Replaced heater core now no heat.

tortuga480

Greetings and happy new year all.
I did the big dash removal, rebuild heater box, replace heater core, replace hot water valve, rewire stuff.... last summer. The only problem was the 4 mechanical heat/vent/temp cables were all broken, cut too short or bent to many times.

The zipties and bike brake cables I tried did not work but i can reach up and adjust the flaps and the temp manually from the glove box.
I can get ice cold air blowing out of the dash ports like never before but its cold no heat and no defrost ports.
I am guessing the defrost lever is stuck or the hoses came loose but why no heat? Could I have caused a misconfiguration by putting the flaps back in the box wrong?
I clamped off the heat hoses when I removed the core and followed the procedure in 19.6 of the bently for bleeding the cooling system. The van has run at normal temp for months so I don't suspect an air pocket would have lasted this long. The water hose above the valve feels warm to the touch as well.

Thanks in advance for any ideas of what could be wrong?
_________________
1982 Westfalia 1.9 TD AAZ/DK

Mellow Yellow 74

tortuga480

pioneer1 · Posted: Fri Jan 02, 2015 5:06 am Post subject:

Sorry if I was unclear I am manually sliding the heater valve open and still no heat.
Are you talking about the "in line" valve located above the spare tire clam shell? Make sure that valve is open when you are waiting for heat. Sometimes the mount is loose and the cable doesn't operate the valve mechanism
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Jeff's Old Volks Home · Posted: Fri Jan 02, 2015 5:50 am Post subject:

Might just need to burp...
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insyncro · Posted: Fri Jan 02, 2015 6:55 am Post subject:

The valves, both front and rear need to be OPEN when bleeding the system.

Read up on how to properly bleed out all of the air.

tortuga480 · Posted: Fri Jan 02, 2015 8:43 am Post subject:

I will try burp it again and report back. I cant imagine an air bubble would have been in there all summer and fall and I did not notice.

insyncro · Posted: Fri Jan 02, 2015 8:59 am Post subject:

Vans with cooling systems that are working properly...with all good components (pressure cap especially) will ebb and flow naturally and self bleed ALL air out of the system with heat cycling.

I do not use fancy or homemade things to bleed a van.

Follow Bentley and it is very obvious when all but a tiny bit of air has been bled, than let it self bleed the rest.

Many need a bong to achieve this Laughing

tortuga480 · Posted: Mon Jan 05, 2015 12:08 pm Post subject:

insyncro · Posted: Mon Jan 05, 2015 12:29 pm Post subject:

The caps are easily tested with homemade or fancy shop tools.

Replacing used with used sounds like the first issue.

I test brand new caps all the time and they fail the test.

Wildthings · Samba Member Joined: March 13, 2005 Posts: 50338

If your heater valve has been closed since the core was replaced you might still have a big air bubble in the core. Fill the system up, open the heater valve all the way (and close the valve on the rear heater) and run the engine at high revs to get maximum flow and pressure.

insyncro · Posted: Mon Jan 05, 2015 1:08 pm Post subject:

Weeping hose clamps means that the system is not sealed and air can get in.

Sounds like you need to go over everything again and than bleed the system.

tortuga480 · Posted: Tue Jan 06, 2015 12:54 am Post subject:

Thanks all for your replies!
I jacked the front up with two jackstands as high as the floor jack will go about 12-14" and got a friend to help me bleed the system really good this time. Noticed a few small air bubbles come out but nothing really that seemed like the amount of air in the heater core.
I snugged connections up a little.

There is a confusing note in diagram 80.12 (in the Bently) as to open and closed. Seems like all the way to the right is the 'open' position on that temp valve because when I had it that direction both heater pipes get hot above the valve.
So I imagine both pipes could only get warm if there is flow through the heater core? With the valve the other way both pipes are cold.

Test drive today and no dice, cold air only from the dash vents, no air from any other vents, two hot pipes to the heater core oil temp, water temp all normal. Got turbo spun up good EGT up to 900. I really dont think its a heating system issue, since when I have issues my temp goes over the red led dot when the turbo is working hard like that. No coolant leaks under load.

I removed the "heater cover plate" and the glove box looked things over tonight. I saw the flaps for lever 4 and Lever 3 were jammed by the cables so I now undid the cables from them and moved them by hand.

Here is a (before) photo of the lever locations I am talking about like the one in Bently 80.13. The lower (larger) flex pipe to the dash vents is the only one getting air.

Image may have been reduced in size. Click image to view fullscreen.

I think something to do with lever 3 will close off the heater but will blow cold air out the dash even if the heat (lever 2) is on?
Testing that theory tomorrow am.
Cheers.
_________________
1982 Westfalia 1.9 TD AAZ/DK

m_brown_ · Posted: Tue Jan 06, 2015 1:54 am Post subject:

Not sure if this was mentioned before, but on earlier vans, the two dash vents always have fresh outside air coming into the vehicle. Controls should be all the way to right for full hot windshield defrost. It sounds like your cables are not working correctly and that is the source of your headaches.

http://www.gowesty.com/library_article.php?id=311

Hope that helps.
Mike

crazyvwvanman · Posted: Tue Jan 06, 2015 5:08 am Post subject:

The dash end vents are cold air only through 86 and early 87.

If you have hot hoses on both sides of the heater core then the heater valve is open and the heater core must be getting hot too. If that is the case and you can't get heat out of the top vents or floor vents then the box flaps aren't open. The dash end vents that blow right at the front seat passengers are cold air only in your model of heater box.

Mark

Wildthings · Samba Member Joined: March 13, 2005 Posts: 50338

If both the inlet and outlet pipes are getting hot the problem is not the heater core itself, if the heater valve. It sounds like your flaps are stuck in the closed position or something else is blocking the air flow through the core. It would be strange to have this happen to multiple sets of flaps at the same time though so maybe the fins in the core are blocked or the baffle plate is blocked.. As others said the earlier boxes didn't run the air to the side vents on the dash through the heater core, so that yours blow cold air only tells you air is getting into the box.

If messing with the cables and levers doesn't get you air flow then the box needs to come back out and be opened again to see what is going on. You didn't leave some kind of plastic wrap on the heater core did you? In my opinion the baffle plate that partially blocks the core can the either thrown in the trash or have lots of extra holes added to allow for more air flow.

insyncro · Posted: Tue Jan 06, 2015 9:23 am Post subject:

I removed the above pictured metal part from Wild on my current winter van when I put a new heater core in a few months ago.
I was skeptical about removing it completely, but did to see what happened.
The heat is very good.
The foam around the core to keep cold air from bypassing the core is totally crucial for good heat output.
I go a step beyond the open cell and use some closed cell foam to seal the edges and gaps around the core.

I have had so many vans come to me with owners freaking out about no heat....and thinking the worst.
5 minutes later after a proper bleeding of the system and bingo, great heat.

tortuga480 · Posted: Thu Jan 08, 2015 12:56 am Post subject:

crazyvwvanman · Posted: Thu Jan 08, 2015 6:12 am Post subject:

If you are serious you are better off replacing the whole heater box with a one from a later van. The 82 diesel box is inferior in the way the controls work and VW changed the design in 83 to get better flap control. The thing to do is to get a newer box with its matching cables and control lever assembly. The faceplate too. The complete assembly can be pulled from a donor van with the cables still attached at both ends, obviously excluding the valve cable end.

If you get an 87+ box with heated dash end vent capability you will also need the matching contoured duct fittings for the heater box end of the hoses for those ducts.

Mark

dobryan · Posted: Thu Jan 08, 2015 6:41 am Post subject:

Be careful if you are looking at an '87 donor and want the dash end vent heat. My '87 only has fresh air to the vent, maybe later '87's got the newer setup that sent heat there. BTW, I like the setup I have better than the heat version. It really is nice to be able to have separate control of fresh air to my body vs what the passenger desires..... YMMV. Very Happy

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