Morning, I am looking, with not a lot of results, for a new heater core. If any of yawl could direct me to a reputable vendor that sells a quality heater core it would be appreciated.
Thank you,
Mike
I bought mine from MACs, don't know who the manufactures was but it looked like good quality and has been in the car 6 years now with no problem. Changing the core will require using the old control valve from your original or buying a new one as they aren't included with the new core.
I bought mine from Concours a few years ago. Probably like a lot of items, these are being made by one or two manufacturers but sold by many different outlets? I wouldn't be surprised if what was delivered was pretty much identical regardless of where you buy it.
The part looked good new. No obvious manufacturing issues. And, more importantly, no problems with it since installation.
How much does a new heater core cost in average? I think I might need to replace mine.
Looks like Dennis carpenter has them for 109.99.
Concours parts 134.99
Another option may be if you can find an "old school" radiator shop to make you a new heater core. Shortly after I finally got my 59 on the road last year, the old heater core decided to puke its guts all over the floor. I was unable to find any source of a new heater core, so I found a radiator shop that has been in business for 50+ years, and they were able to make me a new heater core. It seems that years ago, it was common for rad shops to buy bulk heater core material in various width and thickness, and cut off a new segment to length, and re solder your old ends onto it. Luckily, this shop still had a length of the bulk core material of the correct dimensions, it fit the heater box nicely, and keeps the interior warm on fall drives. and best of all, the new carpeting stays dry!
That sound great, typically those old shops charge quite a bit of money to re-core any radiator. How did they charge you to re-core the heater core?
Quote from: chapingo17 on 2021-11-20 11:43
That sound great, typically those old shops charge quite a bit of money to re-core any radiator. How did they charge you to re-core the heater core?
I had my heater core re-built about 7-8 years ago from a small shop near where I live and if I recall it was around $150-160. At the time that was the only choice I had. That price was in Canadian dollars but not sure that would make any difference today or not. As Rory mentioned it's finding a shop today that has the materials and skill to build one for you.
Like Randy said, with no new cores available that I could find, for my 59, I was pretty much at the mercy of the radiator shop. It was about $200.00 Canadian, about $140-150 US. A lot more than the readily available parts store core I bought for my FOX Fairmont years ago, but considering it was a hand assembled , locally built brass unit, rather than an off shore plastic and aluminum piece, I considered it a reasonable price. Not very many old time shops still doing this type of work anymore, so I have no complaints.
The aftermarket junk (and that is being polite) is worthless. My F-250 was going through one ever year after the original gave out. Electrolysis was the final diagnosis from an old timer in a radiator shop. Aluminum was not handling the job well. So he had me direct ground the heater core to a frame bolt. Once I did that I ended the issue. But took 4 years to find someone with the answer.
I will pay to have my old ones re-cored...don't need the brain warpage.
Maybe I lucked out but the one I got was copper/brass. I have an aluminum radiator now and I added a sacrificial anode to help with the Electrolysis problem..
I use an anode in my cooling system as well.
How and where do you add the anode to the cooling system ?
I added mine to the radiator by replacing the draincock with the annode. Pain if/when you want to drain the radiator, but I wasn't able to find the radiator cap type I had heard of.
X 2. This is what I used....
https://www.summitracing.com/parts/flx-32060
I didn't like the idea of the radiator cap or the drain cock so I put mine in the radiator inlet .
Interesting to know I will also probably add a sacrificial Anode rod. I have a aluminum radiator.
That and always use premixed coolant or do your own 50/50 mixture using distilled water. I know there's another type of water some prefer, but I can't remember what it is...deionized? The distilled is easy to get @ grocery stores.
I use 70/30 (distilled water/antifreeze) but that is in this climate...
I'm around the same 70/30 water/ AF could be even slightly weaker. Never really gets cold enough in the northwest in a garage kept car to warrant anything stronger. Mixture has enough AF to
everything looking clean inside. Water also cools better than anti-freeze but anti-freeze has a higher boiling point from what I've read.
I do about 60/40, 60 being water. Antifreeze doesn't transfer heat well that is why water is added. I laugh when people call it coolant.
Get ready to laugh. Antifreeze is a carry over name from the old days when alcohol based antifreeze was used. It was called antifreeze because that's all it did...keep the cooling system from freezing. Unfortunately, every spring the alcohol would boil/evaporate off and new antifreeze needed to be added the next winter. Today's coolant (back in the old days was called permanent) has antifreeze capabilities as well but added other characteristics like lubrication, anti-corrosion, wetting, higher boiling point, year round performance and other things I can't remember at this time. Coolant is the generic name like refrigerant is generic for FREON. But, ya', call it whatever and everyone will know what you're talking about. Everyone has made the mistake of 'more's better' and attempted to run 100% permanent.
I had a friend try running 100% coolant in his 55 thinking more was better, that didn't work out so well :003: