Greetings,
I have a great old 71 442 W30 which I recently flushed the coolant system, then the heater valve sprung a leak (fixed it), then the radiator sprung a leak (being repaired), now I'm fearful of the heater core springing a leak and may do some preventive replacement/repair/cleaning etc.


My question, how do you remove the heater core from a 71 Cutlass with AC? Do I have to remove the dash? Fender well? Any suggestions are appreciated. Thanks,
4Ceesuns

 

Removing the fender well makes the
job easier along with the removal of the pass. side bucket seat.
You don't have to remove the dash, but there is
some r/r involved. My suggestion, is to get a
Chassis service manual. It will walk you through it
for the most part.

 

I'm pretty sure you have to remove the heater box inside the car to get it out. That shouldn't involve removing the dash, but you'll likely have to remove the glove box and the vent lines.

Drain the system before you remove the heater core. Disconnect coolant hoses and blow out the heater core with compressed air to remove all the coolant. That way you won't get a huge spill inside the car when you pull it in from the firewall.

I think there's a thread somewhere about this. I'll see if I can find it. You should also invest in a 71 Chassis Service Manual and 71 Cutlass Assembly manual. They come in very handy for things like this.

 

Remember to use a great deal of patience during the removal process. Don't force anything. It all comes apart fairly easy once you have removed all the nuts. It will slide down under the dash as well, and fairly easy. Dash removal is a waste of time, since the dash is still there after the pad is removed. You should remove the glove box door and liner along with anything attached to the dash below the heater box. Removing your nice carpet before doing anything else is also, IMO, very desirable. Be careful removing the hoses off the heater box water inlet and outlet. Too much force here will break the ports. Just take a razor and cut the hose in line with the inlet and outlet connections and then peel the hoses off. There is a little slip nut of some sort on the cable that runs from the control unit to the heater, it must be slide off and they usually go flying off, never to be found again. You will need this little piece, so don't lose it. The fender, IMO, should come off. But I may be wrong here. The A/C box in the engine compartment comes off really easy.
Plan on two to three hours to remove everything if this is your first time. It'll all go back in easily if you do everything during the same weekend, before you forget where everything came from. LOL
Good luck.

 

Tom, if he takes out the PS inner liner, that should give him plenty of room to remove the evaporator box if necessary. I thought the heater core didn't require the evaporator box removal? I agree with your other assessments.

 

Allen's right,

I had another local mechanic say the same thing. He pulls the inner liner out and leaves the fender on the car, which is safer for the paint. Your less likely to scatch the paint pulling the fender off of the car and then putting it back on.

Good input from Allen, thanks