Are you having a bad day?.....

 

Honestly aftermarket sucks. Although they have a warrantee ive replaced two already... I say go OEM....

 

nope, im having a fine day, i was just making a point that you have beat the duralast gold subject to death, and keep beating that dead horse . . .

 

Alright, I will have to wait until February for my budget approval to have this core replaced. During this time, I am going to make my 3rd core last much longer by bypassing the core when not needed. Current design lets the antifreeze flow thru the core year round which I think is the cause of its premature failure.

I googled the net and did some searching for some heater valves and came up with some. Some are electric actuated, and some are vacuum actuated. This is the part I need your help on. Under the hood are there any vac hoses that is used to control the temp controls? Something I can tie into if using a vacuum actuated heater valve?

The electric side I am not sure on how to set it up. I do not know if the electric valves are in the normally open or closed position when not activated nor how to activate it when you need heat.

What's left is the manual open/close cable/wire type heater valves which will take more custom work.

Here is the link for the heater valves. I saw one that caught my eye. It has 3 connections to it. I am hoping this is to bypass the core instead of simply shutting off flow to the core. It's made for GM but from the looks of it, it can be custom fitted into the durango under the hood.

http://www.shopping.com/xDN-automoti..._control_valve

 

Since there is no rear EGR I don't know of any vacuum controled temperature modified valves (then again I am no emissions man). Anyway, I'm sure that the Air Charge Temperature Sensor and Engine Temperature Sensor send the data to the PCM and in turn the PMC monitors the fuel enriched mixture because of adverse conditions due to cold weather to get the mixture back 14.7 to 1 parts stoichiometric mixture.

With this said, I don't think a vacuum controled valve will work. This leaves you with 2 options.


Now there is electric. This would be the way to go as you could install a small lighted swich right in your dash (pretty much part of your controler) that will open when you want heat. You could even intergrate it into the switch so after you hit 50% heat and cool it sends power to the valce opening it. This could take a lil playing but not count it out.


Manual valve,

Well you can't go wrong there with a 3 way valve. The one problem is you manually have to open the hood in the cold season and turn it on then turn it off in the hot season.


Either way you decide to go, make sure you use a 3 way valve so that it flows when turned off. I couldn't see the one you where talking about, can you copy and paste the picture to the post?

 

i agree with hydra, the electric is the way to go IMO and i would sit there an integrate it into the heat control so that on/off was controlled by where the heat/ac slider was

 

the ones in the link are simply to shut off the flow to the core, which will work since the coolant that flows through the core actually bypasses the thermostat, so, if you were to bypass it, your truck would NEVER get up to operating temp since there is a constant flow of coolant
that is how mine is currently, i dont think its gotten warm enough to open the thermostat since i did it

id say since you are planning on replacing the core, you could go electric and use a simple toggle switch mounted somewhere that you wont have any holes drilled into the dash
if im not mistaken heater valves are open when not powered

i see they have manual/cable actuated valves, you could go to a hardware store and get a choke cable for a lawnmower, so you pull it out to open your valve, push it to close
this setup could be hooked up under the hood and operated from the drivers seat

 

I don't want to do it manually if I don't need to. Rather I like to integrate it to the temperature dial on the A/C controls if possible? Let's say, if the dial is on the coldest setting, the heater core will be completely shutoff or bypassed. Then gradually let more coolant flood the coil as you turn the dial more on the hot side. But I don't know if the temp dial is vacuum or electric or cable operated. But I know it does operate the blend door to mix the heater core and A/C coil to get the desired temp.

Also, anyone ever noticed, your rear center console vents? when on heating mode, it does not really get hot air unless the temp dial is one click from max to max? Must be the blend door not mixing air right for the rear center console vents.

 

I would not think it would matter much? By design the coolant is always flowing thru the heater core even when the engine is cold.

Maybe that is why I sometimes keep getting P1281 which means that the engine is taking too long to warm up. Otherwise I may have to get another 180 stat.

I assume the 3 way valve is used to bypass rather than block the antifreeze.

 

Correct.

During inline flow control the coolant enters from the pump to the heater core then circulates through the heater core then back to the top of the motor (intake manifold jacket) then the coolant drops through the motor jackets back to the pump. It's always circulating as the motor runs although coolant does not circulate through the T-stat.

Now if you run a 3 way valve it will continue to circulate but through the 3 way valve instead. Nothing changes accept it flows through the valve and not the heater core.

As for you valve, electric on and off just like your A/C switch is the way to go just install a very small push button switch (Radio Shack it) and mount it on the heater control panel next to the A/C button.