[blueghoast]

Time to start baking with the oven.

GT.

[63Banshee]

Originally Posted by mechanickeith

Mid-20's is cold,,,when you are used to the 70's this time of year!! Heat pump went out in the house. No $$$ to get it fix's yet. Was in the 30's in the house when I got up this morning!!

Unacceptable

[mechanickeith]

Heater Update!!! Still cold in the house but the car was "Toasty" this morning!!! Got the core fix'd & back in!. Had 5 days straight last week with the temps in the 20's & high's in the low 40's. Today was 82 degrees!!!

[wheelspin]

A new heater core for the GP included an installation sheet listing a testing procedure to be performed prior to installation. It suggested plugging one outlet and then using your garden hose/house water pressure (about 65# where I live) to pressure test their product.

Using this test since then has resulted in a 50% rejection rate .

Somewhat on the subject: the GP's new Ron Davis Racing aluminum radiator had a similar installation/fact sheet that advised grounding all radiators to reduce/eliminate corrosion caused by the electrolytic action of the dissimilar metals and the coolant causing voltage to occur in the cooling system, somewhat like battery.

[mechanickeith]

Les,,,thats crazy!! Using house water pressure to test heater cores??? Whats the average car system run,,12-15 pounds?? My house water will burst a garden hose if left turnd on for any length of time. I am surprized there was only a 50% rejection rate.

[wheelspin]

Testing at that pressure must have a correlation to the manufacturer's strength/integrity specs.

[63Banshee]

That’s not an unreasonable test. Standard home faucets are rated for 80 lbs pressure. The pipes can withstand much more than that. I’ve got 90+ lbs pressure at my house and it takes years to see faucet leaks. Even with thinner wall tubing, I would expect a heater core (no rubber seals and such) to withstand 65 lbs at a minimum. I probably have a manual around here that shows the burst strength of the tubing... if you must know.

[Sirrotica]

At 80 P.S.I. you should have a big safety factor once it's installed in the car. Since copper tubing is usually more malleable than brass and solder joints are used in construction of home water systems as well as radiator and heater cores I don't think 80 P.S.I. is that far out of line for a short term test.

It would be nice if all cooling system components were tested to 80 P.S.I. Maybe there wouldn't be the owner field testing for quality control along with associated warranty and customer dissatisfaction with radiators and heater core that there currently is in the aftermarket product industry. The heater cores currently made in China I've heard of them lasting a year or less. So they'll give you a new one if it fails, big deal, no one is paying for the labor the second time around.

Reputable parts companies going back 20 years or so would help with at least some labor on defective parts, now that is practically unheard of. They exchange the part for you when you present them with the defective part, that's the easy part. It's all about the bottom line and greed, corporate America could give a rat's behind about reputation and standing behind a product that Hop Sing made in a sweat shop on the other side of the ocean.

[Tom Vaught]

Typically a split core is either a freeze situation or a lack of a restrictor in the inlet line to the heater core. I typically bend the large tubing to a 3/8" square opening to mechanically reduce the slug of water hitting the guts of the core under hard acceleration. An Old WW-2 Pontiac mechanic told me about the "Mod" after I failed mine from "hard acceleration testing".

If you had properly recirculated anti-freeze to the core then the core did not freeze.
So did you do your recirculation "fill" with the valve open?

Tom Vaught

[beemergary]

Originally Posted by 63Banshee

That’s not an unreasonable test. Standard home faucets are rated for 80 lbs pressure. The pipes can withstand much more than that. I’ve got 90+ lbs pressure at my house and it takes years to see faucet leaks. Even with thinner wall tubing, I would expect a heater core (no rubber seals and such) to withstand 65 lbs at a minimum. I probably have a manual around here that shows the burst strength of the tubing... if you must know.

Seems like 90lbs. would have water bouncing out of the sink and the ceiling.

[bbscamp]

Originally Posted by blueghoast

Keith I bought a heater core for a 74 chevy truck.
The lenth was the same but the width+height was
A little smaller. And I had to make a differant hole
for one of the tubes. It's alluminium and was only
$37.00 shiped to my door. I eliminated the little
conootin valve thingy. Just a thought. I have the
part number to if you want it.

GT.

dig out that part number man!!!!!!! I'll do a build thread if needed.