splits from the bottom, after you have it out, as there are a couple screws on the back, if I remember correctly, been a couple years.
-Steve
-Steve
That chemical is muriatic acid. Hydrochloric acid. Available in hardware stores, for cleaning tile, adjusting pH in your pool, etching glass, etc.
- Thread starter
- #6
Well, you make it out to be fairly simple, I'll dive into it when I get back from vacation. I have some clamps that are made to clamp off fuel and coolant lines, I used those today on the engine side of the firewall keep coolant from running out the hoses while I fixed the rear core, handy little tools.
[quote author=IDave link=board=1;threadid=8464;start=msg71969#msg71969 date=1070677017]
That chemical is muriatic acid.
Hydrochloric acid.
[/quote]
These are two different chemicals, correct?
Muratic acid is for cleaning up after masonry work, and I thought Hydrochloric was found in your batteries, and a bit more caustic. The Muratic was one I was thinking about, there is another that is made by dupont, some sort of a metal prep/etcher, (green in the clear bottle I think)that I used to clean out the gunk in my Unimog's fuel lines a few years back. Stuff worked great.
-Steve
That chemical is muriatic acid.
Hydrochloric acid.
[/quote]
These are two different chemicals, correct?
Muratic acid is for cleaning up after masonry work, and I thought Hydrochloric was found in your batteries, and a bit more caustic. The Muratic was one I was thinking about, there is another that is made by dupont, some sort of a metal prep/etcher, (green in the clear bottle I think)that I used to clean out the gunk in my Unimog's fuel lines a few years back. Stuff worked great.
-Steve
Nope. Muriatic esta hydrochloric. I just checked the bottle in my kitchen pantry, because I made the mistake a couple of weeks ago of saying it was sulfuric, which is what is in der battery.
"Better living through Chemistry" 8)
[quote author=IDave link=board=1;threadid=8464;start=msg72025#msg72025 date=1070681819]
"Better living through Chemistry" 8)
[/quote]
Are you sure you're not my chemistry teacher, Dave? :
Anyone want to learn some nomenclature?
"Better living through Chemistry" 8)
[/quote]
Are you sure you're not my chemistry teacher, Dave? :
Anyone want to learn some nomenclature?
Poser is right it is not that big a deal getting the front core out. I did it recently when I put in a new aluminum tub. One thing that made things a bit cleaner and tidier was to unhook the back core pipes first and let them drain out through the front passenger's door into a bucket. That way you don't get all the coolant filling your tub. Ok if your planning to take a bath but it is not recommended! Good luck.
Good luck.
What about cutting the old feed and return lines off, installing long rubber lines, and using a little bit of tap pressure to clean it out? I've done this on my BJ60 (both front and rear cores were hardly blowing any heat at all). I used low volume, low pressure, and worked it both ways. The crud that came out was unreal. I also was able to put some muratic acid into each core, and let that sit a while. Flushed it out, installed new rubber hoses, and it has been great to have heat again. My one concern was causing a leak this way, however I appear to have none. I did not look forward to taking out the front heater core on the 60.
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you'll probably want to pull the core out for cleaning. The reason is that most of the time the top of the core (outside...not inside) is clogged with lint/ dog hair/ leaves/ bugs/ etc. This in itself will obviously keep air from passing through the core and thus give you reduced heat.
Mine was pretty darn clogged.
Jeff Zepp has a nice little write up on it:
http://jeffzepp.cruiserpages.com/tech/staywarm.htm
you can see what I'm talking about in his picture
It's not that bad to pull the whole heater out, you can pull it apart and put new weather striping in so you don't have any of the cold air leaks. I did it in mine and she cranks the heat now!
Mine was pretty darn clogged.
Jeff Zepp has a nice little write up on it:
http://jeffzepp.cruiserpages.com/tech/staywarm.htm
you can see what I'm talking about in his picture
It's not that bad to pull the whole heater out, you can pull it apart and put new weather striping in so you don't have any of the cold air leaks. I did it in mine and she cranks the heat now!
Folsom 50-where did you get those clamps? What acid am I supposed to use (confused)? :-\ Where can I get it?
