Has anyone just looped the heater core lines in the engine bay to effectively delete to heater core? Don't really drive it in cold weather anyway. Eventually I'll replace the leaking heater core, but seems to be a rather large job.

 

And is there a good tutorial on heater core replacement on here or anywhere? Thanks. Here's the car:

 

Yes looping the hoses was a standard fix for a quick and easy leaking heater core bypass.

 

Heater Core Replacement

 

Thank you

 

Thank you

 

You can also just cap the two hose barbs if you don't intend to have a functional heater. That's what the factory did on heater delete cars.

 

No way, cap the off the two hoses that go to the firewall and the two barbs that go into the firewall?

 

The two heater core barbs in the firewall don't carry any coolant if they are not connected to anything, so you don't need caps on those two unless you want to keep debris out.

 

I'd prob want to cap them to keep crap from entering.

Are there no ill effects from capping the hoses instead of looping to keep from interrupting the flow path?

 

One more time:

And for more context, the coolant flow in an Olds motor is rearward through the block, then up and forward through the head to the thermostat. Looping a hose actually allows some coolant to bypass the head, which is the hottest part of the engine. Yes, the heater core does this also, but the flow resistance in the heater core minimizes this bypass. And also keep in mind that on A/C cars, which stress the cooling system more than non-A/C cars, the heater control valve also shuts off this flow. And finally, the head on the driver side has no bypass, yet it cools just fine.

 

Ok, I'll just cap for now until I find a good heater core to get. Fwiw, this is an AC car

 

The old heater core, unless you plan to recore it, is junk.

 

Understood. Just seems like the new ones out there like to fail quickly? So was thinking get this one recored, but idk. The other part is I don't want the left over coolant leaking out of the core barbs anywhere, out of respect for neighbors outdoor pets. Coolant is like poison to them.

 

Is there a known good replacement brand? I've read some threads about AL ones that do not last.