Good brand of heater core for 1968 C10 and where to buy?

[HeavyHauler]

I am getting ready to replace the heater core and blower motor on my 1968 Chevy C10 shortbed with no AC. I was planning on just buying the Duralast brand both from Autozone but I also remember reading somewhere that some were having trouble with particular heater cores fitting in the brackets of the heater box or something like that?

[Jason Banks]

I don't know anything about this particular model but saw this the other day.

https://www.radiatorexpress.com/prod...220713/1321085

I was lucky to have a NOS Ac Delco that I replaced mine with. But when I was looking I could not find a Copper/Brass replacement. Was shopping radiators the other day and noticed these guys had the copper/brass heater core.

It does appear the way the end caps on this copper/brass model look they should work with the brackets in the box. It seems the aluminum cores have end caps made of thicker metal/aluminum which causes problems with the brackets.

[yuccales]

I did mine a year and a half ago, still working fine. Fit perfect. The bales fit the core fine. Mines a non a/c '70.

[mr48chev]

The Copper-brass unit from Summit is a nice unit, 25 dollars plus shipping nice would be up to you.

I don't have an issue with the unit from Autozone and the Murray core that O'Reilly sells is a name auto hvac brand and has been since I have been working on cars and trucks.

The four seasons from Rock Auto is less money but after shipping it will cost the same as the one from Autozone. The unit from Napa is up in the copper brass price.

The aluminum core will still put out plenty of heat for our truck cabs,

[jbrownmxr]

Other option is to have the OE one rebuilt…

https://www.thebrassworks.net/

About $300 so not the cheapest option

[HO455]

If you're looking at recoring yours this thread may help.

https://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/....php?p=9262892.

I'm not 100% sure but I believe some of percentage of the fitment issues can be attributed to trucks that came with the deluxe heater. There are no over the counter replacements for a deluxe heater core.

[mr48chev]

The problem now is that there are so few radiator shops that even do radiators anymore that they are so busy with big truck and heavy equipment radiators that they won't even talk to you about redoing a heater core but will order you one. That is pretty much a thing of a past in the real world and labor rates put the cost up well above buying the brass core from Summit.

Agreed that fitment issues are most likely due to the one size does not actually fit all thing although I didn't know that 67/72 had but one heater as far as no AC heaters went. Looking it up Chevrolet only shows one non AC heater for 67. They marked that as being the standard heater.

From the GM heritage center archives https://www.gm.com/content/dam/compa...olet-Truck.pdf

In 68 it does show the Deluxe Air heater as standard equipment.

I remember working on a few 65/66 trucks in Texas in the early 70's that were sold new without heaters. A friend had one as his parts house delivery truck that had no options that weren't required to make the truck legal on the roads in Texas when sold new. Short box stepside with a 230 and 3 speed. I remarked one day that it was a nice looking truck and he said Yea but it came with no options on it when dad bought it for the store and went down to the dealer and bought the cheapest new truck on the lot. If you are old enough to remember the adds from the 60's dealers often advertised a new car or truck for a rock bottom price and when you went to look at it it was the last rig in the line of a line of cars or trucks that you walked past to get to this plain no frills car or truck with no radio, no heater and no anything else. Then when you said "but I need a heater and want a radio" they moved you back up the line to a car that they figured to sell you in the first place and usually the further up the line the more goodies the rigs had.

[Richard]

Both of my in hand A/C heater cores were leakers. Searched locally and no one would repair them. Oddly they are two different thicknesses, with different mounting straps. There are pics in my build thread, post #289. Purchased a copper/brass replacement from Classic parts. It is a bit thinner than the thinner of the two OEM units. I ended up using 1/4" weather strip on the case to make up the difference and get a snug fit.
Non A/C- https://classicparts.com/chevy-gmc/t...re-without-a-c
With A/C- https://classicparts.com/chevy-gmc/t...ore-with-a-c-1

[lil hoodlum]

A number of years ago I replaced my heater core. I had also heard of fitment issues with the replacement heater cores. I had gotten an all aluminum one from somewhere. It fit fine but I did have to "tweek" the hold down bales a little bit. It works ok but I feel like it doesn't put out as much heat as the original copper brass one but I also have a 160 degree thermostat as well.

If I was to replace it, I would go with one of the copper brass ones.

[HeavyHauler]

Thanks for the input guys! I think I will order a copper/brass heater core.