Little to no heat

[96 SSEi]

Heater core man. Most likely.

It's beginning to look that way. If bleeding the system without the rad cap off doesn't do it I'll probably go grab one from the junkyard.

If the core is blocked, you can try a good flush - maybe you or a previous owner added low quality rad sealant . I have heard of folk using CLR and compressed air to blow out any blockage in the core - a lot easier than throwing parts at her

please keep us posted on your progress.........later...

[98SSE]

Tried bleeding the system with the cap off and the bleeder valve open with no luck. This weekend I'm going to try draining/refilling the system and might throw in a 195 thermostat just to see. The passenger side is pretty warm but the driver side is still cool. The heater hose closest to the firewall still isn't as warm as the one closest to the engine. Got to make something happen this weekend as the temps are dropping to the 20's for the highs.

[96 SSEi]

you can always close the vents on pass sand the one in rear and you should get good heat through the drivers side vents - I do this when the cool juice is low in my 2000 and I stay cool - give it a try

[jradke61]

It may be a long shot but check your coolant level. Remove your radiator cap, don't assume it's full checking the recovery tank.

Good advice for everyone. I never assume without actually checking the radiator.

Also had a 96 Ram 4x4 years ago with a plugged core. No amount of flushing/back flushing fixed it either. Had to replace. Be careful sealing cooling systems with anything as far as I'm concerned. I would never dump anything but antifreeze/water in my system.

[98SSE]

Spent some time today working on it. Noticed my coolant elbows were leaking (Steel ones) so I decided to get a new set along with a water pump gasket. Got everything done and still didn't have any heat. Ended up pulling the heater core and it was clogged. Ran hot water through it multiple times along with compressed air. Put it back together and wouldn't ya know, it worked! Got to get the rest of the interior put back together but both hoses are equally hot and the heater core is kicking out some good heat.

[redfury]

A spurt of heat could simply have been a burp of hot coolant making its way into the heater core. If you don't have enough pressure ( weeping water pump ) then the system isn't going to give you much heat as you need to push coolant above the engine. If you have good pressure, at temp, the hoses should be firm and difficult to squeeze. If you can squeeze them, then you have air in the system, or you are bleeding off enough pressure.

In order to get good heat, it's super important to have the system full of antifreeze and full pressurization.

[jradke61]

If you had it tore down, I would've replaced that heater core regardless if you got it working by flushing. Good chance it will plug up again. Obviously got a pretty dirty system or something in there that clogged it. Takes an awful lot of flushing to get it all out.
Probably just a lot of corrosion going on.
My system appears to be pretty clean but I'm going to flush it really good anyway and get rid of that worthless dexcool and switch to plain green and add SCAs manually to the proper level.

[98SSE]

A spurt of heat could simply have been a burp of hot coolant making its way into the heater core. If you don't have enough pressure ( weeping water pump ) then the system isn't going to give you much heat as you need to push coolant above the engine. If you have good pressure, at temp, the hoses should be firm and difficult to squeeze. If you can squeeze them, then you have air in the system, or you are bleeding off enough pressure.

In order to get good heat, it's super important to have the system full of antifreeze and full pressurization.

I was hoping the water pump gasket and elbows were the problem, wasn't that lucky though.

If you had it tore down, I would've replaced that heater core regardless if you got it working by flushing. Good chance it will plug up again. Obviously got a pretty dirty system or something in there that clogged it. Takes an awful lot of flushing to get it all out.
Probably just a lot of corrosion going on.
My system appears to be pretty clean but I'm going to flush it really good anyway and get rid of that worthless dexcool and switch to plain green and add SCAs manually to the proper level.

I would have replaced it but time was of the essence and I had to get it back together. Works for the mean time and if I ever have to tear is apart again I could do it in a 3rd of the time.

[T-man75]

I m a little late to reply on this post. But I was going to recommend flushing out the heater core. I have had to do this on 2 grand prix's and an S10 Blazer. I removed the heater hoses from the engine and hooked up a garden hose to one side of the heater core and put the other side into a bucket. I then ran water until it came out clear, shut off for a few seconds and turned it on again. I had to do that several times since crap would come out after every time I shut off the water flow and turned it back on. I then reversed the flow through the heater core and repeated. I was surprised how much crap was in there. One of the cars we bought brand new, so I knew for sure there was no stop-leak in the system.

The funny thing is, on the Blazer, my mechanic buddy who I trust 100% said it must be the heat/AC control unit and wanted a good amount of cash to fix it. So sometimes things as simple as a heater core flush are easily over looked.

The Grand prix was similar. I couldn't work on it, so my wife took it to a local dealer. They wanted over $300 to do a coolant flush and over $700 to replace the heater core. And they wonder why people hate them!!!!!!! It cost me about $5 for some garden hose adaptors and a couple clamps and the heat worked fine for 200k miles (before some dummy with no insurance smashed into the drivers side and totaled it out).

Anyway, I am happy you figured out your lack of heat issue.