The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area General Truck Talk 1953 truck heater

I am driving my truck year round, have been for the past 14 years however now I am cold, real cold and I don't know why. The heater use to be great however now I barely have any. What happened?I need to get something in my truck to keep me warm anyon replaced there little heater with something better?

lock,

Being cold isn't fun for sure! I guess the question to answer would be what happened. Either you are getting older and less tolerant of the cold, or it's much colder these days in Maryland, or your heater is on the fritz.

I don't think you can do anything about the first two items, but you should be able to troubleshoot the heater and get it working.

If you have a engine temperature gauge and it's reading where it always has, then the coolant is there and hot enough to warm the heater core..if it is circulating properly.

You could just inspect the system, but I would replace the hoses, and while they were pulled from the engine side, flush them and note the flow (garden hose?) throught the heater core. Inspect any valves that might be in the system for crud or restrictions.

Closely inspect where the hoses enter and exit the engine for rust build up or any other blockage. It seems like a simple system. If the engine has the proper thermostat, and it is working properly, then there should be tons of hot water to do the job. You have to make sure it is getting to/through the device that transfers the heat to the air...the heater core.


Stuart

If you have replaced the heater hoses and connected them to the incorrect ports on your firewall mounted valve, this is the problem. The valve only allows proper flow in one direction.

Please let us know what fixes it.

Mike

The heaters in those trucks are pretty simple.. it's really just a small radiator with an electric fan. Hot coolant flows from the engine, thru that little radiator, then back into the engine. The electric fan blows air thru that little radiator, which warms the air.

Not much needs to happen to get lots of hot air out of the heater, so the question is, whats NOT happening?

A dead or dying electric fan will not spin well.. is the fan spinning as fast as it used to?

Dust and dirt on the heater coil will prevent airflow.. it'll feel like the fan speed is set to low even when it's on "high".

Clogged hoses or coil will prevent hot coolant from heating the heater coil, which results in luke warm air comming from the heater.

It's my experience that a properly functioning stock heater does a great job of keeping the cab warm.. in fact, I put a '50's heater in my '46 1/2 ton and it works like a champ.