How do I get heat in an S50 swapped E30

[Suavebob23]

Ok, so my car is an S50 swapped E30 with no heat or AC. I can care less about the AC, I just need heat, now that I'm living in NY.

My blower works and pumps out air (cold air) and the heater core is mounted with the plumbing going through the fire wall, that's it! There is no other plumbing running under the hood that deals with heating the car.

Can anyone help my out with a parts List and the cost of everything?

[328ijunkie]

Where are your current heater core lines running?

[mitchlikesbikes]

in theory your cost should be like 20 bucks for a couple hoses and some clamps. but it depends on what your current heater hose situation is

[Suavebob23]

Heater core

Where are your current heater core lines running?

My core lines are running through the firewall and are capped off in the engine bay. It's just 2 aluminum lines that are connected to the core

[Suavebob23]

Hose setup

in theory your cost should be like 20 bucks for a couple hoses and some clamps. but it depends on what your current heater hose situation is

I'm running an electric fan and a after market radiator. I'm not sure of the brand.

[mitchlikesbikes]

we're referring to the hoses that come off your engine to feed the heater core. these are totally separate from your radiator/radiator hoses hoses so your fan setup is irrelevant

[Suavebob23]

we're referring to the hoses that come off your engine to feed the heater core. these are totally separate from your radiator/radiator hoses hoses so your fan setup is irrelevant

Gotcha, I have the top hose, coming from the radiator going to the block and the bottom hose coming out of the block, going to the radiator. That's it for plumbing.

[Farbin Kaiber]

What about your coolant hoses that are under the manifold?

[Nick_S]

Excuse the super quick photobucket picture edit and the fact this is an M50NV, but it should be pretty much the same.

The red arrow shows where your coolant lines run. One should come off the spider hose (blue arrow) and the other should come off another coolant line off the back of the engine (other blue arrow). I can't remember which goes on top or bottom though.



Also note the spider hose isn't connected and is sitting next to heater core lines.

[Suavebob23]

What about your coolant hoses that are under the manifold?

I see one coolant hose that is under the right side of the oil filter housing. I can't see how far back it runs though. Is that the hose the should lead the the inlet side of the heater core?

[Suavebob23]

Excuse the super quick photobucket picture edit and the fact this is an M50NV, but it should be pretty much the same.

The red arrow shows where your coolant lines run. One should come off the spider hose (blue arrow) and the other should come off another coolant line off the back of the engine (other blue arrow). I can't remember which goes on top or bottom though.



Also note the spider hose isn't connected and is sitting next to heater core lines.

Your picture just made everything that much cleared for me. All of the plumbing is ran under the hood. I spotted the connector hose in the rear of the engine as well as the forward hose, and the hose that spiders off the bottom of the coolant tank.

Could it be a bad heater core?

[Farbin Kaiber]

If you bought it swapped, either the core, or valve was bad, or the installer was lazy and didn't install. Either way, one way to find out.

[Suavebob23]

If you bought it swapped, either the core, or valve was bad, or the installer was lazy and didn't install. Either way, one way to find out.

Yeah, I did buy it swapped. Do you know any way to narrow the two possibilities down. The valve I can do myself, probably the core too but I hear it's a pain in the ass to swap out. Some people say it slides right out and others say the had to remove the steering linkage.

[Farbin Kaiber]

Well, you could, in theory, cap one end of the core with a pressure gauge, and use a small amount of shop air into the other sealed end and see if it's losing pressure, if so, you'll need to diagnose further into those components, but if not, you just hook it up and see what happens.

For me, the easier solution is to properly hook it up, fill the cooling system, then bleed the system. If it does not leak, then you are done, if it does, then you can pinpoint the leak and remedy that potential issue.

The first method is convoluted and you'll still need to find the leak, but the second, the leak, if it exists will present itself.