Well *that* was fun...

First time I had to really use the heat this year.  Driving all day for work.   What is that smell?  Wait, that's coolant.  The temp gauge is just fine, but man that smell is noticeable.  Next time I stop and get out I cant really smell coolant outside the car... but there's coolant piddling on the ground behind the right tire.

Yep, heater core.  babied her on for a while until I found a gas station with an auto parts store really close.  Grab three feet of 5/8" hose and a couple clamps just in case.  Did some serious hillbilly engineering to bypass the core but keep the pressurized reservoir in the loop, despite starting from zero knowledge of the cooling system.  All this in the parking lot of a Circle K.  Back on the road in an hour or so.  Feels good man.

It might feel good in Florida, but you'd have some serious assfreeze issues up-nawth.

Florida, set for cold  or colder.

Heater core flush should be right there near the top of the list of things to do when you get one of these wagons.

dmg4 wrote:

It might feel good in Florida, but you'd have some serious assfreeze issues up-nawth.

Or in Colorado, I had a bonneville that the climate control went out one winter and I couldn't afford to have it fixed. I drove to work in snow pants, snow boots, my heavy winter jacket, wool socks, a stocking cap, heavy mittens and 3 shirts and I was still frozen by the time I would get to work every day.

dmg4 wrote:

It might feel good in Florida, but you'd have some serious assfreeze issues up-nawth.

Well the "feels good" was for getting back on the road. It was pretty miserable this morning, in the low 50s! ;-) Have to do some searching around for a replacement tonight, hopefully have hit here by Sunday to swap in.

MG Davis wrote:

It was pretty miserable this morning, in the low 50s!  ;-)  

Everything is relative. Around here, those temps in January have people rolling up their sleeves and rolling down the windows.

I did a HC bypass on the SS years ago when the core split. Drove it all summer like that. Took a fall road trip to Nick's one Saturday in the late fall. Left when it was hot and sunny, drove home (five hours) at night when it was cold and rainy. Took a shirt off to stuff up the floor vent to try and keep the cold air out. I had never been so cold in a car in my life. That is, until I drove a Fleetwood home from Toronto in January when it was -30... with no heat. But that's another story...

Well, you repaired it anyway. Now for the best part, replacing the heather core....good luck with that

Dutch Pete wrote:

Well, you repaired it anyway. Now for the best part, replacing the heather core....good luck with that

Its not that bad, from what I've read. You dont have to pull the dash, unlike a smaller, overengineered European car.

Totally right

Our 96 RMW was our funeral car, so I was transporting a body 3 hours away in the RMW.  It was -10F and I had my funeral suit on and a winter jacket of course, but super thin pants, socks, shoes, etc.  About an hour into the trip the heat stopped working, as the heater core plugged I think if I remember right.  I was sooooooooo fn cold, I almost couldn't continue to drive.  

After an hour of that crap, I stopped and warmed up and bought a hat as a gas station.  Got back in the car and drove the last hour and dropped my body off on time.  Then i went to the nearest walmart and bought a small Coleman LP Heater and threw that on the floor on the passenger side front seat.  It wasn't great, but I could manage as the interior temp in the car was much much warmer.  Those leather seats sure get cold and suck the heat out of you when they are cold…. The biggest problem I had was the moisture was building up inside from the heater, so I often had to open a window to vent the moisture because otherwise it would fog the inside of the windows and immediately freeze on them and I couldn't see. Luckily the side windows fogged instead of the windshield!