Heater core completed!!!!

ras50gt · Mar 11, 2007

Did my heater core yesterday! Total hours to complete: 11 hours...........

Official time would probably be an hour subtracted from the 11 hours because I took a short snack break and the cute girl across the street decided to come talk to me, of all days.... Not sure how this job can be done any faster, possibly shed an hour or two knowing how to do it now and I did run out of sunlight and had to go to the stand up lights, could have waiting till the next day to finish the job up. Anyways, I thought I would share. Now I have first hand experience changing a fox body heater core, after the fifth hour I was thinking about maybe its time for another car (03 cobra, saleen or a crew cab truck). I do feel good after the job though. The heater core has to be one of the biggest pain in the ass jobs, mainly time consumering. Just wondering, how long about does it take for you guys to swap motors in a fox? I know putting the 289 in my 67 coupe was much less of a pain in the ass than the heater core. I'm looking forward to my 331 build up...

Bad92GT · Mar 11, 2007

crazy bunnys

Daggar · Mar 11, 2007

Yep... heater cores suck. I've no idea how many hours it actually took me. I also completely removed and dyed my dash since so much of it had to come apart for the silly heater core anyway. I also went ahead and remove the factory stereo amp and rewired for my head unit. I imagine that your listed time of 11 hours is pretty damned close though. hehe

Daggar · Mar 11, 2007

Bad92GT said:
heater core takes me an hour start to finish if i have a cold coke up on top of the car.. i've put alot of them in though. motors aren't bad, but if your going from scratch by yourself or with no previous knowledge.. gonna catch hell

Unless you're talking about a non-A/C car where you can just pull it through the glove box insert, I call B.S.

795.0pacecar · Mar 11, 2007

From start to finish it took me 2 hours. There is enough slack int he wiring to just unbolt the dash and pull it back far enough to get to the heater core.

ras50gt · Mar 11, 2007

Bad92GT said:
heater core takes me an hour start to finish if i have a cold coke up on top of the car.. i've put alot of them in though. motors aren't bad, but if your going from scratch by yourself or with no previous knowledge.. gonna catch hell

An hour on a non A/C or A/C car? I have no idea how someone can do it that fast, maybe if you don't have bolts holding any of your dash in and you cut a hole to take the heater core out. I would have paid for your air flight to come do mine!

Bad92GT · Mar 11, 2007

ras50gt said:
An hour on a non A/C or A/C car? I have no idea how someone can do it that fast, maybe if you don't have bolts holding any of your dash in and you cut a hole to take the heater core out. I would have paid for your air flight to come do mine!

me and daggar had a debate over it.. lol but i pull the whole dash.. which isnt that bad imo.. and yada yada yada.. its already been fought over.. don't worry about it i'll hold my tongue

25thmustang · Mar 11, 2007

An hour, two? It didnt take me anywhere near 11, but altogether maybe 5-7 tops. I did have a lot of the interior out of the way, but from a dash to taking it out, and putting it back in, like I said 5 hours or so! Not fun by any stretch of the imagination, and I dyed mine black again as well!

88_GT_5_oh · Mar 11, 2007

my heater core went when i poped my headgasket. i'm thinking of just not replacingit cause i know how much of a pain in the ass it is. my car doesn't have A/C fromt he factory, does that really make it easier?

25thmustang · Mar 11, 2007

If it didnt have AC I believe you just go through the back of the glove box...

RsStanG1987 · Mar 11, 2007

795.0pacecar said:
From start to finish it took me 2 hours. There is enough slack int he wiring to just unbolt the dash and pull it back far enough to get to the heater core.

Thats exactly how i do it... 11 hours is just absurd.. It takes me 1 1/2 - 2 hours.

Bad92GT · Mar 11, 2007

RsStanG1987 said:
Thats exactly how i do it... 11 hours is just absurd.. It takes me 1 1/2 - 2 hours.

there you have it, I just pull the dash out enough to get er out.

Darkwriter77 · Mar 11, 2007

Pics of this quick-trick method would rule. If it truly can be a 2-hour project, I just might tackle it, myself, someday.

ras50gt · Mar 11, 2007

Yea, eleven hours does sound rediculous(and it was). I read threads before taking on the task and their times ranged from 5-9 hours. I didn't take the dash out completely, I propped it up with a 2x4 and did it that way. I think mine took so long because I was taking my time, I labeled the screws and such to make sure I didn't end up scratching my head in the end with screws left over. I also was being extra careful not to break anything or scratch up the dash. Starting at noon with the sun beaming on me probably wasn't very helpful either. Taking the dash apart and propping it up was obviosuly the easy part, that can definetely be done faster. Once I had the heater core cover open, just getting the old one out took some time. I thought I would be able to just reach in and pull it out with no issues, but it took a lot more effort. Although it might sound lame, the old hoses gave me some issues too because the clamps had to be pinched from the drivers side. After the core was in, it took some time to put the dash back in and bolt it all up. Overall, I can see how the job can take less time. I just wanted to make sure all the screws went back in and didn't scratch up any of the dash. Those of you that can do it in an 1.5-2.5 hours if you ever do another fox heater core with an A/C, you should make a video of it. I think it would be very helpful(educational) for everyone at stangnet who has to do a heater core change and it might be a bit entertaining.

I can post pictures of what it looked like propped up and the heater core cover open........ but here are some links that can help:

http://www.mustangmonthly.com/howto/5652/index.html (This one, they basically took the entire dash out)

http://home.netcom.com/~skent/mustang/1990/heater_core/hcore.html (Propped dash way)

25thmustang · Mar 11, 2007

I look at it this way, I would never want to get good at doing heater cores, as I would never want to do that many to get me good!

Roland69 · Mar 11, 2007

so when I go to do mine (non ac car) I will let you all know if it is easy as they say....and I'll let you know how long it takes me. since there is no real proof on here that I have seen

LS-what? · Mar 12, 2007

It only took me 15 minutes... lol J/K

Darkwriter77 · Mar 12, 2007

I dunno, still looks really time-consuming, but I haven't seen the method of keeping the heather box propped open to do it before, so that's cool. I still need to buy and install a new heater pipe before I go worrying about dropping in a new heater core, myself, though...

woodyy24 · Mar 12, 2007

LS-what? said:
It only took me 15 minutes... lol J/K

anybody done one on a 85? i heard it was alot easier and all you have to do is take out the glove box and its right there.

Bad92GT · Mar 12, 2007

woodyy24 said:
anybody done one on a 85? i heard it was alot easier and all you have to do is take out the glove box and its right there.

im about to do mine woody.. i'll post it up or PM you

also, about the quick method. If you've never taken the dash out before, don't plan on it being as quick as a car that has had the dash out.. i know all the bolts and screws holding everything in by heart, and how to get it out easy... so its not that bad for someone thats done one before.. first one took a couple hours, the others went alot quicker

Heater core completed!!!!

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