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Old 02-17-2012, 08:20 AM
 
Location: Poway, CA
2,698 posts, read 12,122,086 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by asubram3 View Post
Typical poor design by Ford. They put the heater core deep inside where it is almost inaccessible, despite the core being a common item that fails.
I have yet to see ANY modern vehicle from ANY manufacturer where this is not the case.

Mike
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Old 02-17-2012, 12:07 PM
 
Location: Grosse Ile Michigan
30,702 posts, read 79,403,084 times
Reputation: 39425
You can bypass the heater core and get a power inverter and a low powered hair dryer for heat and defrosting windows. Panasonic makes a 400 watt hair dryer that cna run off an inverter. (yuo want an 800 watt inverter or more). Find the hari dryer on E-bay. It costs a lot for a hair dryer (about $30). The inverter may run as much as $100, but if you get a powerful enough inverter, you can run other things on it.

Personally I got a 2000 watt inverter at an auction for $50. Thus the whole thing cost me $80. I had a velcro pad to hook the hose to the dash for defrosting and another one to hold the hose where I liked it to warm up me. The only down side is the noise, the plus side is that you get warm air immediately. No waiting. If it is really cold it can take the hari dryer a while to warm up the entire car. At high heat though I think it is as fast as most car heaters. Also if you have a small inverter, you may only be able to run the dryer on the lowest heat settings.
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Old 02-17-2012, 12:32 PM
 
6,367 posts, read 16,806,818 times
Reputation: 5934
^^That's the funniest thing I've read in a long time.

Kinda reminds me of the guy back in high school who kept a Coleman two burner stove setting on the back seat of his VW Bug, both burners blazing away.
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Old 02-17-2012, 02:44 PM
 
Location: Eastern Washington
17,120 posts, read 56,769,693 times
Reputation: 18396
Actually you can buy a simple electric defroster that plugs into the cig. lighter - this would probably do a barely adequate job of defog/defrost - but trying to heat the cab of the car electrically is a waste of time and probably will result in very short alternator life at best - and an electrical fire more likely.

I very heartily agree with Sunsprit, if you are going to pay someone to do this, or DIY, by all means get a real Ford heater core.

Final thought - you could consider putting in an aftermarket heater, like one from Vintage Air, one intended for a kit car or hot rod. You could probably put this in the passenger's footwell. This would give you usable heat, you might still need to do something else for defog, but it would, with some bodging, get you a heater that actually works for less $ outlay than restoring the heating system to factory spec, assuming you intend to run the car into the gound, and it's already pretty rough. What a Pensylvanian calls "a little rust" - I would probably call a hopeless rusty beater.

Did I mention that I hate rust, I hate road salt?
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Old 02-17-2012, 04:18 PM
 
Location: Grosse Ile Michigan
30,702 posts, read 79,403,084 times
Reputation: 39425
Quote:
Originally Posted by M3 Mitch View Post
Actually you can buy a simple electric defroster that plugs into the cig. lighter - this would probably do a barely adequate job of defog/defrost - but trying to heat the cab of the car electrically is a waste of time and probably will result in very short alternator life at best - and an electrical fire more likely.

I very heartily agree with Sunsprit, if you are going to pay someone to do this, or DIY, by all means get a real Ford heater core.

Final thought - you could consider putting in an aftermarket heater, like one from Vintage Air, one intended for a kit car or hot rod. You could probably put this in the passenger's footwell. This would give you usable heat, you might still need to do something else for defog, but it would, with some bodging, get you a heater that actually works for less $ outlay than restoring the heating system to factory spec, assuming you intend to run the car into the gound, and it's already pretty rough. What a Pensylvanian calls "a little rust" - I would probably call a hopeless rusty beater.

Did I mention that I hate rust, I hate road salt?
Those defrosters are a joke. They will defrost a widshield on a cold day in about three hours. They will never warm up your car.

I used the hair dryer thing for almost two years and never had any problems. I use an inverter in all of our cars now, and have not had a burned out alternator yet. In fact, I have not had a dead alternator since the early 1980s. No longer use a hair dryer with the inverter, but I use it for charging things, for an X-box and a VCR or to turn several computers and a 4g antenna. When we stop and sleep in the car, it gets used to power a lamp. Nothing as major as a hair dryer usually (although five comeuters draw quite a bit of amperage).

I will add that the inverters themselves do nto last very long. I buy them at acutions whenever i see them and just keep a few in the closet as replacements.

Also you need to hard wire them. You cannot plulg the bigger ones onto the cigarette lighter. Even though they come wiht a cigarette lighter plug, it will melt eventually. (I laguhed when I saw the cigarette lighter plug for m 2000 watt inverter. Is says o not exceed 150 watts," right on it).
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Old 02-18-2012, 12:40 AM
 
Location: Earth
4,237 posts, read 24,703,308 times
Reputation: 2274
Quote:
Originally Posted by sunsprit View Post
Due to the labor involved, this is not a job you want done with a "cheapie" aftermarket heater core installed. I've seen way too many of these which fail in a much shorter time than the OE quality heater cores; often within a year or two of replacement.
I agree 100%. My dad redid the heater core on my '93 S-10, using a heater core from Autozone. 2 weeks later he was fxing it again. This time around he got one from Car Quest.

2 years later, it too went. I had the luxury of fixing the heater core this time.....bought one from Napa and it lasted another 8 years and was still leak free when i sold the truck.

GM did make a few cars that you can r&r the heater core from under the hood.....1977-90 B bodies (Caprice, Delta 88, Bonneville, Le Sabre) and 1978-88 G bodies (Monte Carlo, El Camino, Regal, Grand Prix). I have replaced the heater core on both my 1981 Delta 88 and my 1987 Regal....both times I popped the hood, undid the 6 or so screws that hold the heater core top on, pulled off the top, and the heater core sits down inside the box. Yes I did it all under the hood and no I didn't have to remove the dash or undo the box inside the car.
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Old 02-21-2012, 12:04 AM
 
Location: H-town, TX.
3,503 posts, read 7,456,913 times
Reputation: 2232
Quote:
Originally Posted by sunsprit View Post
Estimated labor time to do this is about 6.5 hours, which includes removal of the dash to access the heater core, with a factory list price of $150 for the heater core.

Due to the labor involved, this is not a job you want done with a "cheapie" aftermarket heater core installed. I've seen way too many of these which fail in a much shorter time than the OE quality heater cores; often within a year or two of replacement.

FWIW, this scope of work isn't limited to Ford design, per asubram3 ... it's typical of many car brands on the road today, including GM, Chrysler, and many imports.
I've heard that in some Ford models (Rangers, Exploders, etc) that just wedging a wood block up in the dash enough to have room to pull the heater core would save a ton of that hassle.

I was lucky enough that my old 94 Ranger was simply pulling a few pins and pulling the core and swapping the new one in. A 95-later model is a different story.

Oh well, that's what packaging gets you these days. More crap crammed into less space.
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Old 02-21-2012, 10:00 AM
 
11,550 posts, read 52,946,878 times
Reputation: 16324
Quote:
Originally Posted by AlfredB1979 View Post
I've heard that in some Ford models (Rangers, Exploders, etc) that just wedging a wood block up in the dash enough to have room to pull the heater core would save a ton of that hassle.

I was lucky enough that my old 94 Ranger was simply pulling a few pins and pulling the core and swapping the new one in. A 95-later model is a different story.

Oh well, that's what packaging gets you these days. More crap crammed into less space.
Our 1996 Ranger had a heater core failure, and I was able to replace the heater core in less than 1 hour ... and it's the vehicle that taught me the lesson about "cheapie" aftermarket heater cores. The heater core drops out into the passenger footwell area, no big deal to R&R this item.
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Old 02-21-2012, 08:38 PM
 
Location: Pennsylvania
18 posts, read 111,237 times
Reputation: 10
I drove my car around a little bit this weekend and after about 10 minutes of driving, every so often a little bit of smoke would come out from under the hood. It was on the passengers side near the windshield. It would also come through the vent to defrost the windshield even though I have turned the heater off. The engine is running a little warmer then normal, but not overheating. I checked the coolant and added some as it was a little lower then it should be. Is this smoke also the heater core or do I have another problem under the hood.
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Old 02-21-2012, 09:40 PM
 
Location: Earth
4,237 posts, read 24,703,308 times
Reputation: 2274
brethern it sounds like you're seeing a steam cloud of antifreeze. Does it fog up your windshield/hard to wipe off and have a sweet smell to it?
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