The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area General Truck Talk Round heater core

Hey out there!
I am driving my 55 2nd series as a daily driver and have sprung a leak in my heater core. Where can I get a replacement? Do radiator shops do repairs on them? I do have a later model heater assembly from a 58 - is that one more serviceable?
HELP! It just started snowing again!
Carl

The radiator shop should be able to repair it, if the core isn't in too bad of shape. If you do need a new cor, check the American Classic link above or one of the other suppliers on the Links page, new cores are available.
I take it that the '58 assembly is the deluxe fresh air heater, they are good units and can be swapped right in. You will need the dash control assemblr to operate it. Servicabilty is about the same.

I'd bet the round core will be scarce and spendy - the later heaters [should be in a 55 too I think] have rectangular cores that are much easier to get replacements made for - there are 3 styles of heater for the TF trucks, the factory installed standard , and the factory deluxe , as well as the bottom of the line dealer installed, similar to earlier years - as seen here in my 57 - chrome button with "GM" on face, used on Chevs and GMC's for many years

Bill

cap it off... heaters are over-rated anyway...

pull it apart and see if you can fix it..

new core here: oldchevytrucks.com

Rusty:

That all depends on where you live

The radiator shop around here(A to Z Auto Radiator) will fix them if they are not too far gone.I have a complete used round heater if you want to go that route; $45.00 plus shipping from 11971.

I also have a heater core that is pretty deteriorated and no local rad shop will touch it. 57 Chevy 3100 series, standard heater. If there is a place that will rebuild this one, I'd like to know about it. Thanks,

Bob K
Ft. Lauderdale
1957 Chevy Pick Up

Most radiator shops won't attempt to fix them as they are hard to clean and they cannot get to the inner areas to make a repair. Before you give up on it get the engine up to operating temperature and put about a 1/4 of a can of ground black pepper in the radiator. Take it out and drive around. You would be amazed how well it works.
Fred

I bought a heavy duty replacement radiator at the local NAPA store for my 1954 GMC 100 series pickup. It took a few days to get here and cost only about $300.00. Now absolutely no radiator troubles for years to come. I think that's the best way to fix a radiator.

Here is a good link for heater core repairs:
http://www.classicheaters.com/pages/1/index.htm

I took mine apart (after I talked with these folks) and actually found that I could fix the small crack myself--but it was really small and easy to reach.

Good luck. I know what it is like to drive a car without a heater--my first new car was a '64 VW beetle. My old '49 Merc had a heater that rivaled a convection oven, though.

Here is a replacement for the round heater core
http://www.americanclassic.com/Google_Base_HTML_Pages/HAC-144-1953.htm

I found it to be a lot cheaper to buy a decent fresh air heater, do all the work to clean it up. And to top it off it is quite a bit nicer of a deal. I May try to repair the round core myself, but the cheapest I could find was about $400.

Have 3 round cores in my garage. All shot and could not make one good one out of them. $315 is a lot of coin for a Chinese-built core. I capped mine off but left the fan so I can defog the windows.

I always thought these were made from brass, but apparently they are made from gold. The worst part is I spent a considerable amount of time refinishing the heater assembly, just to buy the fresh air heater and do it all over again. But as I said I may attempt to fix it this winter...

I made my own round heater core out of flexible copper tubing and a few other copper angles and T sections. I just put it back in my '51 3100. It works okay but the air is just lukewarm, although I have not run it up to a high speed. Any way it is enough to keep the cab comfortable.

If you have converted over to 12Volt, The Brassworks is making a round heater core now.

Round Heater core for Chevy