hello and HELP with heater core

[hangman412]

hello everyone, first post, new to the site and a great site it is. I have a 95 explorer sport 4.0 5 spd and love it!! 180k on the clock and runs great! my only problem is the heater core went out a few days back and I am getting different opinions on the replacement of the beast. some say it is a dash out project and removal of freon..some say dash in freon stays... I did a search and looked through the first 10 pages and still didnt find any solid evidence. Anyone done this and lived to tell the tale?

Thanks,
hangman412

 

[Scotty J.]

I don't know about the EX, but I did a heater core replace in a 97 Blazer. It sucked long and hard. Had to remove the dash. Two man job, took us 6 hours just with the dash, not to mention removing the steering column.

The Chevy core didn't have any "freon" just some "coolant". That was easy enough to deal with, you should see the two hoses that go into the firewall from the engine compartment, you can disconnect those and cap them off or just let them drain into a bucket.

Myself, the one thing that I learned from the experience was, there are some things in life worth paying someone else to do. That is one of them.

 

[Buyford]

i habe a 98 explorer ''limited'' and a mechanic friend at Ford that knows his stuff, he said that it is a dash out project and it takes 5 hrs to do , to replace the heater core and about $500 here in Canada, hope this helps......Bill

 

[my pos mounty]

1995 requires an AC system drain and the dash to come out. You have to remove the evaporator assembly to get at 3 nuts to be able to remove the core.