No heat in my car

[wtm442]

Mike

Dumb assumption ... is the cooling system full of water/antifreeze? My Merc's heater temp was rather luke warm a couple of years ago. Water level was down quite a bit (probably a gallon).

[bomelia]

No, its pretty full. But, I will check again tonight.

Mike

[Ron61]

Mike,

The other guys are a lot more knowledgeable than I am about this, but if you get cold air through the defroster, then you must have a water flow problem either through the heater core or getting to it. I just looked at my 69 Cobras heater hoses and the input hose comes out of the intake just before the thermostat and the output hose from the core goes into the water pump. If you can feel your hoses, when the car is good and warm, you should be able to feel which hose is hotter. Even with the heater turned off, it will still have water in it. If one is hot and the other is cold, then it almost has to be a problem in your core or the switch that lets the water through. I have had to replace mine once.

Ron

[Wes Tausend]

Originally Posted by bomelia

Ron,

Air comes out of the defroster (cold).

Paz, I will try that! More and more I am becoming convinced that it is an air flow control problem. I'm still going to blow water through the core in the opposite direction to be sure... but I still do not understand how it could flow one way and not the other.

Mike

Mike,

Some of the rust flakes are larger than the holes in the core. These pile up, or gather, up against the small passages on the in side and restrict water flow just as a clogged filter might do.

As in air filters, reversing the flow causes particles to easily "back out" and reopens the major flow. But, just like an air filter, where back-blowing it out with compressed air greatly improves flow ability, some scum and associated particles stick to an extent making core holes smaller in diameter. Usually performance is acceptable after the large flakes depart though.

The consumer power flush chemical is supposed to largely dissolve scum. In severe cases, a radiator shop can "boil" out a core with industrial grade chemicals that would be dangerous to use around the home. And then reseal the leaks that sometimes open with such aggressive treatment.

As an aside, more than you ever wanted to know...

Paper air filters can be repeatedly back-blown and reused nearly indefinately. The filter companies recommend against this and even promote the false idea that a fuel injected vehicle will use more gas because of imperfect flow. Not true. The vehicle may experience less top end power because of less possible total air, but fuel automatically corrects itself to available air.

The "fuel hog" idea lives on because it was commonly believed that a restricted air filter could easily cause a carburated engine to burn more gas. Also not true to a large extent. All common carburators have a tube called a balance tube that sees and merely transfers that same minor "air restricted" vacuum that accumulates above the venturi jets (to "suck" more fuel), also accumulates(transfers) above the fuel level in the float bowl to equally "suck" the fuel from the backside, thereby evening it out. Extreme air filter restriction can defeat this bit of self-regulated engineering. Extreme vacuum would first boil (vaporize) the float fuel, making the float fall down and then suck the gas directly from the gas tank, if the engine could run this long.

And then, there is the idea of back-blowing those in-line under-car fuel filters also. Works just fine and saves buying an expensive new fuel filter against manufacturers "bottom line" recommendation, of course.

I have found that the money saved can be applied to buying a six-pack of "human power flush" to keep plumbing intact. And make the job more enjoyable.

But don't fully flush until the job is successful.

In theory, any filter can be reused in full Red Green philosophy. The one filter I don't recommend back blowing is the oil filter. Don't ask me how I know that, other than I ran out of "flush" early on.

Wes

...

[sllib]

We stopped getting Red Green around here years ago. I really miss him and the bunch from Possum Lodge. Oh, well. Keep your stick on the ice.
Bill Stradtner

[wtm442]

Originally Posted by sllib

We stopped getting Red Green around here years ago. I really miss him and the bunch from Possum Lodge. Oh, well. Keep your stick on the ice.
Bill Stradtner

Same here ...

LOL I can't get enough of Red Green

[trularin]

With all this advice, Mike, you should have heat.

What are you doing???

[bomelia]

Originally Posted by trularin

With all this advice, Mike, you should have heat.

What are you doing???

Crap, I forgot about RedGreen,,, gonna check that out.

What am I doing? Well, today was my annual running of the Mountain Mist 50K. Due to injuries, I have not run much since early November. Thought I would finally let the bones heal. And they did. Now, imagine running up and down 800 foot+ hills for over 31 miles... rocks so sharp they could impale your brain. Vertical hand over fist 100 foot climbs. Well you get the idea. So, no, I have not checked the car. If I can physically get of of bed in the morning, I promise I will test all ideas, except back blowing the oil filter.

Mike

[trularin]

You are the only guy I know that will hi-jack his own thread.