02 expedition with a no heat issue.

Going to reverse flush the heater core...first time.
Going to get some hose, a brass garden hose to barb clear hose fitting and other fun stuff.

Question is tapping into the lines. A little hard to see but I don't think I can just pull off the hoses at the firewall. They all look like they have a steel crush type fitting.

Should I just do a slice and repair job?
There seems to be a few branches off these lines so tapping in doesn't leave me much room for repair.

Any tips?
Good threads of videos to read?

Diagnosing this has been a pain.

Thanks friends.

 

Those are called quick connect fittings and not quick disconnect fittings for a reason.

Those "few branches" would be one to/from the engine, the front heater core, the rear heater core.

 

Let me ask this. Fluid runs out from the manifold to the front core by firewall then out by firewall, down to the rear line, then back out and back into engine circulation?

Would it be a clockwise rotation typically or counter clockwise?

 

Alright flushed this ******* today.
As you know there are 2 quick connects at the firewall that are a pain in he *** to get to. Went and bought an 11in needle nose plier with the 90 degree bend at the end and had a seal puller at the ready to help it off.
COULDNT GET THEM OFF.
So hard to work back there. Did a workaround.

Took the 5/8 hose off the top of the manifold...had a spring clip. That's the in hose.
Then took off the lower hose that comes back from the rear core off. This has the easy off clip that's much easier to reach. Got that off.

Used a 3in 5/8 brass barb and hose clamp to some clear 5/8id clear hose to bucket.
Rigged up some clear hose to a 5/8 threaded hose connection to the garden hose that has a shutoff valve to control flow. Other end of that I wrapped with electrical tape so I could stuff it into that rear hose quick connect.

Before flushing I clamped off 2 hoses. One on each line to control flow to front core.

Put my thumb over the manifold tit to keep water from shooting out. Would have been easier to plug it up somehow but didn't have time for a workaround as it started raining.

Almost liked this better as I could control water pressure.
You want less that 15psi from your garden hose to be safe.

Reversed flushed into 2 5gal buckets until clear. Filled them both and disposed of properly.
Don't be a dick. Antifreeze kills animals so do it properly will ya?

A lot of rust came out. Surprising amount.
I poured antifreeze into the intake hose before reconnecting to manifold, took off all clamps and reconnected hoses.

Siphoned out the overflow tank and refilled with antifreeze and distilled water.

Started it up.
Heat in the front cab went from 56 degrees to 117.

Need to flush the rear now and will probably tackle that from the back then do one more full system flush but as of now I have heat. Just in time.

I've been fretting over this for two weeks.
Is it blend door?
An actuator or motor?
Just decided to start with this and damn glad I did.
Don't be afraid of the job. You can do it.
Get some fittings and 10 feet of clear tubing, a couple of buckets and clamps to clamp some hoses and get to work. Took 2 hours to do it right.

To those who guided me with my first time questions on this rig....thank you.

 

Red are you the original owner of this Expy ? What kind, if any, anti freeze was in the system ? What brand did you use on the refill ? Just wondering why the rust.


-Mike

 

No not the original owner. The thing was full of gunk and rust. Assuming someone only used water for a couple years. Who knows but it was a mess.
Refilled it with the green stuff.

 

Oh, that's too bad. Maybe run some of that radiator flush additive through it for a while before a final refill ? I would recommend the Motorcraft Gold or Zerex G-05 coolant. I usually see people using the Prestone green stuff replacing the heater core and water pump in short order.


-Mike

 

I'd recommend when you do the next flush that you at least remove the block drain on the rear driver's side of the engine block and let all that gunk that settles in the block out of there. Otherwise it will just start to circulate and get into the heater cores again.


Then fill it with water and run the engine til warm and drain the block again. Keep doing this until clean warm water runs out of the block. (When I did this on my Navigator I had to repeat SEVEN times before the water came out clean!)

 

Any chance you have a pic showing where the block drain is?

 

There is only one block drain on the 2V 5.4L motors. It's on the driver's side just below the back freeze plug. I believe it's a 10mm allen plug if I remember correctly.


-Mike

 

Thanks! I'll have to look at mine and see if there is one there.

 

Not to sound too stupid, but what "manifold tit" are you referring to? The one you take the hose off of with the spring clamp?? Bit confused here...

Also, is it possible just to flush the entire heater core system (front and back) doing your above mentioned method??? Is there a down side to doing the whole thing (besides having to empty the buckets multiple times? Thanks

Steve