Hello,

My heater core is about 90% clogged. Is there anything that I can do to fix this problem? Other than to c/o core, is there a chemical I can put in core to take out debris?

 

Plenty of cooling system flushes at the parts store.

Steve

 

Here's what I'm gonna' do with my '89 Aries heater core: Remove the hoses to it at the firewall, attach a garden hose to one pipe and a length of garden hose to the other for drain. Turn on the water to flush, switch hose positions and reverse flush, and keep doing this till only water comes out. Then blow air through it to evacuate the water (got a compressor?), then fill with CLR mix according to direstions, let it sit for an hour, then flush and reverse flush again. I've never done this before, but this procedure comes on good authority. Also new heater cores are pretty cheap and not too hard to replace. At least it was cheap and easy on my '73 F100. Heater core replacement on the Aries is killer. Hope this helps.

 

On most early model Fords trucks (unlike a Taurus) heater cores are easy and cheap.

But, if it is clogged solid, what you can do is use a plumbing system flush, basically looks like a long skinny tube you stick into a pipe. When it expands it seals the tube/pipe and then squirts water under high pressure through the pipe/core.

I used it to flush a blocked Taurus heater core because the customer couldn't pay for the nightmare replacement and A/C evac and fill.

Some service places have a power (air compressor) flush too.

 

if you are talking about the core on your 87 F350, just change it. it will take you longer to clean it than it will take to change it.
cost of a new core, around $25 from auto parts store.
remove glove box door.
remove glove box.
remove 6 screws on plate behind glove box.
open hood.
remove heater hoses from core, and stick the hoses in the hood hinge so the coolant don't run out of the hoses.
go back inside, and remove the core.
reverse steps.
total time for removal and replacement is about 20 minutes, and you should only loose about 1 pint of coolant.

 

Thanks, I'll try and flush it first if that doesn't do the trick it'll go to the junk heap!!

 

For the price of new I would not consider a used one.