I saw this on the FourEyedForums yesterday. It got me laughing but it is unique and funny.
redneck way of fixing it
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
well, the heater core went out in my svo. went out a couple months ago. been dreading when the time came for me to change it as I'd not only have to pull the dash apart but take out 5 gauges. 2 in the pillar and 3 above the glove box. got to thinking the other day and decided to try it...i don't have a/c on it anymore. soooo....i ran the heater hoses over to the a/c core. started it up and let it warm up as I was checking for any leaks, both at the hoses and in the car. nope, no leaks at all. decided to go ahead and drive it to the store because it takes forever to really warm up when its a idle. be the time I was driving back to the house (store is maybe 2 1/2 mile round-trip) I had to cut the fan off and roll the windows down. man does it put out some heat now. please tell me I'm not the first that has down this. lol
Thats not the first time I've heard of that being done with success.
theres gotta be a reason for that to fail eventaully, i would imagine that the a/c core would not be able to handle the temps of a heater core.
I see a bad ending to this story on the horizon....
I started a thread about this just a few months ago here (thanks for reminding me to post back to it):
http://www.foxtbirdcougarforums.com/showthread.php?t=25574 (http://"http://www.foxtbirdcougarforums.com/showthread.php?t=25574")
In short, I kind of think the SVO will do just fine. Evaporator Cores weren't designed to see that high of temperatures, but it seems to me that being designed for the higher pressures and corrosiveness of the refrigerant should make up the difference?
Anyone who ever has had an evaporator core failure when used as a heater core, please post it!
Cooter
I did it on a '67 Falcon back in about '79... Was cold and heater core went, so I just sawed off the fittings for the AC evap(had working AC till then), and connected the heater hoses... The heater had always been a bit weak on that car, after the change you could ride with the windows down in freezing weather and be warm...
As far as failure, I doubt it... Even though they do normally handle around a 40* temperature, they are also designed to with stand probably 250lb pressure, with 13-16lb pressure it'll likely live forever...
This kinda has me intrigued. A friends 88 XR7 has a smoked heater core. Im really intersted in longetevity.
I've never done it with a heater core, but I made a transmission cooler out of a Caprice evapourator core for my first T-Bird. Even welded s onto it and tapped 'em for tapered fittings. The aluminum welding was done as part of my trade school welding stuff. Let me tell you, that cooler kept that tranny some cool! You could put your hand on the inlet and it'd be warm, the outlet would be ambient.
Anyway, I'd bet that evapourator would last forever as a heater core. They're all welded aluminum (no crimp or solder joints) so they'll last a lot longer than a normal heater core...
i was just wondering of the corrosiveness with antifreeze thats all
So I wonder if I could run the heater core and AC core in parallel and have the heater core for "normal" heat and the "AC" for...say right now when its below 0 wind chill...?
Thats what I was thinking. Or just use the ac core if it is better. My heat is not very good. :(
I may just try this for fun.
anyone here done it? I might be interested, lol.
I can't see any problems with it. Evaporator cores rarely fail under 250+ psi from A/C. As long as you keep enough antifreeze in, I'd say it would last longer than a heater core does lol.
Where is the orifice/expansion valve? I assumed it was somewhere in the HVAC box.
You will have full blast heat all the time.
The temperature blend door only controls how much air goes through the heater core and how much bypasses it.
All of the air goes through the evaporator core.
Very funny. I suppose your blue and red would then be backwards in the winter
think about it guys the a/c core will handle the hot temps. if u think im wrong look at a heat pump system on a house even though its not antifreeze it does reverse the flow of the refrigant to heat ur house making the a-coil go from a cooling to heating coil . only they are made to handle high pressures . so the a/c core should out last the heater core. heater core made of copper , a/c core made of aluminum.so it should stand up better to corrosion alot better.but hell ive been wrong before. lol
Yes but assuming the "heat" blend door would passing cold air due to the heater core being disconnected, there would still be control of the air temp...
Also could install a in line valve to control the flow of coolant through the evap...
Manual control only. Auto would drive the door in the wrong direction.
I used this trick as a "temporary" fix. It got me through 3 winters. The only down side was the heat was either on or off. During the summer, I just used a metal coupler and bypassed the evaporator until I needed it again the next winter. Temporary could have easily become permanent if I had a way to control temperature. In 3 years it never failed to bring me toasty-warm heat.
Yeah I tend to forget about the EATC systems, especially since I tend to avoid them...
The air goes through the evaporator core first and will be heated before it gets to the blend door/ heater core.
Most newer antifreeze has additives, to keep all the aluminum in the newer motors safe. So I would assume the core would be reasonably safe.:D
I did this to my white coug several years ago and posted it on the old board.
only one problem,,,,,,,, YOU HAVE HEAT!!!
not only do you have heat but you have it on vertually every setting except off.
I dont care though, it solved my problem.
Does it increase the intensity of the air? The setup in my car (stock) doesn't do a whole lot, and I might try this to incease the heat. It takes forever for the car to warm up, and its either sweat buckets or freeze your stones off, and I can't understand it.
your just gonna have to take the blower motor out and clean it,, check the duct work, check for kinds in the flex hose ect. my blower is great,, perhaps your burshes on the motor itself are getting worn and its speed is slower ,,although you would likely blown the on board fuse at teh resistor block.
Your car warming up has very little if anything to do with the heater core.
It's good advice, when my taurus had a transmission overheat issue I started using my a/c condensor for a transmission cooler. Worked like a charm!