I'm in trouble, aren't I?

[Ltngdrvr]

One of the heater pipes coming through the firewall is loose and moves all around, heater core is bad, right?

[eric5oh]

I would think so. A/C car I take it?

[Ltngdrvr]

I would think so. A/C car I take it?

Yeah, it had factory air.

[5.0 bird]

Yeah that's gonna be fun. When you put the new heater core in get one of these to help stop it from blowing. I'm using one right now because I really would rather not have to do mine lol.

[Ltngdrvr]

What good do those do?

Why would not having the restrictors make it not go bad?

[mikes82GT]

Yeah that's gonna be fun. When you put the new heater core in get one of these to help stop it from blowing. I'm using one right now because I really would rather not have to do mine lol.



What are the dimensions and which hose does it go into?

[TR1]

What good do those do?

Why would not having the restrictors make it not go bad?

It slows down the flow so the core will last longer ?? I think they are stock on the SSP Mustangs. ect.

[JACook]

I had a few heater core failures on my old '78 StaWag until I restricted the inlet.
The combination of cooling system pressure and water pump flow at high RPM can
take out an unrestricted heater core pretty quickly. There are several different
ways to restrict the inlet. I had my radiator shop solder and drill the inlet. No more
failures once I restricted the core.

[5.0 bird]

Yeah what he said. It's called a heater core inlet restrictor, and I think I got mine for ~15.00 from Ford. They did come stock on SSP Mustangs. It goes in the inlet hose, and you add another hose clamp to keep it in place. Here's the instructions.

[gkeepa]

I had a few heater core failures on my old '78 StaWag until I restricted the inlet.
The combination of cooling system pressure and water pump flow at high RPM can
take out an unrestricted heater core pretty quickly. There are several different
ways to restrict the inlet. I had my radiator shop solder and drill the inlet. No more
failures once I restricted the core.
So, is my original, never-replaced htr. core in my LTD LX in jepurdee because I just put in an Edelbrock H2O pump and 3 row radiator? My rig's a daily driver(25 miles daily on the freeway, never much driving over 70 mph, etc.). Will that combo kill the core in your estimation? I will probly put that restrictor in anyways to cover my arse, but how much of a time bomb am I dealing with? I do NOT want to deal with a htr. core replacement if I can help it. Thanks in adv. for the input.

[Dean_T]

Good question. I just put over 2500 miles on my cruddy replacement heater core (non-Ford heater core from Kragen I think) with no restrictor and so far it's holding. I'll see what happens two years from now...

Dean T

[JACook]

Really depends on what kinda RPM the pump sees. There's a reason why the factory
didn't put restrictors on most cars, but did put 'em on others. If it's a stock daily
driver that never sees the upper end of the tach, the heater core will be fine. But
once you start modding, I would restrict. It won't noticeably reduce heat output,
and heater cores are usually not much fun to change.

[Marz]

Really depends on what kinda RPM the pump sees. There's a reason why the factory
didn't put restrictors on most cars, but did put 'em on others. If it's a stock daily
driver that never sees the upper end of the tach, the heater core will be fine. But
once you start modding, I would restrict. It won't noticeably reduce heat output,
and heater cores are usually not much fun to change.

It would however take longer to get heat in the cab. But thats not a big deal.

Hell, you can make your own out of Aluminum round stock by poking a hole in the center. I forgot what size hole I made in mine.