Need to give my son a hand tomorrow replacing the heater core in his 1990 F150. I've checked the repair manual we have for the truck and don't really see anything that will benefit us. Have any of you guys swapped one of these out? How difficult is it? Any tips or suggestions for us? It will be a warm day so we'll get the tool box and see what progress we can make. Thanks for the help.

 

i did one in my 85. and it came out from under the hood......but my 92 i think comes out under the dash. does your have a/c?

 

remove glove box and then it is right there it is really easy

 

open the hood.
remove the clamps on the heater hoses going into the firewall.
mark which hose goes where.
pull the hoses off the heater core pipes, and put the ends in the hood hinge facing up.
go into the passenger side of the truck.
open the glove box.
remove the glove box door cable, and the 3 screws holding the door to the dash. remove the glove box.
look straight in, and you will see i believe it is 6 screws. remove those screws.
remove the cover.
remove the heater core.
clean the heater box before you put the new core in, and reverse the steps to assemble.

total time will take 45 min to 1 hour.


notice i did not mention draining the radiator??

you don't need to do that, because the heater core is higher in the truck than the top of the radiator.

 

Thanks for the steps. I thought it might be fairly straightforward but wasn't sure. This will be helpful and not having to drain the radiator (which I thought I would have to do) will save me some time. Thanks again.

 

DO remove some coolant.

DO place towel and plastic on carpeting unless you like mold and the smell of anti freeze.

DO make sure you lube the blend door and make sure it works with no obstructions.

good write up other then these additions.

 

i have never had to remove any coolant on any of the ones i did.
the only coolant i ever had to replace or spilled was what was in the core.

 

i meant to remove a SMALL amount of coolant, or don't.

whatever floats your boat.

 

Project complete. Considering it takes me about twice as long to do something as it should, I had a couple of hours invested before I was done. Already had a little coolant in the floor which is why it needed replacing to begin with. Other than just a little more leakage it wasn't bad. It was fairly straightforward as described just had a little trouble detaching a few of the wires that were connected to the cover. Hopefully this will remedy the problem we were having. Thanks for the guidance. I might have got it done without it but it would have taken much longer and probably would have had doubts as to if I had done it correctly. Thanks again for the help.

 

no problem.
that is what we are here for, to help.
























and bust chops every now and then.