Originally Posted By: dlundblad
I remember your write up. It was very detailed. I'll have to go back to it. I've read online people saying about 6-10 hrs. Will probably take me longer with all the complaining breaks, beer breaks and lunch break and distractions. I like to work slow.
Not sure on my system, but I believe it always has water circulating through it so I guess an explosion or severe leak could happen any time. With it being summer, I could at least bypass it though.
As far as the car store brands, I remember working at Oreilly and seeing the junk they sold. Probably all made by the Chong Wang Doo holding company. I would hope the AC Delco would be a little better as I do plan on keeping the truck a while.
Heh, it wasn't as detailed as I would have liked. I do have a series of short videos I took along the way, but never shared as I could never splice them together. I was planning on going slower, but I had momentum and just kept going, lol.
Was the '97 pre-facelift 2nd gen? I know the dash is a little different, but should be the same concept. The coolant flow is constant IIRC, atleast on the 4 cylinder the hard pipe to the core is right off the thermostat housing area. And whatever you do try and remove the bottom two screws going into the inner HVAC box. I thought I could gently bend it back, yea thought... Took about a month for everything to settle again and the creaks and squeaks to stop. Figured I'd give you a heads up on that.
Had I gone back and did it again I would have bought a better core, but the truck is my winter ride and needed it back together ASAP.