A Funny Thing Happened To Me On The Way To Work Weds Morning...

[jrichker]

I am on my way to work Wednesday morning and I pull out of the side street on the main road that runs right in front of the local ford dealership. I look in my rearview mirror and I see that the car behind me is closing at a faster speed that I thought. Soo I stand on the accelerator in first gear. The car jumps quick and hard and the blink of an eye, the tach reads 5500 RPM. My Mustang has a Tremec 3550 trans, so full throttle upshifts are not a problem. I hear the satisfying bark of the rear tires and the rear end does a little sideways dance right in front of the Ford dealership. At about that time, the cabin fills with steam... The heater core has burst and is bleeding green on the pavement behind me. I pull off the road onto the driveway of a closed auto repair shop and phone my wife to come get me...

LRS has the parts and the one thing that probably would have saved me from blowing the heater core. There is a restrictor orifice that fits in the 5/8"feed hose. It reduces the instantaneous pressure that occurs when the engine suddenly sees high RPMs. it's like $10, so you can count that I will not overlook installing it along with the new heater core...

 

[General karthief]

Some cores come with them, I didn't install mine, now you got me thinking

 

[NIKwoaC]

Got one of those in mine.

Sorry to hear about that, I bet you have quite the mess to clean up.

 

[Bullitt347]

Drag car for the win! What is a "heater core?" Lol.

 

[jrichker]

Got one of those in mine.

Sorry to hear about that, I bet you have quite the mess to clean up.

Fortunately, none of it was inside the car. All the leaking coolant ran out the drain for the A/C condensate.

 

[cleanLX]

sorry to hear about your mishap, thankfully it did not make it's way inside.

 

[95BlueStallion]

This thread makes me want to bypass mine until I can get around to replacing it. I am going to do that today. Sorry it happened to you, but thank you for posting about it. Might have just saved me from the same fate.

 

[Noobz347]

I'm sure we have some 20 year old threads around here that talk about the importance of that little orifice.

I recall we had one person who lost his and replaced with a, "made in Taiwan" 1/4 inch drive socket. A year after, it wasn't as cleaver as the poster initially thought.

He had chocolate milk in his radiator and spend a month trying to figure out where all the discoloration was coming from. When he found the source, the socket didn't look nearly the same.

 

[Deleted member 215073]

Does that orifice go on the inlet or outlet side of the heater core? I thought it was there to slow down the coolant leaving the core so it would transfer heat better.

 

[Mustang5L5]

My core was replaced last around 1998. I think I used a Ford oe unit.

I should really just bypass it as I haven't used the heat in that car in years. Once it gets below sweatshirt level of coldness I just take the daily with heated seats.

Btw, jrichtker what does your mustang even look like? Have we ever seen pics?

 

[Noobz347]

Does that orifice go on the inlet or outlet side of the heater core? I thought it was there to slow down the coolant leaving the core so it would transfer heat better.

It goes on the inlet side of the heater core.

 

[NIKwoaC]

I'm sure we have some 20 year old threads around here that talk about the importance of that little orifice.

I recall we had one person who lost his and replaced with a, "made in Taiwan" 1/4 inch drive socket. A year after, it wasn't as cleaver as the poster initially thought.

He had chocolate milk in his radiator and spend a month trying to figure out where all the discoloration was coming from. When he found the source, the socket didn't look nearly the same.

Lol! That's a quick and dirty lesson in corrosion.

 

[jrichker]

My core was replaced last around 1998. I think I used a Ford oe unit.

I should really just bypass it as I haven't used the heat in that car in years. Once it gets below sweatshirt level of coldness I just take the daily with heated seats.

Btw, jrichtker what does your mustang even look like? Have we ever seen pics?

Yes, it is real and a daily driver too. I spend more time here on Stangnet and driving it than I do fixing it.

I cheated with some careful camera angles so that the peeling paint on the front fenders and hood doesn't show. I made the mistake of having a recovering drug addict "detail the car" for me. It wasn't long after that I discovered the damage he had done...

 

[mikestang63]

Sorry to hear that Joe. I normally end up bypassing mine here in S Florida as heat is not needed, Last one that I did I cheated and cut the top of teh HVAC box off to replace the core, and sealed it up with gorila tape. Saved me about an hour of trying to get those damn rear bolts out.

 

[Noobz347]

Needs just shoes and lipstick.

 

[jrichker]

Needs just shoes and lipstick.

Are you talking about my wife or the car? My wife already has more shoes that Imelda Marcos. Her walk in closet is literally wall to wall shoes.

 

[Noobz347]

Are you talking about my wife or the car? My wife already has more shoes that Imelda Marcos. Her walk in closet is literally wall to wall shoes.

Then it's only fair that your car part walk-in closet is equally equipped.

 

[jrichker]

Then it's only fair that your car part walk-in closet is equally equipped.

Believe me there is no comparison...It's not anywhere near close.