Hey guys. I am addicted to this site. I rarely post but now I think I have a problem. I replaced my upper/lower radiatior hoses and heater hoses in my '92F150 4.9L M5OD about 6 weeks ago. I tried to be real careful when taking the old heater hoses off of the heater core posts at the firewall. All seemed to be going well with the heater until the last couple of days. Now I am getting the antifreeze smell in the cab. The strange thing is it seems to go away after I drive for awhile. Maybe that is me getting use to the smell. Do you guys think the heater core is going bad or do you think I buggered it up when I took the old hoses off. They were on pretty tight. By the way all the hoses were original. I figured I was on borrowed time after 10 years and 114,000 miles. Is a heater core hard to replace?

Thanks for any help y'all can give me.

Charlie

 

I would first try retightening the hose clamps on the heater hoses. Then if this doesn't solve the problem, it's most likely the core has a hole in it somewhere. It's not a hard thing to do, and it doesn't take too long. You'll have to take out the glove box first, then you'll be looking straight at the cover on the housing for the core. Take off the hex head screws holding on the cover, and the heater core is right behind there. The only thing holding mine in place was the heater hoses coming from the engine compartment, and a couple foam pieces. Take off the foam pieces carefully so you can reuse them. Take the old one out, and put the new one in, it's easiest if you have someone hold the core as you push the hoses back on from the engine side of the firewall. The plastic cover is sealed with something from the factory, I'm not sure what, but when I put mine back on, I used some black RTV silicone adhesive type stuff to seal the cover up to make sure all the air blown by the fan went through the ducts as it was supposed to rather than come out behind the glove box. I think the heater core was about $20 brand new at NAPA. But I would definitely check the hose clamps before getting into all of that. Oh, and if you turn on the defrost on hot, if the heater core has a hole in it, the windshield will get foggier the longer it runs. Hope this helps.

 

>Hey guys. I am addicted to this site. I rarely post but now
>I think I have a problem. I replaced my upper/lower
>radiatior hoses and heater hoses in my '92F150 4.9L M5OD
>about 6 weeks ago. I tried to be real careful when taking
>the old heater hoses off of the heater core posts at the
>firewall. All seemed to be going well with the heater until
>the last couple of days. Now I am getting the antifreeze
>smell in the cab. The strange thing is it seems to go away
>after I drive for awhile. Maybe that is me getting use to
>the smell. Do you guys think the heater core is going bad or
>do you think I buggered it up when I took the old hoses off.
>They were on pretty tight. By the way all the hoses were
>original. I figured I was on borrowed time after 10 years
>and 114,000 miles. Is a heater core hard to replace?
>
>Thanks for any help y'all can give me.
>
>Charlie

Charlie, that's exactly the way mine started..... a faint hint of antifreeze smell here and there. Then, some slight fogging in the cab that didn't clear as easliy as usual, and then, yesterday, and all-out windshield fogging...on the interstate @ 70mph - not fun! Anyhoo, like mentioned above, try tightening your hoses - maybe you'll get lucky. Otherwise, it's time to replace. It looks as though it's not too tough to replace....unlike the one in my wife's Sable....I'm really dreading that one!

Wade