Now I know why the heater hoses weren't hooked up on the Impala when I got it. I hooked 'em up yesterday, let the car warm up, turned the heater on, checked the housing inside for antifreeze leaking, no drips, no burnt almond smell, thought e'thing was hunky dory. Got up this morning and headed for my buddy's radiator shop to charge the A/C, and thought I smelled antifreeze as I headed out. Just as I looked down, a HUGE gush of antifreeze belched out of the floor outlet, right into my left foot! I turned around, mopped up the inch or so of antifreeze in the footwells, shampoo'd the carpet, shopvac'd the whole thing, unhooked the heater hoses, and started over. Turns out, it'd been leaking the whole time it was idling in the driveway, filling the heater plenum with antifreeze, but not a drop leaked out untill it sloshed around under acceleration and poured out the floor vent. Nice. Now we know a '62 Impala heater plenum is water tight... When I got home after charging the A/C (after having the leak we found in the high pressure line welded up at another shop) I started in on pulling the heater core. What a fun job that is. Turns out when Chevrolet built Impalas, they started with the heater core and then layered the car up around it, with almost every fastener and mount hidded behind some important part. Like fenders. Like the rest of the AC/heat plenum, the glove box, the lower part of the dash, and so on. It was a miserable job, but it's out and my radiator repair shop owner pal has it and says he can fix the leaky core, replace the wasted water shut off valve, and have it back to me tommorow. I can hardly wait to put it back together. I did drive it to a cruise in tonight with the heater out and the A/C plenum tossed in the trunk. Nobody noticed.
If I remember correctly.. a 64 Chevelle is the same core............and it was easier to get and CHEAPER than the Impala core........got mine at NAPA I believe....... ....... jersey Skip
Yup, and a gob of JB weld on an A/C line is also going into my list of "Things that need to be fixed first!"
My suggestion is that you pull up the carpet and get the rest of the coolant you missed on the first go-around. I'm sure there is still a small puddle hiding in there somewhere, unless you like the occasional recurring smell of pancakes.
Back in 1988 or so right after I put a new carpet in my Chevy II (literally one week after), I had the damn heater core rupture in a huge way (like yours) and send a huge gusher of coolant everywhere. Not fun.
I believe in preventative maintenance. When I got my Biscayne, I put a new heater core in it. Also addressed problem areas like window seals. I removed the front and rear windows and re-sealed them. New weather stripping and felts around all other windows and a new trunk seal.
I pulled the heater out of a '64 Gran Prix a few weeks back and marvelled at how impossible to service it had to be. Had I not cut the fenders apart with sawzall already, it probably would have stayed in the car. You literally have to remove the right hood hinge and outer fender to change the fan motor. But I have spent many a moment during a repair job cursing out GM engineers. Another good one, when I was driving an o/t Pontiac wagon a number of years ago as a beater, it needed a heater core. I had one handy, but the top of the heater box was installed so half of it was under the hood and half of it was under the dash. What the f---??!? Thankfully, the car was new enough the whole works was made of plastic. I just cut the thing so I could remove enough to change the core. Put it back together and put a little tape over the crack. But if any of you use a mid-80's GM car as a ch***is/floor donor for an old car? Throw the heater away.
Automakers haven't learned. The entire dashboard needs to come out of a 94-04 Mustang to change the heater core. I guess they figure heater cores usually last through the warranty period.
Here at crushproof, we know Magic. Real Magic. See, we have learned an Evil spell. the formula is as follows. New motor, New radiator New hoses new water pump. start the car and presto! Abra Cadabra! Shazam! green waterfall from the dashboard.it seems to be worse on the fords, but for some reason, in the last year...EVERY DAMN TIME we make the above mentioned changes, we get to buy the customer a heater core.
I'm feeling pretty clever to have gotten the core out without removing the fender nor ruining any of the ductwork under the dash! I did tear one of the paper wrapped coiled A/C ducts to the left hand A/C outlet, but the paper is so fragile it practically fell apart looking at it. Looked like the PO had taken things apart enough to determine it wasn't going to be easy to fix, and just hung things back together. I have some repair work to do to fix stuff that he broke, but nothing serious. I've been lucky so far with heaters, this is the first one in all the old cars (read, junk) I've had that's been a problem, and aside from it being a pain in the ***, it's gonna be a relatively easy fix. At least it happened here, rather than halfway to 'Vegas in a couple of weeks when I head out with it! Brian
Mine always go out it January. My brother's mustang lost one in the summer, and instead of waiting until the heat was over and byp***ing it, we removed the dash and killed the A/c in the process. so he had no a/c but all the heat he could stand. In Kansas. In the summer. New car Engineers have obviously never had an old car.
why in the **** do you think they sold the car? guess the next time you buy a car your going to ask "does the ac and the heater work?" love those 62's. where are the pic's?
Generally if you have to fix the p*** side floor, but not the driver side, you're also gonna be fixing the heater.
Consider yourself lucky. I had a 64 Dodge some years back that had a cheepo aftermarket mechanical oil pressure in it. You can guess the rest of the story... One night I look down at the gauge and notice the face is black. And oil is shootin all over the floor. Now THATS a mess. Fortunatly the carpet wasn't in yet.
Yep Yep Yep!!! The 62 pictured to the left on my avatar had a heater core issue. What you can not see from the angle the photo was taken is the knuckle skin left behind the dash from that project!
Am I the only person having this issue? I have a 1967 impala with AC, new heater core is 3/8 thicker than original. I'm pretty sure its the same ones your buying and using. How are you guys affixing the core to case with the original brackets. Mine are too short cause of the 3/8 additional thickness. 8 can't be the only person with this problem. I've already ordered 2 core and looked up specs at other places and thay are all thicker. Original is abot 2 inches and new core is 2 3/8. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Would like to replace core before I forget where all the wire and bolts go.
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