Warning! When Replacing Heater Core

[Fierofool]

When replacing the heater core on the 85-88 Fiero with AC, be sure to remove your old heater core first and take it with you so you can compare it to your new unit.  You may not have a problem with most brands, but the Ready-Aire brand sold by Advance is the wrong size.

I ordered and picked up one this morning, removed the old and installed the new.  Got everything buttoned up and when I started to connect the hoses, the thing popped out and I could shake the whole thing by the hose nipples. 

After I pulled it back out, I compared it to the old unit and it was close to 1/2 inch short, so it wouldn't stay in the retainer bracket inside the housing.  After returning it, I went to another Advance and the one they had was the same. 

Another option is to remove the old one, take it to Sims Radiator Service and have it reconditioned.  They can usually do it with a 24 hour turnaround.  New ones are also available if you desire.  They have 4 locations in the Atlanta area.  Their price for new ones is about $60 and to recondition yours is around $35.  10% discount coupons are available from their website.

http://www.simsradiator.com/

[Fierofool]

After lodging complaints with the local Advance stores, the problem still exists after more than a year.  So, what if you take your core to a radiator shop, and like the one I just took to Sims, it's beyond repair? 

I just pulled one from an 87 Duke with air.  The core was so corroded that Sims couldn't repair it.  It would need to be rebuilt.  I ordered one from Advance and after waiting for a day for it to arrive, compared it to the OEM.  Still 1/2 inch short. 

I filed complaints direct to Advance Auto and also to Ready-Aire customer service, so we'll see what kind of response we get.

Pep Boys, nor O'Reilly has them and will take 3-5 days to get one.  They also carry the Ready-Aire brand.
So, it's NAPA's Spectra brand when all else fails.  Hope theirs fills the bill.  I'll let you know.

[Fierofool]

[Fierofool]

I am having to replace my heater core again on my 87GT. Because there have been some recent questions and discussions on Pennocks about core replacement, I thought I'd do a small writeup on today's experience
 http://gafieroclub.org/pics/pip/S1035316_(Custom).JPG.

We often advise people to clean out their ductwork, especially around the resister that's accessible in the front compartment. I not only pulled material out of the heater core area, but this is what I got out by hand when I removed the resistor. You can see some of the leaves had slipped into the coil of the resistor and had actually started to cook a little.



There was more that I pulled out with a shop vac, mostly fine stuff that I couldn't pick up with the two fingers I could get into the resister opening. I used a piece of single strand aluminum wire with a bend on the end to get back beyond the reach of my fingers. I'm still not confident that I got everything.

Per the original topic of discussion, the size of the replacement heater cores, this is what I got from Vista-Pro. It's supposed to be a Prorad part, but the paperwork with it says it's a Ready-Aire.  I think they also make Spectre. 

The dimensions for the core, as stated on their website, is 6.25 x 6.25 x 2 inches. Like all other aftermarket cores, it's far from that. Height and depth are correct, but core length is short.

The replacement core is compared alongside an original Harrison heater core.
Harrison at the top, Prorad/Ready-Aire at the bottom.

You can see that the original Harrison is a true 6.25 inches, while the replacement is only 5.875 inches. A full .375 inches short.


Also, note the end tanks. They have a large flange on their full perimeter that caps over the core. I've seen none of the aftermarket units that use this manufacturing method. They use a flat seal, like the lower unit, above.  The aftermarket core I removed from the 86SE a couple of years ago was leaking at the end tank.  When Sims Radiator put pressure on it to see where the leak was, the complete end tank detached.  Imagine that happening in the car.  They said it couldn't be repaired. 

[Fierofool]

To give a little update on this, back when I did this, and I believe it may have been on the 86SE, I called customer service at their plant in Tennesse.  After detailing the problem with the size, the guy told me to go to Home Depot and purchase a can of the aerosol foam insulation stuff and fill the gap at the end of the heater core.  This was to keep the AC air flow and the heater air flow separated.  That doesn't address the problem of the end of the tank not fitting under the spring retainers in the heater box cover. 

[GTRS Fiero]

Is this a measurement issue, or was this just the closest available unit?  Surely, there was not a special heater core just for the Fiero.

[Fierofool]

It seems to be specific to the Fiero.  The aftermarket manufacturers apparently got the measurement wrong in the process and just went with it.  They said the market wasn't large enough to change them. 

I recently talked with Sims Radiator from the Atlanta area and they said they could build one, but it would be very expensive.  Maybe that's something we should start grabbing from the parts yards and having them repaired at a radiator shop. 

[GTRS Fiero]

Or, we could make the suggestion to TFS.  As individuals, buying one would be sxpensive, but TFS, buying in quantity, not so much.  On the other hand, it is $40 for a Spectra heater core. Probably most of us would not pay, say, $100 for a core of the correct size.