02 minivan help

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pishta

pishta

I know I'm right....
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Tustin, CA
Getting a large amount of water out of tailpipe, like a 24 inch driveway stain after shutdown and 20 minutes. Its a 3.8 and i just repaired a broken pcv hose thgat was cracked and leaking. Is this just the motor catching up on weak pcv or am i screwed, ie cracked something, bliwn head gasket, etc? Runs fine, wife just complained of sluggish heater performance and gurgling radiator (very low water level?) Im at work so no visuals yet. Rear head will be nightmare getting off. Rear Valve cover gasket took me an hour.
 
Wife just texted ME rad cap gasket is shot, what a woman! Hopefuly thats the cause of boilover.
 
If there's no sweet smell out the tail pipe like antifreeze and it ain't skippin, put a cap on it and drive hound out of it.
 
I think im ok, the stain is not greasy or green, and the antifreeze is plenty green in there. Whew!
 
No, Im screwed. The water is POURING out of the rear heater core, NOT the tailpipe. WEll, maybe that is a little easier to fix eh? But how do I get that stupid thing out? Side trim panel seems to be hung up on something. I just want to reroute the cooland path so it never reaches the core, like a U to both hoses under the car?
 
pishta said:
No, Im screwed. The water is POURING out of the rear heater core, NOT the tailpipe. WEll, maybe that is a little easier to fix eh? But how do I get that stupid thing out? Side trim panel seems to be hung up on something. I just want to reroute the cooland path so it never reaches the core, like a U to both hoses under the car?
Click to expand...


is this for the front heater or the rear?

the rear can be bypassed with joining the hoses together with a piece of rubber heater hose I've done this to many caravans since the lines are aluminum and prone to rocks and expensive to replace

the front heater can temporarily but I'd recommend fixing it
 
yeah, its the rear. Looks like its coming out that little drain pipette right over the A/C connector block behind the rear wheel (which looks pretty rusty too, smart f'n place to put a drain pipe). So Ill double back the rubber hose in front of the wheel or pop the panel and see whats leaking in the A/C plenum back there. Hopefully its the hard lines running back from the forward wheel well. I hear they rust out too and if thats the case. I can cut them back and rubber heater hose splice them. That 15mm seat belt bolt was hanging me up trying to get that panel out.
 
bit the bullet and bought a $30 buck heater core for $90 at a local chain store. Hey, it was in stock and the car wasnt moving with that leak. Looked into looping the line but that was gonna cut a good line and just make more work when I got the new core in the mail, so...Job can be done in about 40 minutes on a 02, really!
1.drain coolant or whats left.
2. remove 3 rear seat belt anchors from the passenger side 2 19mm on the botton, 14mm one on top.
3. pop the 2 panels off, (they just rip out from friction clips) the front panel toward the door has a bunch of screws under the speaker grill that just pulls out. pull them back and youll see the heater core pipes.
4. remove pipe clamp screw, and loosen the 3 nuts under the car that hold the plenum right by the A/C block and the 2 10mm bolts that hold the plenum to the body.
5. break heater core flange that goes under the 4 retaining clips, or else youll break the plenum clips and you are replacing the core anyway. Pull it out and remove the hoses. Its that easy. The new one will most likely have a styrofoam wrap around the edges, keep it on. Itll make the insertion very tight but I think it keeps the rattle out. Mine was literally split on 5 of the 7 copper loops at the end. The splits were like 3mm wide, the leak would suck the radiator empty in about 10 seconds!
 
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