antifreeze coming from heater

[MarkRHayes]

72 GT. i turned the defroster on today and out of the corner of my eye, i saw antifreeze pouring out of the area of the heater drenching my passenger side floor. fluid was cold (i thought it would be hot). any ideas?

[wrench459]

Originally Posted by MarkRHayes 72 GT. i turned the defroster on today and out of the corner of my eye, i saw antifreeze pouring out of the area of the heater drenching my passenger side floor. fluid was cold (i thought it would be hot). any ideas?

Mark
I'm going to mess with ya some.
You had Yankee antifreeze in your GT.

Time to bypass the heater core.

[ungermm]

You could try some stop leak (I prefer silver seal). But, if it's leaking that much you might just bypass the heater core and get a little electric heater that plugs into the cigarette lighter.

[hrcollinsjr]

Originally Posted by MarkRHayes 72 GT. i turned the defroster on today and out of the corner of my eye, i saw antifreeze pouring out of the area of the heater drenching my passenger side floor. fluid was cold (i thought it would be hot). any ideas?

You're certain it was antifreeze? I was almost positive that the GT's heater core drained out the firewall when they leaked. I'll have to look at a shell tomorrow to confirm though.

Harold

[Redskinsjbs]

Originally Posted by hrcollinsjr You're certain it was antifreeze? I was almost positive that the GT's heater core drained out the firewall when they leaked. I'll have to look at a shell tomorrow to confirm though. Harold

No, Harold, at least in my '73 it drains out the firewall. You can see the tube if you look down the passenger side foot well. Is it possible that that tube is blocked? Definitely!

[MarkRHayes]

haha, Dan, you ain't funny! : ^ )

looks like i'm going to have fun taking that heater out. good thing i've got a 4 day weekend.

[opelnut10]

Originally Posted by MarkRHayes haha, Dan, you ain't funny! : ^ ) looks like i'm going to have fun taking that heater out. good thing i've got a 4 day weekend.

If it is in fact anti-freeze then unstopping the drain tube is not going to cure much, other than letting it drain onto the ground instead of inside the car. Is the car low on coolant or you are having to add coolant to keep it full? I would check a few things before tackling the removal of the heater unit. If you do decide to remove the heater take the right seat out of the car to start to give you more room to work, and plan of replacing the blower motor at the same time as the heater core bacause you don't want to pull it back apart again to replace the motor after you replace the heater core. Good luck and don't have anything else planned for at least a day.

[MarkRHayes]

i had heard someone have the same type problem with a modern car and said that it was a water pump issue. i just had that replaced. does anyone think that might be the reason?

[ungermm]

The water pump creates the movement and pressure in your system. It wouldn't be the reason you have leakage, it's the muscle that pushes the coolant through the hole in your system. I guess it could be argued that a new water pump may put out extra pressure that could cause something in the system to rupture.

The heater core is actually encased in a plastic housing along with the heater fan. The whole unit slides into a recessed box behind the dash. The recessed box has a built in drain tube that allows leakage to be routed through the firewall. However, the metal tubes that come out of the heater core do extend outside of the built in recess. If you were to have a leak in this area, it would leak right onto the passenger side carpet.

GT heater box.jpg

Jerry

[73Manta72gt]

I would use compressed air & soap bubbles to make sure the flange gasket are not leaking. They were on a heater core I had.