Heater core headaches

[maddyn]

Hey all... so my 92 ranger seems to like eating heater cores as of late and I'm curious if anyone else has had this problem. It seems to have started maybe 2 years ago when the original heater core sprung a leak, no biggie, it's an easy replace so I put a new one in... and since then about every 6 months I'm replacing the heater core. With the latest one only lasting about 2 months. It's starting to get a little frustrating, and my blood tends to boil a bit when I start smelling antifreeze in the cab and getting steam on the windshield again.

It looks like they just spring a leak, possibly from electrolysis or overpressure, but I replaced my radiator cap and flushed the system about 2 cores back hoping that would help. Now my only thought is they're just cheap paper thin pieces of junk, and I'm about ready to build my own core out of some copper pipe.

So any thoughts would be much appreciated, thanks

 

[Tyler M]

I had the same issue with my 1990 Ranger and I will tell you what solved the problem for me and hopefully it will work for you. It took 2 replacement heater cores to realize that I was not putting some padding around the core itself so when it sat inside the heater core box, it was bouncing around and after a couple months the core would crack and fail. So make sure you are putting padding around the core.

 

[ronclark]

You might want to check for electrolysis

http://www.carolinarodshop.com/Store/Griffin/radiator_electrolysis.htm

 

[maddyn]

Thanks for the replies, yeah one of the first replacement cores came with a strip of foam tape, but there is the possibility that it's not enough, I'll try better padding this time. I'll also have to check out the electrolysis and see if I come up with anything.