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| Found another coolant leak - heater core (Page 2/4) |
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Patrick
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SEP 30, 08:08 PM
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| quote | Originally posted by Cliff Pennock:
So what is the best way to bypass the heater core? Can I simply loosen the hoses and plug them? Or do I need to connect the hoses together?
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Do not just plug the heater core hoses. (See the quoted post below.) Connect the two hoses together. Years ago, I used a 1/2" copper elbow (after previously having used a too-restrictive fitting) when I was in the same situation as you. That worked just fine.
In regards to adding water or coolant... doesn't matter, but water of course will dilute the antifreeze.
| quote | Originally posted by Patrick in This thread:
Back in the summertime, my heater core started leaking. I didn't need the heater at the time, so while I was tracking down a new core, I bypassed the leaking heater core by disconnecting the two rubber hoses from the core and re-connecting them to each other. However, between the two hoses I used a fitting which had a very small passageway for the coolant to go through. When I got the new heater core, I flushed out my system and I was very surprised at that time to discover my thermostat looked much like it does in the picture below. I didn't understand at the time what the heck had happened to the thermostat, so I just bent it back into shape and re-installed it. Unknown to me until the cold snap here revealed a problem, the thermostat arms bent again from "normal" water pressure in the system (because the thermostat "arms" were now weak from being previously bent).
So in retrospect it's now easy to figure out what happened. The fitting I used to temporarily connect the two heater hoses to each other restricted the coolant flow way too much and this resulted in higher than normal coolant pressure pushing against the thermostat. The long thermostat "arms" therefore bent. Lesson learned!
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[This message has been edited by Patrick (edited 09-30-2023).]
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sleek fiero
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SEP 30, 09:35 PM
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| quote | Originally posted by Patrick:
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Patrick that was not what caused that. Think about it - the heater core is shut off by the heater control valve when you don't want heat. I bent several thermostat retainer handles just for hitting 5000 rpm.I eventually rebuilt my thermostat housing and now use an S10 thermostat and solved the problem. sleek
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82-T/A [At Work]
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SEP 30, 09:35 PM
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| quote | Originally posted by Cliff Pennock:
Are they on rockauto perhaps (since I'm going to order the heater core from them anyway)?
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I'm sorry Cliff, I spent like 10 minutes on Rock Auto trying to find them, and for whatever reason I couldn't find them, so I don't even know if I mentioned that in my response.
Going through my spare parts for my daughter's car... I remembered that Rodney Dickman does in fact sell replacement hoses. It really depends on how bad yours are... but when I last replaced a heater core in a Fiero, my 87 Fiero had 120k miles on it, and those hoses were swollen and beat up... and I had to replace them (you could just order them at any auto parts store at the time).
Here's the link for Rodney Dickman's heater hoses:
https://rodneydickman.com/p....php?products_id=335
It's w/ AC... I think you said you don't have A/C though. The hoses should still fit, they'll just be a little bit longer is my guess. But you can e-mail him to make sure.
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Patrick
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SEP 30, 10:26 PM
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| quote | Originally posted by sleek fiero:
Patrick that was not what caused that. Think about it - the heater core is shut off by the heater control valve when you don't want heat.
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Heh heh... no offence Bill, but I believe you need to think about the Fiero's HVAC system for a moment. 
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Cliff Pennock
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OCT 01, 06:18 AM
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| quote | Originally posted by Patrick:
Connect the two hoses together. Years ago, I used a 1/2" copper elbow
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The closest I can get here is 12mm (or 0.472").
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In regards to adding water or coolant... doesn't matter, but water of course will dilute the antifreeze. |
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I'm not too worried about the antifreeze getting diluted since when I'm going to replace the heater core, I'll probably loose a lot of the coolant anyway and filling it up with proper coolant again should make it a lot less diluted. Our winters aren't as cold as they used to be and it seldomly drops below 20*F.
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theogre
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OCT 01, 11:11 AM
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| quote | Originally posted by fierogt28:
I did flush the coolant completely, and put new 50/50 Peak antifreeze. (Green) |
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You have weak coolant that will cause "rusting" etc. because have plane water in the block & more.
See https://web.archive.org/web...cast.net/~fierocave/ coolant fill.------------------
Dr. Ian Malcolm: Yeah, but your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn't stop to think if they should.
(Jurassic Park)
The Ogre's Fiero Cave
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theogre
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OCT 01, 11:17 AM
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| quote | Originally posted by Cliff Pennock:
I'm not too worried about the antifreeze getting diluted since when I'm going to replace the heater core, I'll probably loose a lot of the coolant anyway and filling it up with proper coolant again should make it a lot less diluted. Our winters aren't as cold as they used to be and it seldomly drops below 20*F. |
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Doesn't matter how cold weather is. You need 50/50 mix just to have correct level of anti-corrosion etc so won't leak because parts rotted inside out.
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sleek fiero
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OCT 01, 01:23 PM
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| quote | Originally posted by Patrick:
Heh heh... no offence Bill, but I believe you need to think about the Fiero's HVAC system for a moment.
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My bad Patrick. I was looking at an 84 diagram which has a control valve with a bypass.sorry for being misleading. sleek
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Patrick
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OCT 01, 06:22 PM
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| quote | Originally posted by sleek fiero:
I was looking at an 84 diagram which has a control valve with a bypass.
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An '84 diagram for what?
Just to be clear, there was no Fiero of any year with a valve to control coolant flow through the heater core. Regulating HVAC heat has always been done by controlling air flow through the heater core.
| quote | Originally posted by sleek fiero:
sorry for being misleading.
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No problem, it's not the first time that somebody has mistakenly suggested here that coolant flow through the Fiero's heater core is controlled by the HVAC. I just didn't want anybody misled.
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Patrick
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OCT 01, 07:27 PM
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| quote | Originally posted by Cliff Pennock:
The closest I can get here is 12mm (or 0.472").
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I'd guess that's close enough, especially just to get the car home... but anything you can use as close as possible to the ID size of the hose would be best.
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