Low heat from heater

[Money pit Beretta]

The coolant passages are on the outside. The runners are between them. It would hard for it to leak into the runners at the angle they are set. But I guess it still could.
If you start it then the coolant will turn to steem. You shouldn't be able to see any coolant on the plugs. Your pulgs may be very clean though.

Sounds like it about time to change the gaskets anyway. Lucky you, there will be no need to grind the rockers or the intake on a 96. I had to do that on my 95 when I put the 3400 intakes on.

[beretta]

ya i dont know im lost. the car had great heat when i bought it i had to keep it on low. the heater core was leaking shortly after and i put a new one in and since its never had the same heat. its always been hesitant cold starting but when its cold it just stalls unless you hold the gas a little till she warms up and it sputters like its not getting fuel to a couple cylinders but clears up and runs normal within a minute or less. either my injectors are plugged and its not getting fuel or there is other liquid getting into the cylinders when it sits over night. the coolant level i think very slowly goes down like a liter a week maybe but it has to be going somewhere cuz its not leaking outside and nothing in the oil.

Im not sure what the signs of the intake gaskets starting to go, other then coolant in the oil or steaming like crazy out the exhaust and smell like coolant, i have none of those issues.

[Money pit Beretta]

Well it sounds like that may be it, unless it's leaking at the core.

[beretta]

its a new core, and far as i know its not leaking externally anywhere, never puddles, never anything in the snow in my driveway.

All i want is heat and lots of it. it was mentioned before maybe in the heater box i screwed one of the flaps changing the core. but after thinking about it for some time and few things crossed my mind, and could be something to do with my cold starting miss fire issue if its getting into the cylinders, and if its leaking internal some where that would cuz air lock in the system or not enough pressure building up for it to flow to the heater core very well.
Temp gauge never gets passed 1/4, has 195 stat, and full front of the rad is covered with cardboard now, even on a mild day it wont go past 1/4 after running for over an hour. i have only ever seen it hit half once and that was in the summer sitting in the drive through for 10 minutes, i dont think the fan even kicks on till 1/2.

[2.2H8TA]

Do the lower intake manifold gaskets! My father and I had an 02' Monte Carlo that we bought wrecked with 50k on it. Did some body work, and then winter hit. This was 08'. Thing would not throw heat, so we took it into the local GM dealer, and they replaced the lower intake manifold gaskets. Threw heat till we traded it last summer after the LIMG work was done. Thats probably your problem like MPB said. DIY job, or take it to a shop, whatever, thats most likely your cars problem. We traded that 02' Monte for the 96 Z which we have now, (sure maybe a crappy deal, but considering the extent of the damage and the body work, we made out well I think.) (The body work was starting to show.) First thing we did was LIMG replacement on the 96 Z, with just over 60k mi. your car probably has 2x that, do it up, and you should be as good as new. Keep in mind that the Monte we had was 7 years newer, and was a 3400, WTF GM!

[beretta]

i do all my repairs myself, only thing my car goes to a shop for is pollution testing or certification lol. i have a 3400 lower and upper i wouldnt mind throwing on it anyways. for what the gaskets cost and a few hours of work im going to give it a shot.

it has 292,000 on it now.. had 234,000 or 224,000 when i bought it i think sometime in April last spring..

Also i thought maybe my exhaust has something to do with it as well, i know when my 88 cat was on the start of getting plugged it run hot all the time.. the 96 has aftermarket cat with 2 1/4 inch pipe to the rear axle and no resonator not alot of back pressure there to hold some heat back to the engine.

[beretta]

well today sitting at -12 C. i have no heat at all, i check the coolant and its right at the top, freezing my @ss off i drive in 2nd gear sitting at 110 hoping it would warm up, rad has cardboard across the whole thing, 195 stat, coolant is full, new heater core. still no heat, after leaving it running in the parking lot for 20 minutes after my 15 Km drive it was almost sitting at 1/2 on the gauge and blowing ice cold air.

Getting to the point its starting to errk me. next time at the the shop im draining the coolant pulling the heater core lines off hooking it to the compressor @150 psi and blast the living Shet out of it. its got to be plugged up some where. i can sit there hold it at 3 grand for 30 minutes and the temp never goes past 1/4 and never blows more heat ever, only time i have some heat if its -5 or warmer out.

If the motor or rad was plugged or my water pump was not pumping you would think it would over heat, i have only seen it hit 1/2 on the gauge twice now and today was probably from driving the living crap out of it and letting it idle in the parking lot for some time after.

[pghturbo88]

I've read through the whole thread, and the gauge never going above 1/4 bugs me. Even on the coldest of days, my car warms up to the middle mark on the gauge for me. (In fact, the last AC Delco "premium" stat I had in the car made it go up to between 1/2 and 3/4). After the car has been running awhile, what does the upper rad hose feel like? It should be extremely hot, almost too hot to keep your hand on. I know that it is a reach to condemn a new part, but I'm wondering if that new thermostat is at fault. Even if no coolant is flowing to the heater core, I'd certainly expect to see a car that's been running take the coolant gauge up to 1/2. I once had a Mopar OEM stat from a dealer fail open in my minivan a few weeks after I had put it in. Good luck and I certainly feel for you in this cold weather.

[beretta]

it ran the same with the old stat and it was also a 195, i was un sure what size was in it as i hadnt ever changed it. even in the middle of summer it very seldom got over 1/4 on the gauge.

Im going to pull my heater box apart and have a look if i messed something up in there when i put the heater core in months ago.

the hose feels pretty hot after its been running a while, maybe the gauge is not accurate, its definatly getting hot enough to have some sort of heat, i had a quick look not long ago trying to get the heat box apart and the core was very hot to touch i just didnt get far enough into the box to see what was going on.

[beretta]

its nothing inside the heater box...

the core gets pretty hot to touch but takes a while once i turn the blower on it cools it right off fast. one line is very hot and the other is ice cold like its flowing in but not coming out fast or at all.

The line that is hot is on the passenger side, driver side is cold. i wonder if i have them backwards. just got it up on ramps to pull the lines off and run the garden hose to it and flush the hell out of it see what happens.

What side is the hot side or does it matter what direction the lines go

[berettaboi]

my temp gauge sticks around the 1/4 mark while hwy driving. around city and at idle it's around half. fans kick on just the far side of half i think.

[beretta]

well after laying in snow and water and freezing lol.. i pulled the core to also check the flaps in the heater box, nothing is wrong in there, i run hot water through the heater core in my kitchen sink and some soap and shook the crap out of it and rinsed and flushed it like 10 times. Hooked my garden hose to the car, both heater lines let it run for 5 minutes each line, then blasted the lines off the top of the engine, drained the rad 3 times. put fresh coolant in. went for a drive and i now have some heat.

its still not what i would think it should be but possibly there is still some crap in there and needs a good blast out again. its -20C tonight and driving around its still pushing out heat. earlier today it was -10 or warmer and it was blowing ice cold air.

When i go to the shop im going to yank the rad out drain everything blast the hell out of it with water and air pressure best i can, pull the heater lines and blast the hell out of it again. hopfully i can get it worked out of the system.

when i come to a stop the air is not very hot, soon as i start driving it gets warmer, i have a brand new water pump ill put on in the next couple days too. right now i just want to get warm ive been laying under the car in my driveway -20 out and soaked and half frozen so this will be a warmer day attack and hopfully get to the shop tomorrow or tuesday and do it there.
Im happy for now at least i can drive it and not have my hands frozen to the wheel.

[beretta]

you can get a 197 stat, i dont know what 2 degrees would do really, but that could be an option too. but by the color of the crap that come out of my heater core i would say it was probably just gummed up a little. kinda odd. i had the car a month or 2 and it was leaking so i put a new one in, surprised there was that much stuff floating in there that it plugged that quickly.

[Money pit Beretta]

Take it to a shop and have the cooling system flushed. My guess is that all that junk dried up when you changed the core and then got washed away when you put the new coolant in.

[beretta]

no shop for me lol. ill do it myself, it was -20 last night here and i did what i could in my driveway, my father has a personal shop just for mucking around, ill be going there on Wednesday so ill be able to pull my rad right out and flush it out and remove all the lines and flush the whole system and not worry about freezing to the ground laying in snow under the car.

i got the rest back together this morning, i had taken out the passenger seat so i had more room to get under the dash and pull the heater box apart and check the flaps. just idling in the driveway this morning its blowing some decent heat, its not super hot like i think it should be but its still very chilly outside today and on a mild day before it was blowing ice cold air, so it is 100 % better then it was, but probably not 100% of what it should be.