Well the time has come for me to start thinking about heating the 91 in the cold months of December January and February. The heater core has been bypassed so it sounds like a good place to start. I haven't had heat since I bought it 2 years ago. That made driving it on those chilly mornings a bit uncomfortable. Since I've heard many say they would rather get stuck in the eye with an ice pick than change out the heater core, I've taken that time honored advice and gave it to the shop to have a go at it. Today I brought it in on a tow truck because the sucker didn't have any spark. It appears that the brown wire that goes to the MSD ignition box was just barely in it's coupler. Being there with intentions of dropping a few dollars anyway I told them to give the wiring a good once over, change the heater core and an get an oil change. The only dread I'm going to have with the heater core is paying the bill.

Any good heater core stories. I'm all ears?

Mine went out last year. The shop dude told me he thought I was capable of doing it considering other things I've taken a stab at. He showed me how. Then told me if I wanted him to do it, it would be $125 for the part and another $125 for the labor. I paid him and asked him to give me a ride back to work. It worked out great for the both of us as it sounded like way too much of a pain for someone on a lower skill level like me. Didn't really have the cash either but you do what you gotta do.

Oh. I see.

You got the 'Blond" discount.

Poor old Tommy will pay the "regular" labor price 4 times that.

It's just not fair!

AND......

Where are your PICTURES???

Either of you or your vette????

HMMMMM????

Yup. I saw the going rate. $136 part. 4.2 hrs labor. You guys can guess the price.

Yeah.

You could perhaps save a bunch if you had a quick sexchange and hair dye you know?

MAN! CHICKS have everything going for them! Boobs and interior plumbing! MAN!

Sucks to be us!

Actually, I'm happy to say that I've found a couple of honest people to do service work for me for honest prices. The dealership is a good place to get effed though...
They took my vette one time to change out the ignition switch, 2.5 hour job, ended up charging me 5 hours, plus put 400 miles on my car and it came back with a bent tie rod.
I might be pissing off the purists also, but I've found a couple of small garages that do great work for me and way cheaper prices and don't mess me around. It also don't help to have a friend that owns a parts store

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4 hours to do the heater core??? ONLY 4 hours???

I just had my dash and console out last month. 4 hours ain't long enough to dis-assemble, and keep all the screws sorted out, much less re-fit and re-assemble nope.

4 hrs? I am with Blade on this one... WTF? 4 hours? Are they using a special clock where an hour is 120 minutes long?

I bet I have 10 hours in my heater core... It was a bitch, dude... I did the smart thing, tho... I bought a low mileage used heater core! I had read too many threads about the new units leaking soon after install (within a year). I didn't want to risk that, so I got used. And it's been great so far.

For me, I turned the heater core into a full on interior resto. It was that bad.

Maybe that's 4 Hrs just to remove it..

OK. So What's the best time estimate on job completion from start to finsh. By the way, I've got the bill and I'll pick up the car tomorrow morning. Came in higher than the estimate but I expected that.

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If I would have read that before I had it done I prolly would have opted for freezing my ass off for a couple of months. Well, I should get at least one or two good seasons out of it.

Tommy... define "freezing your ass off?" You live in Homestead.

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mid 30s to high 40s

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??? 30's 40's centigrade? Or Kelvin?

Homestead is near Cuba. Right?

Close enough... yea...

When does it get that cold? And for how long? 30 minutes before the sub-tropical trades kick up and it's 82 again?

We get lots of cold snaps the last few years from December through April. Just ask your family members. Some days you need one of these. We sometimes get frost warnings.

God I pray for 30s and 40s some days in the winter.
I always laugh when I see people from Kalifornia on tv wearing sweatshirts and jackets when it's 65 out. Hehe.

Matthew

My guess is 6.5 hours r&r to do the core.
Mike