• Hello Guest, welcome to the initial stages of our new platform!
    You can find some additional information about where we are in the process of migrating the board and setting up our new software here

    Thank you for being a part of our community!

Heater core post mortem

All fully formulated coolants should contain the proper corrosion inhibitors for copper and copper alloy components. In fact, I'd expect anything which doesn't to have warnings on it - the manufacturer certainly wouldn't want to be liable! I poked around at the specs mentioned in that FAQ and they seem to confirm it.

Is the heater core's point of failure obvious? I'd suspect the joints on a cheap heater core more than I would the coolant - your stuff is probably overkill but should work just fine.
 
Top left joint looks suspect for starters. Also looks like the core has a bend in it, unless that's a funky camera angle.

The setup those have for attaching the pipes isn't great, really prone to coming loose. One of mine suffered that same fate while simply trying to remove a hose carefully. Resoldered that one to seal, then added some JB at that joint and the other, to add some strength to keep it from happening again.

That level of buildup tells me that it had been leaking for quite a while, and the coolant used does indeed have some stuff in it to attempt at blocking corrosion.
 
Sorry I don't know about the pink coolant compatibility but here are some other things to think about:

What kPa overflow cap are you running?
How are the engine grounds?
Did you do a stray voltage electrolysis test?
Were the heater core inlets/outlets stressed during install?
 
For a 240 a tested good original heater core is better than what you can buy new. The after market ones like that don't have proper internal coolant routing which over heats the blower fan resistor. It also causes the heat to work better on one side than the other side of the dash.
 
It leaked from where the pipe was soldered to the body. I got a bit of sediment out of it too. I siliconed the pipes to the top when I siliconed the top back on. Hopefully that will give them a little strain relief.
 
I'd be looking at what tintin was talking about - stray voltage/electrolosis.

How does it look inside the pipes? Any pitting?

I had a body shop leave a ground wire off the radiator fan on a Jetta VR6. When the fan was running it worked fairly normally, but was grounding through the coolant (fan to alu radiator core, which was isolated by plastic tanks and rubber mounts). After about 6 months of that, it started leaking.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top