Little to no heat

So on my 96 with the towing package and manual hvac controls I'm getting little to no heat and when I do get heat it takes forever. I can hear it moving the door when I change the temperature so I know it's not that. Is there a valve somewhere that could have gone bad? or am I looking at a heater core / water pump?

Because I care and your wagon cant be saved,I will go ahead and take it off your hands for a
fair price! Is your thermostat working?

The first thing I would do, is check to see if the heater core is plugged. That is so common when there is a no heat problem.

The two hoses going to your heater should both be hot. If one is cold, your heater needs to flushed out, first flush one way than the other. It may take several times.

Tom C.

Flasheroo wrote:

Because I care and your wagon cant be saved,I will go ahead and take it off your hands for a
fair price! Is your thermostat working?

I'd sell it for the right price I'm pretty sure the thermostat is working, the gauge stays in the bottom 1/3 of the sweep.

silverfox103 wrote:

The first thing I would do, is check to see if the heater core is plugged. That is so common when there is a no heat problem.

The two hoses going to your heater should both be hot. If one is cold, your heater needs to flushed out, first flush one way than the other. It may take several times.

Tom C.

I'll give that a go, I was thinking just replacing the heater core, but flushing sounds quite a bit easier.

Only the '91s had a coolant valve in line with the heater core. All other models flow coolant all the time.

Yes, flush the heater core. In these cars, the heater core serves as the system filter. I flush mine every year and every year junk comes out. Disconnect the two hoses on the passenger side of the water pump and flush with a garden hose.

Check your thermostat by starting the car cold and then putting your hands on the hoses as the car warms up. The heater hoses should be hot before the radiator hoses even start to warm up. If they all warm up at the same rate, then the thermostat is shot.

sherlock9c1 wrote:

Only the '91s had a coolant valve in line with the heater core. All other models flow coolant all the time.

Yes, flush the heater core. In these cars, the heater core serves as the system filter. I flush mine every year and every year junk comes out. Disconnect the two hoses on the passenger side of the water pump and flush with a garden hose.

Check your thermostat by starting the car cold and then putting your hands on the hoses as the car warms up. The heater hoses should be hot before the radiator hoses even start to warm up. If they all warm up at the same rate, then the thermostat is shot.

Thanks, will do. I wasn't sure on the valve, I had an 81 Corvette that had that valve go out. I wound up replacing it with a manual valve that I opened in October and closed the first 90 degree day.

Oh yeah, next question. Are these as big of a pain to bleed as f-body lt1's?

I didn't find it's that hard to bleed. Biggest trick I can say - never run the system with the cap off. Let the pressure build and THEN open the bleed port on top of the thermostat housing.

Thanks everyone, looks like it's supposed to get almost up to 50 on Sunday. I may try to work on it then.

Yup!
I just flushed my sedan! I got the rust and gunk pile out of the heater core. I then proceeded
to flush the whole engine out. The GM antifreeze was next. I have to do it every other year it seems.

Randy

Still haven't had a chance to flush the system. I was out of town this weekend when it was nice (60 degrees) in Denver (figures!) I'll hopefully flush it out soon, it's rough having a heater that barely works here in Denver.

Just grab your heater hoses! If both are hot, you've got a stuck thermostat.

jayoldschool wrote:

Just grab your heater hoses! If both are hot, you've got a stuck thermostat.

I didn't get a chance to mess with the heater, I was too busy dealing with this...

I had a similar experience with my Fleetwood.



I'm also getting mediocre heat from my wagon. I need to try flushing the core.

Wow, yours is worse than mine. You also have the other style of starter, that's what I have on my formula (won't bolt up to the wagon even though they are both lt1's)

I went with the vette starter

Was the vette starter a lot more money since its for a "Sports car" and how is it holding up?

I put a "95 sedan starter" on mine since the one listed for the 96 wagon was wrong.

I just put a '96 'vette starter on mine and it was $119 vs $180 for the stock replacement Sounds cool, starts much quicker and is a lot lighter. Direct fit too.

When I bought my other wagon with 24,000 miles on it the heat wasn't working and the previous owner had many reciepts from the dealer showing that they tried to fix it. Their next brilliant piece of advice was a new heater core. I started flushing, and flushing, and flushing and all sorts of brown crap kept coming out. After several full flushes of the core, radiator, block and hoses I replaced the junk Dexcool with regular green anti-freeze and never looked back. The heat was awesome after that. Flush it and do NOT use the Dexcool.

Gastt wrote:

I had a similar experience with my Fleetwood.



.

Been there, did that last year. took a lot of shimming before the second one was happy.
Oddly related, and not knowing what year you are driving, check your timing. Too far advanced will fire the cylinders too soon, and try to throw the crank back in the wrong direction. Lots of broken starters result. Don't ask how I know.

On the heat issue, you might want to check the cable going from the dash control to the heater unit. It is held on by a palstic clip. Several years ago, mine sheared off and had to be jury rigged. It brokeagain last fall, just about the time I was going to put the beast away for winter. A new spring project awaits.

Dave

If you can find someone with this flush tool I've found it works the best flushing out heater cores, radiators and blocks. It's what I use at work to flush them out, works every time. Video