Took the water pump off today. Bypass hose had a hole in it, causing the coolant leak. Water pump had previously been replaced in the unknown past. Started removing old hoses to install new ones.

As I was removing heater hoses, I noticed that the lines to the heater core moved around an inch or more. Is this normal? Is there metal lines through the firewall and flexible lines between metal lines and heater core?

I texted Mechanic neighbor to stop by on his way home and take a look. He was concerned about it also. Since we are going to replace the dash pad when it gets here, we decided it might be a good idea to replace the heater core "while we're at it". He also noticed the intake manifold is leaking at the water passages to the heads, so that's going to be done "while I'm at it", including plenum repair.. Have to borrow his fuel line removal tool.

Has anyone else had this wobbly heater core lines issue or is it normal?

Thanks,
Joe Truckster

 

I have a two 3rd gens but still they’re a 5.9….but mine are “firm” with slight play maybe 1/8in if that….

 

As in the hard line in firewall moves fore/aft? No, not normal, but we might know what happened: it's not unheard of to cheat the hard lines with rubber hose and hose clamps when replacing the heater core. I'll see if I can dig up the vid.

Also where do you think the IM leak is? Front of motor? If so make sure you're not being punked by timing cover. And if you're doing wp, heater core and plenum I'd absolutely do timing cover gasket while the cooling system is torn down. Then at that point the timing set is staring you in the face and is basically ONE more bolt. I know it seems like a never ending odyssey but the double roller timing set is only ~$25 at RA

 

Here ya go, you might be dealing with some sort of hack job like this. I'm not recommending this approach, I personally find it suspect at best.

You can skip to ~4:45 if you don't want to listen to him congratulating himself on how awesome he is for several minutes

 

1/8" is what I expected with that being wiggling within the HC mounts.

 

It moves more or less circular, close to 1" at pipe end. I went to parts store this morning and purchased intake gasket set and valve cover gaskets. I asked the parts man if he had a new HC I could look at when I explained my issue, he sent another employee to fetch but that person couldn't find it.

I also posted this under the "decisions, decisions..." post I started last week.

Coolant leak has progressed from WP replacement to include all the hoses -- bypass hose has a hole in it -- and thermostat, new double-roller timing chain and intake manifold gasket set. I think that's all the "while you're in there" items for now.

Since it's summertime, I may bypass the heater core for now and replace it when we take the dash out to install new dash pad when it arrives from LMC.