Its been a while since Ive been on here but since my two year resto was completed I've covered over 15,000 miles in my 3.9 V8 convertible.
My one nagging fault was the poor heater and before curing it I tried the following.
Over a 12 month period I put 5 cans of rad flush through the cooling system to try to clear the heater matrix and also whilst in situ used caustic soda. I removed the hoses to the heater on the bulkhead and connected a high pressure hose and purged the system from both directions until clean water came through and apparently the flow looked very good.
But to no avail
The heat from the matrix was poor at best and in conjunction with a coolant light that came on and off when it felt like it I was convinced the heater wouldn't work due to an airlock but how to cure it.
Now anyone who has had to do it the thought of removing the dash to get the heater out fills us with dread but I knew it had to be done.
It was decided to get a new matrix but after seeing the cost I decided to take apart an old one. It is in essence a mini radiator with a core and a tank at each end. one of the tanks has two holes for the pipes and one tank is sealed. If you heat the sealed tank the end end cap is soldered on and it will come off cleanly. I did this and using a long thin strip of metal I cleaned out each of the individual tubes and flushed it through so they were all clear.
Then I re soldered the end cap and tested it for leaks.
Having built my car from scratch I am very familiar with the dash and within an hour I had the heater box on the bench and the matrix removed. I installed the cleaned matrix but temptation got the better of me and I had to see inside the now removed matrix. Now, bearing in mind the amount of flush I'd ran through it and amount of flushing i had done to it it should of been clean but this is what i saw!
Only a few of the tubes were clear the rest were clogged up and look at the sludge which had settled at the bottom of the tank.
When I installed the dash I just topped up the header tank ran the engine for 5 mins, the coolant light went out straight away (for the first time ever) and topped it up again. I jumped in and could not believe the amount of heat now around my feet. After a ten minute drive I topped up the header one more time and after 3 weeks no more topping up has been required. The coolant light doesn't come on any more. But more importantly as soon as the needle on the temp guage is above the C I get hot not cold air. I cannot begin to explain how its transformed the car and from memory the consensus is many wedges now suffer from poor heaters so I'm sure its common to 2.0L motors as well as V8's. When I drove my Peugeot 406 I used to wish my wedge had a heater as good as that but now its actually better. Today I drove with the roof down whilst the outside temperature was 2C and the heat coming up from the foot wells was wonderful.
Taking the dash out is an awful job but trust me its worth it.
As a footnote for a long time flow tests gave the impression that the matrix was clear but it was misleading. Its now obvious that air in the matrix bleeds automatically in the cooling system so if your heater is less than excellent fit a recon or new matrix and enjoy the heat.
If it doesn't fit you obviously need a bigger hammer.
www.metronewquay.co.uk www.wheelintheheel.co.uk
Check out my album
http://s163.photobucket.com/albums/t299/samco_bucket/
My youtube progress http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4kMDqLU1N7Y
1980 Californian import converted to right hand drive V8. Under construction.
