Yeah, I got no warning sign. All of a sudden one day the driver side floor was completely soaked and then I knew what happened.

I simply bypassed the heater core for now. Will replace with a brass one, since I've heard their better than the aluminum, someone correct me if I'm wrong.

 

That is correct, get a brass one. And while you have the box open, replace the AC evap core too.(no matter what) I did my evap core 2 years ago and like an idiot I didn't replace the HC , less than a year later I now have the heat issue in the winter. I flushed it and used CLR, and it's a lot better now, BUT, how stupid it was not to do it.

 

mine has a smell when i use it, had started losing coolant but now its just the smell, i too have heard of the tilt - a - dash method and where can i find those guy,but really i would like to replace my heater core how long does it normaly take, no air tools. if i started friday night lets say.

 

mine was down for a couple weeks because i put a couple hours into it, slept, worked, slept, worked, went to work on it and it was raining, slept worked, went to work on it and it was like 15º, slept, worked....... it was either too cold or raining. when i wasn't working. then we got a 2 day warm up and i got it done on the second day. with no help i'd say its about a 6-7 hour job. i tend to have to do everything by myself since i can't ever get an extra set of hands when i'm not working.

one thing that makes it a little easier is if your dash is falling apart and you just snap off all the broken pieces and slap a molded plastic cover on it after you get it back together.

and don't forget to unplug your battery, the broken nose from the passenger airbag would be a funny story for the forum, but not such a fun experience.