My heater is marginal and I believe the problem may be the lack of a seal around the heater core. The PO must have removed it when he changed out the heater core. The heater core is just loose in the box.
I can not find any listing for the sale of this seal.
Anyone have any experiance in this or any ideas what I can use to make a good seal around the core..................Bart

 

All mine have had was a piece of foam between the heater core and back tin plate to hold it in against the front side 0f the heater box and a little piece of foam that looks like a binocular slid on to the hose outlets that goes between the heater box and firewall. I have also found that the standard heater core is marginal at best especially here in Minnesota.If you can find a hi-output heater but you need the whole thing, heater box and heater core you will be way happier.

 

Look in super cabs, and crew cabs for the HO heater. They are standard.

 

maybe hit the heating coling section of lowes or what ever you have and buy some black foam, As mentioned mine had a seal around hoses coming into box, Then it had a seal around the core that kept excess air from going around the core and held it in place. If my memory serves its about a inch thick.

 

Thanks guys, maybe I can use some black foam pipe insulation and cut it to fit.
High output heaters are very rare here in the south but I will start searching super cabs and crews..........Bart

 

You can use just about anything. I have seen people using minimal expanding foam. I am not saying that is a good idea, but that's what I have seen. I think I just shoved some pieces of foam in there to create the seal.

 

The heater core came with the seal, it was not available separately.

 

My replacement core didn't come with the seal but it came from AUTOZONE.

 

My core from Schucks came without foam as well. Talking with the guys at NAPA around me they said that their cores come with the black foam that is just like the stuff they sell for going under camper shells. I bought some of this and it seems to be holding up to the temp. Just make sure you get a closed cell foam so that it will not hold moisture and cause a mold/mildew issue. Might have been easier just to pay the higher price to get the core that comes with foam from NAPA in the first place --live and learn

 

A neighbor of mine got a core from Napa and it DID NOT come with foam. I just got a core 2 weeks ago from Checker Auto and it also did not come with foam. I just salvaged what I could from the old one, but I like the idea of using insulation foam from like Home Depot.

Although I am not tearing mine apart again. It wasn't "hard" just a pain in the butt.

Josh

 

The Gen-U-Ine Ford heater core came with the seal.

If it didn't, I would have typed the seals part number, but there's none listed nor is there a pic of one.

 

Do you even read the posts in a thread?

Seriously, everyone is getting their heater cores from aftermarket suppliers like AutoZone and Napa. YOU, however, are the only one going off on some tangent about what FORD did 30+ years ago.

Yeah, that's fine a dandy, but the original and real question is this: WHAT DOES SOMEONE DO IF THEY HAVE A HEATER CORE IN NEED OF FOAM

ANSWER: Go to friggin' Home Depot. I was wondering the same thing 2 weeks ago and now I know.

Josh

 

The original question pertained to whether the seal was available or not.

I looked in the parts catalog, where the seal is only shown with the core.

If the seal was available separately, I would have typed the part number, looked to see if it was still available, then searched two online parts websites to see if anyone had it, if it was obsolete.

I've found 100's of NOS obsolete parts for members here by doing exactly this.

If you need any obsolete parts, I hope you can find someone to do this exact same thing, because after your smart *** comment, you won't get any help from me.

I'm the only member here on FTE that has the parts catalogs, supersession catalogs needed to update old part numbers...and access to the two online websites.

Have a nice day.

 

I couldn't care less for your parts numbers to be honest.

And be realistic... looking for some OEM foam part made 30 years ago that would end up costing an arm & leg and waiting over a week versus spending $2 at Home Depot and being done with it.

Josh

 

Don't be to harsh, Bill is just trying to be helpful, he is a wealth of information and he has helped a lot of us.

What makes our 73-79 forum the best on the internet is our ability to help each other find solutions to our problems and keep the best trucks ever made on the road.