Latest Mechanical Mayhem

[speeder]

OK, finally updating this. The problem is a blockage somewhere in the heater plumbing. This car has a very convoluted coolant flow design, (you should see the diagram!). Even with the heat turned off, the coolant has to pass through most of the plumbing before it gets from the left head over to the right. There is something rusted partly shut inside the car, near the heater core. At the moment, the entire heat system is bypassed and it is not overheating or running hot.

Getting to the heater cores is a 24 hour book job at the dealer. It's a nightmare. I am going to try to clear it or flush the hairball out from the firewall, but it probably won't work.

It was neccessary to remove the heads to eliminate any blockage inside of engine. There was some crap in cooling passages but not enough to cause the problem.

[aigel]

Yup - off the cliff it goes!

Just buy it back and sell it for cheap to someone who lives close to the ocean.

Crazy heater core locations are inexcusable and I'd love to torture the people that design such a POS. I have done an F-150 that was a nightmare and a VW Pas**** which needed the evaporator taken out / the a/c system vented to get the heater core replaced!

That's one advantage of an aircooled car - no heater core!

G

[speeder]

The heater cores are not considered to be normally serviceable or replaceable items. And with proper maintenance, which means clean and correct coolant always, you would never have to get to the heater cores in 40 years. This car had dirty toilet water in the cooling system for a long time. It sat for years after the owner died.

I actually wish now that I hadn't journalised this here. I don't feel like talking about it and don't need advice. Too many better things going on.

[aigel]

You can always unsubscribe from your own thread and put everyone who posted on the ignore list!

Sorry you feel bad about this thread and sharing it with us.

G

[speeder]

Originally Posted by aigel

You can always unsubscribe from your own thread and put everyone who posted on the ignore list!

Sorry you feel bad about this thread and sharing it with us.

G

It's OK, I'm just not in the best mood today with car stuff. There is a lesson to this thread, and it's one that I already knew.

A) Proper maintenance is important in general, and

B) Changing fluids before they get nasty, particularly coolant, is really important. I'm pretty diligent about this, using only the best coolant for each application and only distilled water where water is mixed w/ coolant. I like MB factory coolant for MB cars, it's only a few bucks more a gallon than Autozone stuff and worth every penny. Distilled water is a whole $1.39 a gallon at any supermarket or CVS and most systems only hold about 3 gallons total of coolant/H2o. It really does make a difference.

[porsche4life]

So you are saying we should probably flush the factory coolant from the '99 dodge with 230k on the clock?

[EarlyPorsche]

Originally Posted by porsche4life

So you are saying we should probably flush the factory coolant from the '99 dodge with 230k on the clock?

Cast iron block cummins with a $70 heater core? NAH!