I noticed water coming from the heater box on my '57 ford, its not the cowl drains, but rather coming directly from where the heater core is. ive smelled it and tasted it, its NOT coolant, which is where im stumped.
it did two days ago, but this started while i was driving it last week. i thought the heater box was sealed?
Anything that was sealed in 1957, might not be sealed today. I usually approach these situations by spending some time learning how the part is built, how it works, and then inspecting things carefully, which often includes taking things apart. Also beware that it could be coolant that's leaking, sometimes it's hard to tell for sure.
Your heater core has sprung a leak, if it's original it is made of copper, take the heater apart and solder it up, If you can't do the repair most radiator shops can fix it. HRP
The heater box is not sealed, but does have some foam gasketing in places, which has probably rotted away over the years. If it is indeed plain water, likely suspects are the windshield gasket letting water into the defrost ducts, or a leak around the blower motor ducting. Most likely the core leaking though.
I have an OT car with a drain and a hose on the heater box. It had pine needles in it and would FILL the heater box with water coming in from the cowl vents. Destroyed the fan motor, resistor pack and plugged up the core's fins. If it gets outside air, rain can get in there. It was full of needles. Mike PS, I got it like that. My trees fill cars with Maple helicopters and Sweetgum seeds.
definitely going to pop the heater box off sometime this winter, the generators front bearing is starting to whine (the one i couldnt remove), same with every 66 year old car, a bunch of little fixes are needed once you start driving it
Re cored our 57 hardtop with a quality radiator. Fitted a 13lb cap. Excellent.. heater core didn’t think so . It let go. Cost plenty to get the heater fixed up.
I didn’t realize that your car was running/driving yet. Way to go young man! And it is a never ending project keeping an old car going. That’s what makes so fun and rewarding…
it WAS coolant, after i drove it some the just water became coolant, the core is fine, the gasket where the heater valve installs wasnt sealing properly, a little more rubber cement and making sure to seal the outside aswell, no more leak! it drives really great, backroads are amazing in this thing, forgot about a part of the road you need to slow down on, bumped my head on the headliner! ooops! did some CLR treatment to it while the "coolant" drained, i need to flush it with more flush, and for a lot longer... also going to post this in my build thread
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