New to the forum. Hey there! I am replacing a slowing leaking evaporator on a 94 SSEi and wanted to replace the heater core at the same time. There is the smell of coolant inside the car, dripping at the foam gasket inside between the housing halves and a loss of coolant. I have the evaporator out now and looking at the heater core, I must say I am puzzled as to how to get at this animal. Does anyone have some insight before I get the sawzall out? Any input would be appreciated. Thanks, James.

When I did the heater core on my car I removed the entire dash for easy access.

Someone here has managed to replace the airmix actuator (that'* just above the heater core) in his SSEi, without removing the dash - he removed the glovebox and then cut the plastic ventilation tunnel behind it, replaced the actuator and glued the tunnel back together.

You'll need to do that too I think, and also remove the plastic cover below (the one above the passenger feet, it'* called the "insulation panel"). Then remove the airmix actuator (two bolts on top of it), and the plastic case covering the heater core (another two small bolts). The heater core is held by a small metal bracket - another two bolts. Then, remove the two water hoses that connect to it in the engine compartment, and the HC can be removed.

Here are two pictures I took while replacing the HC in my car:

http://www.geocities.com/uri14979

Hope this helps

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Thanks for the response. As I looked at it further, the only way I see to get at it is to remove the dash, and then some. I removed the glove box and the view to the heater core was obscured by the ductwork. I have re-assembled the evaporator as I saw no access via the engine side of the firewall. For now, I will bypass the heater core by looping back and save that enormous task for another day. In the interim, I will buy a Chilton'* or Hayes and hopefully one of them will cover this as that is the only two manuals available locally.

I tried to bring up the pics and it said something about try back in an hour, and I will. Thanks for the link to the pics and the help.

James

Hello James,

Well I have the Chilton'* here and it'* not much help when it comes to doing the heater core. It does say that the entire dash has to be removed and describes the process, but lots of details are left as an exercise for the reader......

You can get rid of the ventilation ducts behind the glove box by simply cutting them, and then gluing them back together, like someone from this forum has done. I think that it might the easiest way, but I haven't tried it myself.

If you do decide to remove the dash, make sure you have nothing else planned for the day

Hey Uri. That was me that cut the air duct. Thanks again for the pictures.

James. If you want to save hours of time and trouble just cut the air duct behind the glove box with a hack saw, about 1" to the right of the left air vent. There are 2 srcews that hold the duct on the right hand side. One at the top that comes from behind, and one that comes up from below the dash. Once they are removed you can pull the duct out of the way and see everything.
When I put it back together, I cleaned up the rough edges with sandpaper, and put a 2" wide strip of Brown Bread on the back of the duct in the car to form a patch. Then butted the loose piece of duct up to it and pressed it in place to cover the joint. I put a strip of brown bread over the front of the duct joint and a piece of aluminum duct tape inside the duct over the joint. Brown Bread is a "Dynamat type " of damping material.
On mine the air bag over the glove box made the job difficult.
Check out Uri,* pictures and ask me if you have any questions.

Jim