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AngliaGT

AngliaGT

Great Pumpkin
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#2 Son came over today.Said he had coolant on the carpeting.I told him "heater core".
This is on a 1988 Chevy Corsica,V6,Auto,etc.
Bought it at a city auction 3-1/2 years ago for $500.
Had 50,000 miles on it at that time.
I told him to bypass the heater core.He asked me to look at it.I can't even tell where the heater hoses are,& the Haynes manual was worthless for this.
He doesen't have any spare money for this,& almost all of our other cars are in various states of disrepair.
Trying to make some sense of it all.

- Doug
 
Yeah, my Dad had a similar Chevy with the same problem. He was driving it with the rad-cap loose and three bottles of Bars-Leak in it, but eventually, it just got worse. I tried to monkey with it last Fall and gave up......I bought him another used car instead. It was cheaper and easier.

By the way, Japanese and Euro cars are not any better in this regard....maybe even worse.

Makes you appreciate the simplicity of older cars. My favorite is the "heater control" valve on a Bugeye. A little faucet-deal on the engine block.

See if you can find the two heater hoses under the hood. I've just taken two needle-nose Vise-Grips and pinched them off. It worked for six months in one car I had (and don't forget to retreive the vise-grips before you junk the car /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/jester.gif ).

The alternate is to run straight water instead of antifreeze (probably don't get much freezing in your area anyway) and drill a hole in the floor. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/jester.gif
 
Unfortunately, in most modern cars they put the heater core on the assembly line, then build the car around it. You should be able to find where the coolant hoses go through the firewall, but it will usually take some poking and crawling around to find them.
 
I had similar problems with my Camaro....Had the heater core replaced, and the replaced again due to faulty parts!
Even better is the MGA/B heater control valve that leaks like a faucet right on the dizzy.
 
I hate the Corsica. My sister had one, and wanted me to change the accessory belt. Nearly impossible to move the tensioner far enough with a standard crescent wrench because the motor mount is in the way, and I found out (before anything really bad happened) that that motor mount is carrying the weight of the engine. Suggested she take it to a shop. They came to the same conclusion, and had to use an ENGINE HOIST to support the engine while they took the motor mount out to change the accessory belt. Now that's a good design (NOT!).
 
[ QUOTE ]
The alternate is to run straight water instead of antifreeze (probably don't get much freezing in your area anyway) and drill a hole in the floor.


[/ QUOTE ]
/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/iagree.gif
Sounds like a contribution for the humor forum's "you know you drive a beater" .... /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/yesnod.gif
 
Have any of you ever seen the late model Camaro, or caprice V8s with the distributor relocated to between the water pump and engine block? To change the distributor cap, first remove water pump. That is great design!!!!.
 
eh... my favorite is where they hide the distributor under part of the fire wall......
 
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