Cascade Crew

J-Dog-III · Posted: Tue May 15, 2007 7:56 pm Post subject: Little cooling problem tonight

On my way home from work i noticed that my temp had dipped up to 220. As soon as i got about 4 miles from home it dipped closser to the red so i stopped and this little guys was broken and lo and behold all my radiator fluid was gone.

Anyone know if i can just go to the auto-parts store in the morning and get one? or am i gonna have to take a trip to the junk yard and pull one off? BTW wtf is this peice anyway?

Sellmanb · Member Joined: 30 Nov 2004 Posts: 727 Location: Tigard, OR

I'm unsure the technical name of it, but it's function is to provide coolant to the heater core IIRC. I doubt sincerely if an autoparts store would have one the right bends and shape etc. I would see if a dealership can get you one. Those mostly will break when you are trying to take the heater lines off, I have seen a few that got hairline cracks in them (with no pressure in the coolant system) from just age and the constant heating and cooling down. Until you get a new one you can always just bypass the heater core.

Twilightoptics · Posted: Tue May 15, 2007 9:36 pm Post subject:

Heater Valve.

Napa autoparts used to carry them.

iansane · Posted: Tue May 15, 2007 9:38 pm Post subject:

Werd on the heater control valve thing.

Schmuck's auto stocks a ton of them.

Al Hasse · Posted: Tue May 15, 2007 10:08 pm Post subject:

It's the heater diverter vave. It keeps water out of the heater core when the temp selector is set to cool. I have one somewhere in the garage. You can have it if you want to come and get it.

J-Dog-III · Posted: Tue May 15, 2007 10:16 pm Post subject:

Thx for the help, i guess I'll stop at schmucks or vatozone on the way to school tomorrow.

aaron_sK · Posted: Tue May 15, 2007 10:17 pm Post subject:

Heh. Mine broke in exactly the same place. I moved it when I did the TB coolant delete and installed a new one from Paul. If you just throw one in it may well just break again.

alloy · Posted: Tue May 15, 2007 10:29 pm Post subject:

It's very funny you mention this. Had a guy come into my store the other day. He has two maro's. An 87 and an 89. He drives one for a year, parks it, then drives the other one to avoid DEQ. He came in wanting the bypass hose for the throttle body and I showed him on my car how to do throttle body bypass mod. And I specifically told him to be carefull with the heater valve. Well..............1/2 hour later he calls wanting a heater valve. Was great fun telling him I told you so when he came in to get the valve.

And.......I had a "little" cooling problem today myself. Pulled into a place in Milwaukie and parked, got out, and the side of my radiater seam blew out right as I got to the front fender. Great fun. So.......made it to our 82nd ave and powell store using about 6 gallons of water I bought at 7-11, and got a new radiator, tried to make it home, couldn't.......so changed it out in the Jim Dandy's parking lot on Sandly Blvd. That's when I noticed my right fan wasn't coming on........just the left. Thankfully that motor has a lifetime warranty on it from work.

Then a few weeks ago there was the throwout bearing that let go a week after I had the trans out fixing the speedo gears.............. #$%^&*

So.......you are not alone........shizzle happens to all of us it seems.

Xophertony · Posted: Tue May 15, 2007 10:57 pm Post subject:

my 2.8s cooling system is all stock, i finally upgraded to a lower tempature fan switch. old one was on at 255ish off at 220ish. new one is on at 220ish off at 195ish. i did this on the third. today it broke. it no longer turns the fan on. i have a new one already, will install tomorow.

alloy · Posted: Wed May 16, 2007 8:23 am Post subject:

I have a custom harness I made for my fans, and I'm using a Zirgo 180 deg. switch to turn both of them on. Works great to turn them on, but after the fans are on, they stay on even after the temp drops back down below the turn off temp for the switch. But turn the car off and back on immediately, or disconnect the wire from the switch to the relay for a second and the fans are off until the temp goes back up again. This is my second fan switch, so I don't think two of them would be bad. Must be something holding the relay on for some reason.

Any electrical guru's here got any ideas on this???

Twilightoptics · Posted: Wed May 16, 2007 8:42 am Post subject:

I bypassed mine years ago. Looks way cleaner without it.

aaron_sK · Posted: Wed May 16, 2007 7:20 pm Post subject:

Paul, will running coolant through the heater core full-time cause it to wear out sooner, or will the sudden rush of coolant that hits it once you turn on your heater at the end of summer be worse for it?

I was kinda banking on the former being true, but I don't have anything to back that up.

Twilightoptics · Posted: Wed May 16, 2007 9:46 pm Post subject:

Hard to say. My old '85 didn't have a heater valve stock. My '87 did. I did have my core go out once but it was 15+ years old. Might be going out again but I haven't seen a wet floorboard since.

So it's up to you to decide.

In the summer with the vent on Cold I feel no warmer air coming out than before.

Xophertony · Posted: Wed May 16, 2007 9:49 pm Post subject:

Paul, do yo have an AC box inside the car? (as in the one under your dash) if so the reason you feel no cold air is that the AC boxes actually have a heater core block off that moves into place when the selector is pushed to cold. at least thats how 86 firebirds are, according to the factory service manual.

iansane · Posted: Wed May 16, 2007 9:55 pm Post subject: