[HO455]

The recored heater was not cheap! $185 I believe there is only one shop in the area that does this kind of work anymore. There's a big sign out front that says $195 and hour and $220 an hour for marine work.

I will say that nothing I have received from Wilson Radiator has ever developed a leak or other issue. Unlike the 3 parts store heater cores I replaced in my S10 Blazer in one year. Only one of which was covered under warranty. Which was nice but, it didn't refund my time. So I don't mind the cost as I have confidence it's not going to fail. Especially since it's more work to pull this heater core than a 1st gen S10 heater core.

Segwaying now into installation hiccups. After a bit of struggling I came to the realization that with the proper gasket on the air intake there was no getting the box past the hood hinge as long as the blower motor was in place. And there would no way to get the intake seal installed properly either. So I pulled the blower and got the box in place.

(I have to admit at one point when getting the box lined up and the bolts and it was not falling into place in I realized I had made a dumb move as I hadn't test fitted the box to be sure all the holes were where they were supposed to be. But it eventually lined up and I could breathe easy again.)

With the blower removed I could reach inside and push and prod the seal into place. Once the bolts were snugged up I went to reinstalled the blower and found that there was no way to get the blower past the hood hinge.

To get past the hinge I removed the back 2 bolts on the hinge and slightly loosened the front bolt. Then I closed the hood some and the rear part of the hinge rotated up and the blower was able to slide into place.

Once the blower motor mounting screws were in place I tested the blower to make sure the motor was properly grounded with all the new paint. The grounding was good as the motor spun right up. The problem was that it sounded like a kids bike wheel with a playing card and a clothes pin.

So I pulled the blower and found the blower wheel was touching the motor mounting plate. Somehow the blower had been pushed too far on the motor shaft. Puzzling to say the least as this was the same blower I had been using. I inspected the motor shaft and found that it has 2 flat sides that provide a very small area to stop the blower fan from being pushed on too far. The under side of the didn't look like there was anyway to catch those 2 small flats. (Photo #1) I then pulled the blower fan off the motor that came with the new heater box and I found it had this little stamped metal washer gizmo that prevents the fan from getting pushed on the shaft to far.(Photo #2) Those clever folks at GM! At some point in the wrestling around to get the blower back in I pushed the blower fan an additional 3/16". Without the washer gizmo in place there wasn't anything to keep the blower in place.

This time the blower got installed correctly with the washer gizmo in place and it tested good. Then it was just replace the 2 hood hinge bolts and a bit of fiddling about getting to close right.

The rest was reinstalling the fender well and filling the drained coolant. Then I let the engine idle for 10 minutes and shut it off to heat soak. I did find I had a small leak from the upper hose connection that removing the hose clamp and reversing how it was positioned on the hose solved the leak.

Yet to come my rant about the heater box seals.