Heater Core Alternative - Escort Core into 260/280

[SoCalJim]

14 hours ago, Captain Obvious said:

Hi Jim, I do have the pics and will try to reload them for you tomorrow.

As an aside, I'm very happy with my Escort core. The difficulty for you would be the temp control valve stuff under the dash. Are you still running all the stock valves and hoses?

I am running the stock control valve components under the dash.  Thanks!

Edited June 28, 2018 by SoCalJim

[Mike]

Trying the "choose files..." option.

 

 

[siteunseen]

I mostly copy and paste without any problems???

Cool movie too, Captain.

[Captain Obvious]

Mike, Thanks for the help. I'm not looking to have upload the photos to your server. They are already hosted elsewhere and I just want to link to them and have them show up embedded. Done it thousands of times before, but it wouldn't work this morning. However...

I don't know what happened, but it's working fine now. I'm assuming some sort of user error.

[Captain Obvious]

Here's a summary with some reloaded pics.

Heater core for a 91-02 Ford Escort SOHC (not the ZX2). The heater core is aluminum, and the one I got was Spectra Premium P/N 94741. 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.

Here's a pic of the Escort core next to the original 280 core:

Escort core with a layer of foam around the outside for a snug fit inside the air box:

Build a little shelf for the Escort core to sit on. Since the Escort core is a little thinner, it allowed me to move the core up a little so it doesn't interfere with the floor duct control linkages at the bottom of the heater box (like the stock one does). Aluminum angle material screwed into place as a lower support shelf:

Escort core in place before putting on the access panel cover. Can't see it in the pic, but it's resting on the new aluminum shelf on the far side:

Cut some new holes in the access cover for the inlet and outlet tubes and put the cover in place. Tape over the original holes so air doesn't come out where it's not supposed to. I put a support shelf on the back side of the cover for that end of the core as well, but after doing that, I'm not sure it's really necessary. If I were doing it again, I would probably skip that second shelf and just use the inlet and outlet tubes poking through the cover as the supports on that end. But if you look carefully, you can see the heads of screws that hold the shelf in place:

When I get a couple more minutes, I'll post some pics on how to make water connection to the core.

[mikev88]

Oh how glad I am to see this thread revived! 

I've been waiting 6 months for spectra cooling (I live near their production facility) to make a custom core so that my rad shop can remove the end tanks and re-weld them on the new core... Seems they have other priorities. I finished my floors and now I'm itching to get the car back on the road.

I"m ordering one right now!

Waiting for the rest of the pics, and Capt'n, how much swearing would be necessary to do this while the airbox is still in the dash?

 

EDIT:  Took a quick look, seems like buku swearing but not impossible.

 

Edited June 29, 2018 by mikev88

[grannyknot]

$28.00 from Rockauto, thanks CO

[Captain Obvious]

Glad to help guys. Here's some more pics showing some different ways to make the water connections to the Escort core. Only drawback is that all of these methods require moving the water control valve out into the engine compartment. Not a problem for me as I had done that long before I switched over to the Escort core, but those of you using the stock water control valves under the dash are left a little "out in the cold". (See what I did there?)

Anyway, here's one way to make the water connections. This method utilizes the original feed through assembly to get through the firewall bulkhead:

And here's another method that eliminates the (probably rusty anyway) bulkhead feed through. Two generic 90 degree bend tubes feeding through the firewall:

I made the holes a little bigger and used some rubber grommets to protect the tubes. Here's the tubes up in the engine compartment before I put my water control valve back in:

When I get another couple minutes, I'll upload some more pics of another option.

[Captain Obvious]

And another option, if you are a little crazy. Remember that (probably rusty) feed through assembly to pass through the firewall? You could do something like this...

Make up a template based on the original and get yourself some stainless sheet and stainless tubing:

Form the stainless sheet like the original:

Build yourself a cheap-o bead roller to use on the lathe and use it to but the beads on the ends of the stainless tubing:

Braze the tubes into the bracket:

Clean it up. I really like this shot with the rusty crusty original in the background:

And once you've gone through all that, you can use two simple generic 90 degree bend hoses on the interior. And since it's all stainless, it should last pretty much forever:

[SoCalJim]

Amazing work, Capt’n!

[Captain Obvious]

Thanks Jim.

I understand much of this isn't a huge help to you if you are still using the original temp control valve. I will spend a little time exploring options that do not require moving the valve into the engine compartment and see what I can come up with.

[mikev88]

On 6/29/2018 at 10:09 AM, Captain Obvious said:

 

I made the holes a little bigger and used some rubber grommets to protect the tubes. Here's the tubes up in the engine compartment before I put my water control valve back in:

Captain, Just wanted to confirm with you if you actually assembled this method and if the clearance was alright once the whole airbox, fan e.t.c was mounted.

I'm gonna try for a hybrid version, in which I will not use the factory feedthrough, I will however retain the factory heater control valve. I'll post pictures once it is done.

Also, general question for everyone,  my car is a factory AC which is non fonctional right now.  Factory AC cars have a valve valve (the one with the feedthrough unit attached),  which I think is a simple vaccum stop valve to make sure no coolant goes into the core when the AC is on. My question is, on non factory AC car, is this valve also present? Or is the heater control valve (the one with the copper wire)enough to stop most of the flow into the core . Although I have sourced a replacement from another car, if it is not needed, the piping would be a lot more simple. 

Thanks for the help. I'll post my version of the fix in a few days.