Hi all, my first post on the forum. I'm pretty sure my heater core is leaking, and given the time involved in the repair am hoping for independent confirmation before tearing into it. I replaced the head gasket and entire cooling system (radiator, all hoses, tb heater, thermostat) except the heater core about 3 months ago. Everything ran great for about 2 months, and then I started noticing I seemed to be losing a little coolant and sometimes got a whiff of it when I shut the vehicle off. I've been dreading that I may have screwed something up during the head gasket replacement (was my first time), but then starting 2 days ago a puddle of coolant appeared under the passenger side footwell. The leak has grown in size from a 6" puddle the first day to a steady drip now. The coolant is dripping off the frame rail just below the heat shield. I cant see up there, but judging by feel the leak is behind the middle of the heat shield- there's no coolant running down the frame in front of the shield. I'm confident it's the heater core, but from searching it sounds like the carpet should be wet on the pass. side and mine is not.

I saw several posts where others had their heater core start leaking after a head gasket replacement- what is the connection? I'd welcome any opinions or experience with this. Thanks!

 

Replacing the heater core is not that hard.
Roll up the carpet on the passenger side, remove the access panel and there it is.
Unhook it and take it out.
If you do a Google search you can find a how to on it.

 

I saw you post that in another thread and had it bookmarked. I wasn't quite sure what to think as from reading the rave and a google search everything else I've found says you have to pull the entire dash, but judging by your post count I imagine you know your stuff quite well!

I gather you agree my most likely culprit is the heater core?

-edit-

I used a parallel jaw clamp to close off the lines to the heater core and it stopped dripping after a few moments, so I think I've answered my own question. Thanks for the help!

 

The number of posts means nothing.

The heater core is in the middle of the dash, behind the stereo.
There is a access panel, you can remove the entire dash if you want to, but I wouldnt.