When my ol girl gets up to operating temp my heat is not hot or even warm. So I have a new heater core on the seat beside me.
What kind of job am I looking at. Is it something that's gonna take a few hours or most of a day? Does the dash have to come out or can I get by with it in the truck?

 

Are you sure it's the heater core that is causing your issue?

I drove around for almost 2 years with poor cab heat during the winters. Turns out my engine coolant thermostat was stuck in the open position. A new t-stat solved the 'lack of heat' issue.

An easy to way to check and see if the t-stat is stuck open is to watch your engine oil temp with a scan tool. You should see 190-200 degrees (even during the winter) once the engine warms up. If your engine struggles to maintain 190 degrees while on the highway and then rapidly falls to 160 or below as soon as you hit the surface streets then your t-stat may be stuck open.

 

One other thing to look for is if someone put in the "cold AC" mod of some type. they may have one of your heater hoses blocked or bypassed partially.

 

I put a new water pump and t stat a couple months ago. I know that doesn't mean it is still good but its all new. I figured since the truck is 14 years old the core could be stopped up. So the new one is beside me for the drive up to meridian. After I leave this job I'm probably going to iowa so I'm going to need all the heat I can get up there.