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Heater hose issue HELP!

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Old 02-02-2011, 06:40 AM
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Default Heater hose issue HELP!

Does anyone have a diagram of the heater hose routing for a 1996 stratus with the 2.5 V6?

In a nutshell this car has broken em' off on me for about 3 months, I replaced all the hoses when I did a water pump/timing belt change.

The Dayco hoses from Advance Autoparts were wrong. One of the hoses needs to have a smaller ID where it connects to the heater core at the firewall. The hoses from Dayco were the same ID's even though they were labeled inlet and outlet.

To scrape it together I used a flush tee to mate up a piece of the original to the new hose.

Now I have very weak heat, I suspect one hose might be kinked or the core is plugged up a bit. It is also possible I put the hoses backwards at the pipes on the block.

Since these cars are a PITA to work on (who would think you need to take off an intake manifold to change plugs or heater hoses?) I want to have all my ducks in a row.

In absense of a diagram can someone with a 96/97 V6 just trace out the hoses for me?

Like this.

Upper on firewall goes to front or rear pipe on block?
Lower goes to front or rear on the block?
 
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Old 02-02-2011, 06:54 AM
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I had very weak/no heat in my Stratus. I thought it was my blend air door. When the engine was running at idle, I had good temp on the upper radiator hose, a scanner showed my coolant temp 194° both heater hoses were nice an warm, yet the air out of the vents (fan on low) only 80°. So I pulled half the dash apart only to find the blend air door was working perfectly. Now I'm stumpted. I removed the access door for the heater core. I had the engine running and felt the core, it was hot (now I'm really confused). I turned the blower on high and the warm air came out of the vents for about a couple seconds then cold and the heater core got cold. I shut off the blower and could feel the core getting hot. So using some thought of how thermal dynamics and heat transfer works, I came to the conclusion that the flow thru the core is restricted. I cut both hoses near the master cylinder and using a garden hose, I flushed the core in both directions. It looked like mud comming out. After a few minutes of flushing and clear water comming out, I used a PEX union on one hose and a flush T on the other. I chose to cut the hoses due to how difficult it is to access the ends of the hoses. After doing this, I still didn't have good heat until I opened the flush T and reved the engine until a lot of flow came out. I suppose I had an air pocket and opening the T burped the system. I know it's a hack crude method of repair, but now I have great heat.
 
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Old 02-02-2011, 10:30 PM
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That is similar to what I was planning to do, except I was going to put some lengths of stock heater hose on each connection and purge with a couple of pounds of compressed air. Then fill with vinegar and let it sit for a minute. Then flush with a little more air and lots of warm water.

Can you verify for me which hose goes where? I want to be sure once I have it all back together it is correct.
 



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