Heater Core Alternative - Escort Core into 260/280

[rcb280z]

Well at $350 from MSA and $200 for an aftermarket one at zcarsource I think retrofitting one from another vehicle seems like the right thing to do. Boy am I glad mine isn't leaking, knock on wood.

What made you decide on the ford escort one CO? I guess you had to research a lot to find one close to the stock one?

[Captain Obvious]

I decided on the Escort core because it was the thinnest, smallest, most generic, cheap core that I could find with tubes that stuck straight out on the same side. No long funky bent tubes. No weird mounting flanges. Generic, small, thin, and cheap because it's from a ubiquitous car and not from a low volume hard to find Ferrari.

Now granted, some of this is a crapshoot due to the way they measure the cores... The manufacturers usually measure the "core" part of the core, and don't include things like the end caps and tubes in the dimensions. Or instead, they measure the whole thing tip-to-stern, tubes included. This makes real life comparisons and evaluations difficult, but that Escort core was simple so I was hoping I could make it work.

Because of that way the dimensions are made, there's a real chance that there might be something better out there, but in order to know for sure, you would either have to buy a bunch of them and compare on the bench, or work for a company that makes heater cores and have access to better specs or real parts sitting on the shelf.

[rcb280z]

2 minutes ago, Captain Obvious said:

work for a company that makes heater cores

I wonder if a local radiator shop would be able to match one up for you saving you some time and aggravation. Just shooting ideas, trying to plan for when mine goes out.

[siteunseen]

3 minutes ago, rcb280z said:

I wonder if a local radiator shop would be able to match one up for you saving you some time and aggravation. 

That would make for one bored and unhappy Captain O.  I know he likes the challenge. 

The beer taste better!

[rcb280z]

I used to, now I go for the easy 

It gets me quicker to the......

[Redwing]

On 12/22/2016 at 3:42 PM, siteunseen said:

Looks promising. 

I wanted ask you if you've read or seen someone putting a switchable valve in the engine bay that would bypass the core until cold weather? I'm almost positive I read where somebody did that in the past. I'm not using my laptop at the moment or I could search around. Any thoughts or have you heard of this? I'm pretty sure it was a 240 because those allow some hot air releasing in the cabin when you don't need any. Maybe it was an A/C thread?

This is what Sam put in RedBird.  I'll get a photo and share with you.

Jai

[siteunseen]

I'd like to see it Jai, thank you.

[Redwing]

1 hour ago, siteunseen said:

I'd like to see it Jai, thank you.

Here it is.  If you enlarge the photo you can see the detail.  I left it large so you could see the hoses connected to it.  Let me know if you need a different angle or something else.  Hope this helps.

Jai

[siteunseen]

That's exactly what I'm trying to describe. 

If the new valve I  have doesn't shut the hot coolant out I'm going to use something like what you have.  Thank you!

[Redwing]

Just now, siteunseen said:

That's exactly what I'm trying to describe. 

If the new valve I  have doesn't shut the hot coolant out I'm going to use something like what you have.  Thank you!

You are very welcome!

Jai

Edited January 13, 2017 by Redwing
forgot

[Captain Obvious]

So I started messing with the hose connections to the Escort core. I realized that it would be easier if the core were located higher in the air box. So I pushed the core upwards until it reached the original upper locating tabs inside the air box. Here's the core in it's new upper location. Note the holes for the tubes from the first attempt lower position:

And then I started playing around with hose connection alternatives. Here's one option...

As I was messing with the hoses, it appears that I could use simple generic ninety degree hoses on both sides if it weren't for the fact that the feedthrough nipple assy turned the one hose downward towards the floor. If both feedthroughs were straight instead of bent, it would simplify the hose bends. My feedthrough is all rusty anyway, so I toyed with the idea of making a new one to replace the rusty one. I even went so far as to build myself a crude bead roller. Here's one of my bead rolled test pieces showing what could be done with a redesigned feedthrough assy:

But then, as I was toying with the idea of remaking the feedthrough assy, I realized that I could get rid of the metal feedthrough nipples completely and just run the hoses directly through the firewall like they did on the 240's. So I made the original holes a little larger with a Greenlee chassis punch:

Popped in some grommets of appropriate design, and ran the tubes straight through. Two generic ninety degree hoses (cheap!!). Here's some pics the hoses straight through the firewall without the rusty metal feedthrough nipple:

 

[Dave WM]

good thinking of deleting the metal piping!

how does the valving work?

Edited January 23, 2017 by Dave WM