Heater core on an 86 Cimarron?

[Zetsuei]

Hello.

(I've posted about this before... but I diagnosed the problem, whoo.)

Here's my dilemma: I have an 86 Cimarron sitting about 200 miles away. Was my grandmother's car... she gave it to me as a gift.

Anyway, it's currently not running. Leaks a LOT of antifreeze out of the vents and onto the carpet. I had someone take a look at it (even though I had a good idea of what it was) and it turns out the heater core is shot.

So this leads me to my question.

Is there a way I can bypass the heater core, so I can at least drive it back home? If so, could I be told (or at least briefed) on how to do it?

Any help is appreciated, as always.

Thanks.

[95concours]

I would locate the 2 hoses that supply the heater core and just disconnect them, then buy a length of hose that you can attach to make a loop so that you can drive it home without coolant leaking everywhere.

[cpk]

I thought this would help, but I'm not so sure.

Pics of Cimarron engine compartment:

Your guess is as good as mine where the heater hoses are...

in the first pic, I think the hose going behind the air cleaner is the A/C and it looks like the evaporator is on the driver side. However, the blower appears to be on the passenger side. In the top pic there's a hose going by the passenger strut tower - maybe that's a heater hose? There's also one running along the driver strut tower?

[Ranger]

Hard to tell from the picture but the heater hoses usually enter the firewall on the right (passenger) side. They are usually 3/4" diameter hose. As 95 Concours said just remove them and hook them together with a coupler (5/8" OD pipe or copper tubing should work) and a couple of hose clamps and your in buisness and ready for a cold ride.

[Caddynut]

I owned an 85 cimarron for 15 years (amazingly)....very simple to do.... take off the air cleaner assembly so you can see between the engine and the firewall. There are two short heater hoses that go into the firewall. Just unclamp them and put a connector between them. You can buy one at a local auto parts store. When you do decide to dig into the heater core. That is also easy to change, I had to change it twice in my 85. You can actually get to the heater core from underneath the dashboard in the car. If I remember right....drop the plastic panel on the bottom of the dashboard and disconnect the heater tubes. There is a square plastic panel in the center of the underneath of the dash board with 4 screws. Remove that and look up and the heater core should be there with two lines from the firewall connected to it. I remember it has plastic lines going into the heater core. That is probably your problem. Let me know what you decide to do. I am an expert on the cimarron. I got 175,000 miles out of mine.....LOVED THAT CAR.

[Zetsuei]

Caddynut: Awesome, thank you.

Currently the car has only 50,000 miles on it. Other than the heater core, everything still runs great.

I'll be sure to keep in touch. Thanks again.

(Oh, what would your e-mail address happen to be? I'm usually too lazy to post on a forum...)