I decided to dig into the dash and replace the front heater core. The heater wouldn't get hot, windshield fogged up with it on, and it smelled like coolant in the cab. I didn't physically see any signs of leaking, but I know this has to be the heater core, and with rebuilding the engine and cooling system, I want no reason for overheating.
Thanks to the great writeups from
@Ducks and
@jfnall, overall, it wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it was going to be. I already had my A/C lines removed, so the A/C box was easy to take out. I took all of the vent plumbing out, which was pretty easy, and the heater core had plenty of room to slide out without having to do anything to the main dash brace. All in all, it took about 2-1/2 hours to get it out. Removing the heater hose grommet on the engine side gave the heater core enough room to slide out the direction of the A/C box.
In order of how I did it: (I'm sure there are some small details I left out)
1. Removed instrument cluster
2. Removed stereo
3. Removed fan control bezel (probably didn't need to unplug everything and take it all the way out)
4. Removed glove box cover and inner glove box housing
5. Removed Dash Cap
6. Removed plumbing for vents (including the two center vents, as well as the plastic vents under the heater. (this allows the A/C enough room to drop down and out)
7. Unbolted A/C box and disconnected plugs, A/C will pull out and down.
8. Unbolted heater core box and disconnected plugs.
9. Pulled heater core towards front of dash about an inch (this helped break free the grommet going through the firewall.
10. Pulled the grommet off from the engine side.
11. Pulled the heater core towards the front of the dash until the two pipes are through the fire wall, then slid it towards where the A/C box was and it comes right out.
12. Once I had the box out, one thing that had me puzzled for a few minutes was how to get the heater core out of the box. I unscrewed all of the brackets, but it would not come out, and I didn't want to pull up too much. I thought about disassembling the entire box, but there are a lot of moving parts on one side, and I didn't want to mess with them. I realized it was just stuck in there from the core leaking and getting the foam bound up against the box. It was like it was glued in. I got a screwdriver under the core and was able to pry it up with just a little bit of force. This broke the "glue-like" bond and it it slid right out.
My core didn't seem to be leaking from the o-rings like a lot of people talk about, but there was visual decay and wet on the bottom.
I called a local radiator shop to see what it would cost to re-core, and lets just say it's a lot cheaper to buy the one from Cruiser Corps and have the rad shop pressure test it.
So today, I purchased the replacement and waiting for it to arrive. I'll take it to the rad shop and have them pressure test it, and if all is good, I'll have them braze the pipes onto it to avoid a leaky o-ring connection. I'm having them pressure test it because I've heard of guys just putting them back in, and they leaked, even though they were new, and they had to do this whole job again.
I'll give updates as I receive the new core and get it installed.
Hope this helps someone.
Here are some pictures I took along the way.
Dash Cap Removal:
A/C Box and bolt locations (one on the bottom of the box, out of site)
A/C box unplugged and falling out. Needed to unplug a few things
A/C box is out. (Stereo wires everywhere from PO's head unit install...)
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