InferRedd

I have steam coming out of my ac vents and it smells like coolant.My motor gets to the point where it starts to overheat. I don't have the money to fix it right now and I need a temporary fix. I read about this could be from a gone bad heater core.[/align]Is it possible to bypass the heater core by redirecting the heater hose that comes out of the intake manifold to where it ends up going originally? I don't know what the heater core is used for and if it can be eliminated or not.[/align][/align]Some incite of the water heater core would be nice. There is an inlet and outlet next to each other in the firewall and I'm guessing that is where the heater core is, that is all I'm aware of.[/align]

GreyStang

Yes disconnect the heater feed & return lines from the firewall, and connect them together

OUTLAW1969

Agreed. I did this in a pinch, on the side of the road one night.

I accidentally split one of the hoses while trying to redirect it, and finally had to cut about 2 inches off of it. After that, I found two hose clamps in my tool box, a long socket out of a ratchet set, placed the socket into the open end each hose to "bridge" the connection, and clamped it into place on each side.

Worked like a charm.

It worked so well, in fact, that it lasted from March until October,before I finally figured that I needed to use my heater again. So I sprung for the repair bill almost 8 months after the initial problem.

3.8_Special

Your heater core is like a radyou controll the fanfrom your dash. When you want heat you open the line for coolant to come in and then turn on the fan to blow the hot air in your car.

If your in a pinch and your car is overheating anywhere, turn the heater on full blast. Your gonna roast your *** but less chance of hurting your car and youmay be able to get where you want to go. Still, pulling off to the side and letting your car coolisent a bad idea ether.

InferRedd

I ended up bypassing the heater core. Nothing to it. I honestly thought there was a lot more to it than what I had to do. I don't know if I'll ever need the heat in my car because I live in lakeland, florida and it very rarely gets cool here. But what sucks is that my intake manifold has a crack were the heater hose outlet is! But I put some JB-Weld on it for now untill I have eneough cash to fix that first. JB-Weld works really well, I just don't know how well it will last...Thanks for the advise. And good luck with yall's cars.