83-84 Heater Core Replacement - Addiditonal Information to the CoolCats Tech Article

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83-84 Heater Core Replacement - Addiditonal Information to the CoolCats Tech Article

January 26, 2015, 01:28:49 AM

I got around to replacing the second heater core in my 83 over the last three days (did a lot of other things while I had the dash apart) and I used some of the info over on CoolCats but the tech article there is around the 85-88 dash which is a bit different than the 83-84 dash. I wanted to post up some of the differences (with pictures) that I came across. And if Eric reads this just PM me and I can send you the pictures if you want to add them to your site.

To remove the dash pad there are a total of ten screws that need to be removed. There are two down in each windshield heater vent as seen here:

Then there is one on each side of the dash pad. My dash pad has been covered so you cannot see where they are located but they would be located in just about the middle of the upholstered part and look like the second picture:

Then there are four screw that attach the dash pad to the dash trim panels, two on the driver side and two on the passenger side. This is the one on the driver side to the far left to give you and idea of what you are looking for:

The lower braces behind the kick panels and the center dash brace on the passenger side that you get to through the glove compartment is the same as on the 85-88 cars so refer to the article on CoolCats for those. The 83-84 also has a center dash brace on the driver side but it connects to the bottom of the dash as seen here:

On the 85-88 dash there are only three screws on the top of the dash where there are five on the 83-84 dash. There are two on either side of each dash speaker and one in the center (look for the phillips head screws) as seen here:

There are three machine screws and four nuts that hold the air box in the car. One machine screw is self tapping and is at the bottom of the air box in the passenger foot well as seen here:

Then there are two machine screws that attach the air box to the fire wall at the base of the wind shield which are identical to the image shown on the CoolCats write up so I'm not going to post pics of those. The AC accumulator/dryer is in the engine bay and it will need to be removed from the bracket that affixes it to the fire wall. This bracket is on two studs that are part of the air box. Once you remove the AC accumulator/dryer from the bracket there are two nuts that affix the bracket to the studs. Remove the nuts and remove the bracket. Now you will see two washered nuts that will need to be removed so that the air box can be removed. I already have the AC accumulator/dryer removed here:

And now the bracket is removed as well as the two washered nuts:

So from this point you have the dash pried back and the air box dropped and you are ready to remove the five machine screws that hold the heater core cover onto the air box. When you remove the cover it may take some gentile prying but be patient and pry at multiple locations. Once you get it off then as it states in the CoolCats article you need to clean all of the old seal off the air box and the cover.

I elected to use a butal rope as my new seal because it worked so well the last time and was super easy to clean up this time. You can see it installed on the air box and the cover in these pictures:

Here is the new core installed in the air box and the inlet and outlet are through the rubber/foam seal for the fire wall:

And with the cover installed:

From here its reversing the removal procedure to reinstalled everything. Only piece of advise here is watch all the wires and don't pinch anything.

One thing I noticed with the new Ford heater core is that the inlet and outlet were kind of flimsy. You can see how the outlet is different on the old heater core as they soldered it to the body as a stiffener. I took the new one to a radiator shop and they used some copper tubing to brace up the inlet and outlet on the new one and then tanked it to make sure it still held pressure. This picture has the old heater core on the left and the new one on the right:

Here is what the radiator shop did to stiffen them up and it worked very well:

I also installed the flow restricter in the inlet hose as this keeps the heater core from popping due to high rpms. I did not take a picture of it installed as my setup is way different than most but here is the Ford and Late Model Restoration part numbers:

I got the heater core for about $85 shipped and here is the Ford part number for the heater core:

Hope this helps someone out later down the road and if you have any questions post up and I will try to help out.

Darren

83-84 Heater Core Replacement - Addiditonal Information to the CoolCats Tech Article

Reply #1 – January 26, 2015, 09:58:55 AM

Awesome, thanks! I would love to add that to the site. Can you e-mail the photos directly? eric AT coolcats DOT net

83-84 Heater Core Replacement - Addiditonal Information to the CoolCats Tech Article

Reply #2 – January 26, 2015, 12:51:54 PM

How large of an attachment can your email take? I have the high resolution and reduced resolution pics. I can also put them out on DropBox.

Darren

83-84 Heater Core Replacement - Addiditonal Information to the CoolCats Tech Article

Reply #3 – January 26, 2015, 12:52:42 PM

Dropbox works…PM me with the details please.

83-84 Heater Core Replacement - Addiditonal Information to the CoolCats Tech Article

Reply #4 – January 26, 2015, 01:39:31 PM

very nice work,, good information to keep our cars on the road longer.!!!!

83-84 Heater Core Replacement - Addiditonal Information to the CoolCats Tech Article

Reply #5 – January 26, 2015, 01:58:37 PM

Wow, I didnt know these things blew at high rpm. Cuz i first noticed steam coming out of my vents after I made a pass on an 1/8th mile drag strip. Plus driving like a teenage probably doesnt help either lol

83-84 Heater Core Replacement - Addiditonal Information to the CoolCats Tech Article

Reply #6 – January 26, 2015, 10:47:35 PM

Eric,

PM sent.

Darren

83-84 Heater Core Replacement - Addiditonal Information to the CoolCats Tech Article

Reply #7 – January 26, 2015, 11:47:21 PM

Got 'em, thanks again!

83-84 Heater Core Replacement - Addiditonal Information to the CoolCats Tech Article

Reply #8 – January 27, 2015, 08:37:15 AM

Nice, I will have to tackle this myself soon.

83-84 Heater Core Replacement - Addiditonal Information to the CoolCats Tech Article

Reply #9 – January 28, 2015, 11:39:08 AM

I didn't see it mentioned, maybe I missed it, but care should be used moving the dash to avoid damage to the shift indicator plastic cable. I recall that being one of the hang up points, but of course I'm trying to forget the whole project. :hick:

83-84 Heater Core Replacement - Addiditonal Information to the CoolCats Tech Article

Reply #10 – January 28, 2015, 11:51:49 AM

Good call!!! I no longer have I was the car was converted to a five speed back in '93 so I forgot about that. When I converted I used a turbo coupe steering column to get rid of the column shift mechanism.

Darren

83-84 Heater Core Replacement - Addiditonal Information to the CoolCats Tech Article

Reply #11 – February 17, 2015, 06:35:20 PM

Just a follow up on this, the core is leak free so far but I am battling transmission issues so drive time has been limited. One good thing from all of this was I found my battery draw that the car had for years and years. I wired up a Bosch relay that was energizing the coil the entire time the alarm was armed and it would drain the battery in 3-4 days. Ran across this when I was cleaning up the alarm wiring installation from back in the day.

Darren