Swapped heater core

[Southpa]

Well, I must say, this went easier than I thought it would! Luckily someone had been there before me so I didn't have to yank the hood and inner fender to get at those lower bolts. The bolts were already undone. The heater box had a lot of "ca ca" inside. Just to see how bad the old core was I gave it a little pressure test. Water squirted out of 2" of seam. I don't think I'll toss it though. I'll try my hand at resoldering that seam, its nice to have a spare heater core on hand.

[rage'nrat638]

MAN FROM LOOKING AT YOUR AVATAR.....
I WOULD SAY YOU NEED A GREAT HEATER CORE......

glad everything went so well.....
i will be doing one this next week......

[Southpa]

MAN FROM LOOKING AT YOUR AVATAR.....
I WOULD SAY YOU NEED A GREAT HEATER CORE......

Lol, actually, thats a very rare picture for this part of the world. The pic is my truck in the driveway in Victoria, BC during the 'ol "Blizzard of '96". We got snowed in bigtime. Basically, it knocked the city back to the 1800's, too much for Victoria's FIVE snowplows. Whats the use of investing in a fleet of snowplows when you only see an incident like this about every 50 years?

[toddtheodd]

I had to replace mine last year. Nothing like steaming antifreeze gushing into the cab to scare the poo out of ya'.
I didn't have to remove the hood though. Is that something that I was lucky about or is hood removal not required?
Todd

[Southpa]

Is that something that I was lucky about or is hood removal not required?

For a previously "unmolested" truck the only way to get at the bottom left bolt of the heater core box (just under the fan) is the get the inner fender out of the way, which requires unbolting the hood hinge. Removing the hood entirely is optional, you can always just support that side with a piece of wood. Jewels put together a thread on this with lots of pics. In my case someone had cut away the bottom corner of the fibreglass surrounding the bolt. I talked to Spoof on the phone and he said he managed to remove the bolt with a hacksaw blade and another person dremelled the bolt out from the other side. There are a few "intriguing" areas in most vehicles. I'm still wondering how I will bolt on my "GMC 1500 V-EIGHT" fender emblems without having to pull the fenders! But I'll worry about it when the time comes.

[TugOwar]

If you don't mind me asking, what core did you use?

Since you mentioned your fender emblems, I've been debating wether to remove my "GMC 2500 V-Eight" emblems or leave them on, most other chrome will be shaved. Even if I decide to keep them they probably need to come off to be cleaned since some jack**s sprayed primer all over them!

[Southpa]

Label on the box says "Transpro" , lol, but on the bottom of the same label reads, "Relabeled Product Not of Transpro Manufacture" When I pulled it from the box I assumed it was a reman, looked like there was some core soldering done. Its an aftermarket core only 2" thick as opposed to the 2 1/2" OEM, still fits anyway. They say performance of the thinner one is equal to or better than the OEM.

As far as fender emblems, the previous owner left them on when he painted from brown (original color) to orange. So in between the letters GMC you could see the brown poking thru. Its easier to prep (sand, polish etc) the metal for painting anyway.

[rage'nrat638]

just a fyi.....
i bought some little round hole clips that drop in the holes for the emblem post..
push on the emblem....your done......no need to get to the rear on the fender
bought them at napa.....

they are cone shaped.....very cool....