Is this the heater core?

[do2mind]

what a b****

Got it...

There were about five things that kept me from getting it out of there (not all at once)...

1) I missed that step to take the cable out of the clip next to the heater valve, it's dark back there... I ended up taking the heater valve cable off the assembly inside the car instead of at the engine side firewall, that is NOT something I want to forget to re-install and have to take EVERYTHING back apart again.

2) The bottom right bolt of the heater assembly is a bastard to get out... can't come straight out because there's a bunch of airbag wires in the way, can't go right because the evaporator is there, can't go up or down because there's nowhere to go, the only way to go is pry and yank it around until the bottom right mount is off the bolt, then yank it left... it takes a while.

3) There's a medium sized gray wiring harness underneath the whole heater assembly that Chilton and Haynes don't mention for the heater function solenoid, I think. It's got a little slack, so it will let you pull the unit out maybe four inches before this stops you. Can't forget to re-attach that bad boy, either, or all my work will be for nothing.

4) Yanking this thing around with sharpish plastic edges for half an hour is hell on your hands. Once I put work gloves on it was easier to concentrate on where I was trying to take it instead of trying to ignore the pain.

5) It's just a tight fit. Thanks, Honda... no wonder this is an 8.5 hour job in the mechanic's estimate book.

[1991acclude]

heater core removal....

did you remove the dash or not. I have this problem now and I hate it. I'm going to order one from ebay soon...mine had smoke coming from it today. It's cold in NC and I need heat. If I can just remove the glove box and something else please let me know... I have a 91 EX coupe....

[bcjammerx]

sounds like it.

But you just clogged your water(coolant) passageways with that "gunk"...never ever ever put gunk in anything. Same with oil...don't use that STP oil treatment...it's like kayro syrup...don't put transmission sealer in your tranny, don't put oil sealer (if they make it I'm sure they do) in your oil.

Think like this...if it seals small holes...what is keeping it from sealing smaller passageways? nothing that's what...and it will stick to larger passageways making them smaller.

[do2mind]

yes, removed the dash

There's no way I see doing this without removing the dash.

And yes, removing and re-installing the dash is a major pain.

I've got both Haynes and Chilton manuals... can't remember which, but one of them was definitely better than the other for this job. Go with the one with the simpler, more in-line procedure... the one that has you skip back and forth between sections, and has you taking out the instrument cluster before you take out the dash... don't make it any harder than it has to be... the whole dashboard comes out in one piece, instruments, and all, if you do it right.

But that same one that has the easier procedure also has you removing the entire steering column... instead of removing it, I just removed the bolts which hold it up and let it drop down to the floor with the splines still engaged, so I didn't have to re-align the steering... saved a decent amount of headache that way. You just have to step around the steering column as you take out the dash, but that makes more sense to me than taking out the steering column entirely, I think.

You'll also want to take out both front seats as one of your very first steps... the ten minutes that takes will save you quite a bit of frustration because you have a lot more room to work with, which makes a big difference on an all day job like this.

One thing that messed me up is my prodecure didn't mention the radio wiring on re-installation... I thought I had an extra wiring harness that I forgot to write down... once I figured out it was for the radio, I was much relieved.

Oh... and before you go to put the new heater core back in, make sure the distance between the pipes is the same distance as the distance between the holes they have to feed through in the firewall... took me an hour and a half of grunting and pushing and getting nowhere to figure this one out, which I did by sticking my fingers through the holes in the firewall from the engine side and feeling the pipes and feeling one was aligned, and one wasn't... but wouldn't advise doing this with a partner, because if they pushed at the wrong time, you'd lose a fingertip.

Another tip is that it makes it a lot easier to get at the engine side of the firewall if you halfway take off the throttle, and let it dangle. This is a little easier for me because I have a ghetto short ram mod, but still wouldn't be too hard for the stock air intake guys.

The aftermarket heater core I bought from the auto parts store isn't nearly as good as the Honda one... not nearly as much heat transfer surface, and not as well made... and once it's in, I could tell... not nearly as hot as the factory one... just "average/hyundai" heat now. If you buy an aftermarket one, you'll also want to buy some half inch foam and glue it around the heater core just like the factory... it makes it a nice tight fit. I'm guessing if I didn't do this, the performance would be even worse.