Ok, so for more than one reason I want to take the Heater out of my 68 Coupe... I would like to tackle this soon, any tips on how to make this as painless as possible? Do I need special tools to get this accomplished? Thanks in advance!

 

Unless you call a screwdriver a special tool, then...no. It's pretty simple. Unhook the hose and run them in a loop. Remove the dash and unhook the cables...that's about it, unless you have AC. Then it may be a little more complicated.

 

Thanks for the reply.... well looks like I have my little project to tackle this weekend! :P

 

Remove as in get rid of? Or taking it out for repair? Takes about 15 minutes to take the standard heater out. Make sure you replace all the foam seals while it's out.

 

What would be the reasons to delete the heater? do you never need the defroster?

if you have a leak you can just do a bypass route of a hose between the intake manifold and the water pump. No need to remove the heater. If you're removing the entire box to mount something in the space...well that's different.

 

OK for a quick "get me home" fix, but if the intent is to eliminate the heater, the fittings should be capped. Allowing water to flow freely between the two fittings will decrease the effectiveness of the cooling system. You already have a bypass, two of them is one too many.

 

Thanks for all of the replies, and well I have been weighing between repairing the cowl or to delete it due to a leak to my interior... and well the space where the heater is I would like to put in the future a couple of things in there (MSD Box, fuse box, etc....) I guess if I ever encounter rain it will be a biatch to drive. but I dont want to be worrying of the drain getting clogged up. I can do without a heater as Sunny So Cal well lets face it we dont get cold here. I will make sure to plug the hoses...
And as an extra bummer... had to work this weekend... so I guess no wrenching on her until next weekend

 

Since it came up, I would like to ask about the theory of the cooling system effectiveness by "looping" the heater hoses. All you are doing by doing this is to shorten the path that the coolant travels. You aren't changing anything. By capping it off, you are blocking the flow. I would think this to be somewhat worse. Also, anytime the coolant is traveling outside the motor, I would think there would be (minute) a little more cooling.

 

You have it backward. Any coolant going through the looped heater hose is bypassing the radiator, and going back into the engine still hot. By capping the fittings, that coolant now has to go through the radiator. Any additional coolant going through the radiator is a good thing.

 

If you have a cowl leak, the heater has nothing to do with it. The cowl and drains are a steel assembly, and the heater is simply an accessory screwed to the bottom of it. Removing the heater from a leaky cowl will give you a car with no heater and a cowl leaking on your MSD and fuse box.