refurb'd heater blows cold!

[Guest Anonymous]

...I'm actually not even getting any coolant to the inlet hose. The flow control valve is cold and I even removed the inlet hose--dry as a bone. Based on the posts I've found, I'm planning on flushing & bleeding the coolant per instructions in the shop manual CD. I hope it's not the radiator or thermostat or something else...any ideas?

Here's more info for the die-hard sluth:

I removed my heater box several months ago to refurb it. It was actually working quite well, but I had to remove it anyway to repair rusty floorboards because the heater-firewall seal leaked. In the meantime I bought a section of hose and two L-connectors and closed the loop from inlet to outlet hose (I'm told I could've just plugged the inlet hose...oh well).

After getting the rust fixed I drove the car around for a while with just the driver's seat; no carpet etc. But I finally got around to using POR-15 in a few choice areas and laying down 2 layers of fatmat. I also refurb'd the heater box and got a new valve.

I installed it last night and let the car run for several minutes to warm it up. The temp guage read just under halfway (a little ways above the blue), which is what I'm used to seeing. The fan works great, but with the flow control valve wide open I still get cold air. I popped off the outlet hose to see if there was air in the heater that I could bleed out; nothing happened. I got brave and popped off the inlet hose too; again no coolant. Note that when I removed the temporary hose between inlet and outlet there *was* some coolant in the hose. So again I hope I can just bleed the system, but I am a bit confused. Any ideas?

--Damon

'72 tii

[Guest Anonymous]

insalled a new heater valve in my car w/ the same results you're having. Turns out the heater valve had to be insalled in the reverse of the flow direction arrow on the body of the valve. Installed backwards from what you'd expect, the valve has worked flawlessly for the past 3-4 yrs. Don't know if this is your problem, but you never know. Good luck.

[Guest Anonymous]

Seems like you might need to reverse the valve if the control arm wasn't installed in the right position on the valve. But I disconnect the hose from the valve (the one that comes through the firewall), and I get no coolant.

[Guest Anonymous]

Maybe pull the hose off the block and see if anything comes out. Is the hose plugged? Dead mouse?

I found an insect larvae/furry thing plugging my heater pipe (left side, tii) before I put it back on. I was lucky I bothered to look in there. One of my engine/trans bolt holes had a wasp's mud nest in it, too.

[Guest Anonymous]

I've never left the system open, so I don't know how animals would enter, but then again I don't know much about anything in general! :-)

The hose coming off of the radiator seemed to be hot (maybe just from proximity to engine, but it seemed too hot for that), and the hose to the heater inlet also seemed hot, at least halfway up the firewall--but I'm not 100% sure about that. I'll have to do more investigation...

Thanks!

[Guest Anonymous]

first the head warms up, then the block I believe and maybe the second part wasn;t open?? hmm, or you need to add coolant once it warms up and start circulating, you were on level ground weren't you? otherwise a air trap ? you'll get it working,

[Guest Anonymous]

It's getting better. I'm getting warm air out of the vents, just not blasting hot like I expect (like it used to be).

I followed Brian Capp's suggestion to lift the front end, top of the radiator and run the car for a while (rad cap off). I definitely got coolant running in and out of the heater box, although toward the end of the run it seemed like the oulet hose was cooling off?

I dunno...it's getting there and I'll keep tinkering with it. It'll be another day or two before I get the seats back in, so I'm not in a big hurry.

--Damon

'72 tii