[Shotimes] Heater Core ?s.

[Steve Weinrich]

Heikki

I feel your pain.  I just replaced my core for the second time in a year on
my 89.

The first time took me a week (almost 2) as I had great difficulty removing
the AC lines.  Finally hacksawed them, then replaced them this spring.
Probably spent 25 hours with it that time, much of which was spent staring
at the car, kicking it, and asking myself if it was really worth the 200
bucks I gave for the car.

Verify that it's a core leak.  Since you already have the hoses
disconnected, fill the core up with water and see if it drains out the AC
condensate drain under the lower AC line.  If no leak is apparent,
pressurize it to about 15 psi and check again.  If there is still no
apparent leak, the problem was likely bad hose connections at the firewall
and you will need to repair or replace the hoses.

If you have to replace the core, instructions are here:
http://www.denniswolfe.com/Taurus/Heater_Core.htm  They are for any Gen1 or
Gen2 Taurus.  Note that you really don't need to remove the dash completely
as indicated.  Just drop the steering column to the floor, loosen the dash
enough to pull it back, and set the passenger side back enough to reach the
heater box.

There are THREE (3) nuts that hold the heater box to the firewall. They are
located in a triangular pattern with the top one located immediately to the
right of the upper evaporator line, the lower left one located about 3-4
inches to the left of the lower evaporator line, and the lower right one is
located 9 inches directly below the right hand heater core line. The
standard nuts have a large washer-like shoulder.

Have fun.  I did mine again a couple weeks ago again, took me about 10 hours
which included a complete dash shell replacement.  I could probably do the
core again in 5-7 hours if I had to and didn't run into difficulties (like
frozen/corroded AC lines).


Steve

ps.  Sorry about the font change.  Outlook Express is too stupid to let me
change font after a paste.




----- Original Message -----
From: "Heikki Laine" <heikki@heikkilaine.com>
To: "SHOtimes" <shotimes@autox.team.net>
Sent: Friday, October 25, 2002 10:21 AM
Subject: [Shotimes] Heater Core ?s.


> The time has come for me to replace the heater core in my SHO ('93 MTX).
It
> started blowing huge amounts of steam into my car yesterday morning so I
was
> forced to pull over and cut the hoses off the firewall and connect them to
> each other.  This steam situation was all taking place with the heat off,
> and only grew exponentially worse when I turned the heat on (I was just
> curious).  I am wondering if this is the same core as the non-SHO Taurii,
> and also if anyone has any suggestions or comments of experience.  Stay
away
> from these brands, don't be stupid and do this while installing it, etc...
> CCing replies to my email would be appreciated.  Thanks again for the
> expertise.
>
> -Heikki
>
>
> 'hA-kE
> Rutgers University
> http://www.ece.rutgers.edu
> http://www.physics.rutgers.edu
> Music List
> http://db.etree.org/heikki
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