Goshdarn heatercore

[Sharpe]

The heatercore is leaking in my crewcab again. I have replaced the ****ing thing 3 times already in the 2 years I have owned it and I am ****ing tired of it. I suspect the first two times the leak was due to the fact that the grommet that goes around the tubes that stick through the firewall was missing, but the third time around I put a bunch of plumber's putty around the tubes to support them so the hoses wouldnt be pulling down on them. The grommets dont seem to support any better than my putty fix, but I am seriously getting livid pissed at this stupid ****. I think its a crappy design, the tubes are just crimped into the core and they can move around a bit even when the cores are brand new. The crimped area is where they always leak from. Does anyone know if this is a common issue on this vintage of truck and any permanent ways of fixing it? This time around I'm gonna go ahead and get a new grommet but something tells me that alone wont fixthe problem for good.

[Reckless]

soldier them?

[agjohn02]

soldier them?


i dont think a heater core will help the situation in iraq either.



moderators, could we please get the blasphemy removed from the title of a public thread. thanks.

[Reckless]

ok i cant spell, bite me webster!

[JB]

dont buy one from advance, our heater cores suck. I even know the PN for 96-99 GM trucks bc we warranty so many of them out...398240

[Graystroke]

thats what I was thinking...maybe the ones your buying suck. Have you tried other brands? I know I ran into the same problem of replacing multiples w/ master cylinders. bought a new OEM and havn't had a problem

[DRAGOONRANCH]

bwahahaha, he called you webster.:flipoff2:
http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f192/DRAGOONRANCH/Stupid/webster.jpg

[DRAGOONRANCH]

We had the same problem with out 99 cc wun-tun. We finally put a GM replacement in it like Grayson and never had a problem.

[Reckless]

Wrong webster, more like the dictionary webster.

[sasquatch]

if the connections that are crimped are all copper, you can sweat them together as long as you rough them up a little and use some flux

[Doug Krebs]

if the connections that are crimped are all copper, you can sweat them together as long as you rough them up a little and use some flux

Most of them are aluminum, aren't they?

[Sharpe]

The cores are aluminum. The first two I replaced were from Napa and the third was a GM part. $90 down the ****ter on that one. And :flipoff2: to whoever edited my title

[fbronco86]

I would try distilled water and antifreeze.

[Jackasic]

i am about to replace two, so it the final choice? buy one from GM and soder it?

[BMFScout]

The ones I replaced in a mid 80's and an early 90's GM car had an aluminium core with plastic tubes heat bonded (for lack of a better phrase) over barbed fittings. I replaced the plastic lines that went throught the firewall with rubber ones. If you're talking about the aluminum ones with metal lines, (like in a '97 Cavalier) I don't know what to tell you. Is this a Dexcool truck? Are you running regular anti-freeze in it? I've heard that if you run regular antifreeze in a Dexcool designed vehicle, it eats seals. That is what I think happened in the afforementioned Cavalier.

[sasquatch]

The cores are aluminum. The first two I replaced were from Napa and the third was a GM part. $90 down the ****ter on that one. And :flipoff2: to whoever edited my title

wasnt me

[Sharpe]

I would try distilled water and antifreeze.
BRILLIANT :rolleyes: Yah I've been running one jug of antifreeze and the rest of the system filled with distilled water since I've had the truck.

Brandon, I've thought about soldering the lines onto the core and may still go that route. It seems a little ghetto but cant be any worse than my putty fix.

Jimmy, I've just been running green **** in it, is dexcool the orange stuff that is supposed to be safe for any vehicle?

[jerryg79]

BRILLIANT :rolleyes: Yah I've been running one jug of antifreeze and the rest of the system filled with distilled water since I've had the truck.

Brandon, I've thought about soldering the lines onto the core and may still go that route. It seems a little ghetto but cant be any worse than my putty fix.

Jimmy, I've just been running green **** in it, is dexcool the orange stuff that is supposed to be safe for any vehicle?

dexcool is the orange **** you're supposed to run in gm vehicles.

[jerryg79]

http://autorepair.about.com/cs/productreviews/l/aa052601a.htm

more then you ever wanted to know about dexcool.

[fbronco86]

BRILLIANT :rolleyes: Yah I've been running one jug of antifreeze and the rest of the system filled with distilled water since I've had the truck.

Brandon, I've thought about soldering the lines onto the core and may still go that route. It seems a little ghetto but cant be any worse than my putty fix.

Jimmy, I've just been running green **** in it, is dexcool the orange stuff that is supposed to be safe for any vehicle?

I am not sure when they started the dexcool deal. But I do know if you mix them your coolent turns black and gunks up everything.

So you would have to flush the crap outta it to change.

[agjohn02]

there are no more color designations. there is green stuff that is aluminum safe now. i doubt the truck in question requires dexcool. why do you even have a heater core?

[Sharpe]

http://autorepair.about.com/cs/productreviews/l/aa052601a.htm

more then you ever wanted to know about dexcool.
Good article. According to it if my truck came with Dexcool and I put green **** in it, I'm prety much ****ed. It says in that case just keep using green coolant cause it is prety much impossible to flush all the old coolant out of the system and even the slightest bit of green will contaminate the Dexcool.

IIRC when I got my truck the coolant in it looked like muddy water so it was probably already contaminated. Anything that could contain coolant besides the engine block has been replaced since I've had the truck. I dont even know what kind of coolant it came with, I'll check my haynes manual when I get home.

[JB]

I always ran Dexcool, but apparently I didn't flush it enough and it corroded through the aluminum...
http://tamor.org/forums/showthread.php?t=4560&highlight=tahoe

[colman]

what year is your truck, and you can stull flush it all the way out. and refill with the correct stuff

[fbronco86]

why do you even have a heater core?

Did you really mean to ask this?

[sasquatch]

Most of them are aluminum, aren't they?

can you sweat aluminum to copper? i've never tried. acid core solder may work although i usually use it for refrigerant lines.

[agjohn02]

Did you really mean to ask this?


no

[Jackasic]

i think I will get my neighbor the AC guy to solder it up for me. You can flush the system with that Prestone Borax junk. I have used it a few times, works pretty good.