Heater Core--I think....

[mdburd]

It did turn out to be the valve and not the core--so now I have a very clean heater core that I don't exactly need.

A new valve was actually tough to find--but it arrives tomorrow--hopefully, I'll be back behind the wheel by the weekend.



Hmm... Next up, new gaskets for the top of the engine...

[mdrburchette]

That's good to hear. Where did you get an original type heater valve? Most people that end up replacing theirs has to go with an X19 valve and modify the lines coming from the firewall.

[zachmac]

Now that the immediate problem is fixed, can I hijack the thread in a different direction? Why hasn't anyone come up with a solution to this obvious design flaw? I don't mean the valve itself or the fact that if you never run your heater the tubes will rust, what I mean is the dammed if you do damned if you don't series arrangement with flow to the rear of the block. Unless I missed something, with the stock setup you only have flow to the rear of the block if it passes through the heater core, correct?

This means if you live where it is hot, like I do, you have to choose between hot air from the box in the passenger compartment or restricting cooling to the engine under the worst possible conditions, when it is hot out! CrazY Clearly what they should have done is either make the two circuits independent or made a three way valve similar to the thermostat that always passes flow to the block but diverts it to the heater when desired. Am I missing something?

As far as bypassing the heater for the summer, it would seem to be the solution IF you go to the trouble of removing and draining the heater core. Otherwise you are exacerbating tha stagantion / rust problem by locking coolant in the core / pipe / valve area.

[zachmac]

Not wanting to just post a problem with no suggested solution what does anyone think about a manual three way valve in the engine compartment in the heater core supply line with the third leg branching to a new three way T connection that mates the three way valve second outlet and the heater core return line to the block supply? In the summer you position the manual valve to shut off the heater core and still supply full flow to the block. Come chilly weather you just pop the hood and reposition the valve to restore heater functionality.

The two benefits over just bypassing the HC are 1) you can un-bypass without any messy hose connect / diconnect issues and 2) during the warm months you can occasionally reposition the valve and run the heater to overcome the no flow to heater rust issues.

What do ya think?