I purchased the Brassworks replacement heater core and fan for the round Harrison recirculating heater and it arrived a week ago. I dinked around with it after work for a few days and installed it this weekend.
The short report- First of all it doesn't leak! It is a well designed and engineered replacement part. For everyone that whines about overseas cheap parts this is a made in the USA product and it is not cheap (in every sense of the word). The $299 I paid is only a fraction of what I have spent purchasing and repairing stock heater cores only to have them immediately leak. It is not a direct bolt-in, you have to do a little work and salvage the mounting ring from the original core to mount this one. It was fairly cold and raining all weekend so I was not able to get the truck up to full temperature but the heater was putting out plenty of heat. I wish I would have went this route sooner. This is a very viable option for anyone how wants a trouble free upgrade for the recirculating heater core and fan.
The Brassworks website isn't really very helpful in getting a good picture of the unit or understanding what you need to do to mount it. For those wishing more info I will attempt to attach some picture links and more info below. My only connection to the company is as a satisfied customer.
Heater as it arrived Perhaps it is normal for one of the tubes to be angled out like this. One of the original cores I had was kinked about the same angle and one had both tubes straight. In any case the stock firewall openings will accommodate either width between the tubes.
Compact and well designed Nice tanks and a thick core You need to unsolder the 3 bolt mounting ring on the original heater core. Just heat the 2 points where this ring is solder to the core.
Salvaging the mounting ring The new core has brass strapes soldered to the ends of the tubes which won't fit through the existing holes in the mounting ring. You could unsolder them until the ring is mounted, file them, use a dremel tool, etc. I just drilled them big enough with a 3/4" bit.
Opening the holes in the mounting bracket I cleaned up the mounting ring and primered and painted it.
Cleaning up the mounting ring I couldn't readily find a matching electrical plug for the one supplied with the new fan. There is also a large square hole cut in the supplied mounting plate presumably to pass the electrical plug through. I though that might have a slight effect on developing pressure for the defrost. I soldered some other wires to the cut off plug and found a round grommet that filled the square hole nicely.
New electrical connections There are plenty of different ways you could attach the stock mounting ring to the new heater unit. I used 4 small sheet metal screws and it is quite firmly attached. Just make sure you are not screwing into the tanks!
Mounted to the original bracket In the original housing This is a simple valve I use to stop flow or control flow through the heater core. It works great!
Flow control valve The heater back inside the truck. I have pulled this unit and another just like it enough times for leaks I think I could have done the whole thing start to finish in about 2 hours if I hadn't wanted to clean up the parts some.
Back in the truck Chuck
