Tiger03447

OK, so I have the engine out of the car, and I want to change out all three of the heater hoses on this '83 NA model. I have pulled out the heater blower motor, and cleaned (vacuumed ) out the cavity where the heater core resides. The hoses are somewhere below this white plastic housing. I am somewhat deterred on unscrewing the 4 top small bolts that may suspend this entire assembly. The A/C is still connected and charged.

The heater hose connections are not visible. The hoses come through a fairly large , oval two hole grommet in the firewall..not wanting to destroy the grommet, only leads me to believe that the hose connections may be visible once the grommet is removed. so, now I pose the question: should I go ahead and pull the grommet or do I have to pull out the entire A/C heater unit? Which way should I proceed? I would like to make this as painless as possible. Comments please. Thanks.

V2Rocket

You don't need to mess with the AC at all.
If you unbolt the 4 bolts on the cowl the whole heater assembly will drop down. It's tight, but you can get to the hose clamps from the footwell, they are all the way against the firewall from the inside.

odurandina

help me, help me Too... i got no heat.

if i can't solve it, my car will be retired until spring

Tiger03447

Thanks, Spencer..I'll give it a shot.

Tiger03447

Odurandina..I'm sure that the LS3 in your car will keep you toasty. Blast over here to Keene if you want to see some pretty foliage. Trees and colors are really popping. Gotta be better than Boston.
We Noreaster types gotta stick together..several of us around and not too far. How about an Oktoberfest get together? Most of us are lone wolves..but together we can make a difference. About what, I'm not sure.

V2Rocket

late 944/968 heating system is totally different, can't help you on that.

konakat

The grommets are cheap, no need to sweat that. I replaced my hoses last year and it is kind of tricky. You need to push the new hoses through the grommet loosely, then stand on your head in the passenger foot well to hang the hose clamps on the ends of the hoses. Then go back to the engine bay to work the hoses onto the heater core nipples, then stand on your head again to tighten the clamps. It is really tight in there but you are very fortunate to have the engine out of the car. I lost a lot of knuckle skin fighting those hoses.

SloMo228

If anything, it's easier to work with. I was able to replace my heater core hoses with the engine in the car, no blood lost, and not even all that much swearing.

Tiger03447

Thanks guys. today I pulled the glove box out, and the A/C unit blocks the entire view. Am I supposed to pull out the center console and all the carpet too? I took out the four bolts, and the unit dropped about an 1/8 of an inch..I think I can see one clamp from the hole next to the (where it was) glove box , but it's at 90 degrees to me and totally unreachable. The condensate hose blocks almost all the access. I don't think that pulling the top off the dash will help either. I can see absolutely nothing with the A/C unit in the way on the passenger footwell side. Console carpet as well as footwell carpet comes totally out next. Halfway out now. Perhaps that will give me some more viewing and working room. I guess to change out the heater core, one must remove all the dash, as well as the A/C/ heat unit, right before the C-4 goes in. LOL!

88Silver924S

I had my dash out (including the center console, radio, heater controls, etc) a couple of years ago and thought it would be a good time to change the heater hoses. Unfortunately the hose clamps were still not accessible. My conclusion is that the dash could stay in but the AC must come out from under the dash. I couldn't see any other way. So now I still have 27 year old hoses. I would really like to know the easiest way to get to those clamps. Let us know how you finally get to them.

Tiger03447

Thanks for the tip "88". I'll keep everyone up to date as things progress...more destruction in the future. Pelican says that one of the hoses is NLA...more investigation required. I have the new H2O control valve, the ell hose, and the one that feeds that. The other hose, 944-572-381-02, seems to be the bugger to get a hold of..I hope that the core is OK..This rig must be the first thing that Porsche put into the passenger compartment when they built it. Kinda like Jeep Grand Cherokees.

mel_t_vin

Since when? Since installing your new motor...or did it just recently stop functioning?

Tiger03447

KonaKat..you and Spencer must have removed the heavy rubber sound proofing that the carpet is bonded to, way back there. sounds like it's time to do some removal of this stuff. I got the grommet out, only took about an hour of pulling and cutting. FIRMLY glued in place. No clamps even visible...yet. More to come, later. Thanks.

konakat

Sound-proofing? What's that? :-P

Tiger03447

I looked at pics of am early heater unit on E-Bay today..now I have a better understanding of where and how the heater core is in there. Is that a metal set of tubes on it or are the plastic? The tank they are attached to looks like plastic. So if I were able to get to the tube nipples, it might be a good idea to extend them a bit and JB weld the extensions into place..that way I only have to do this entire job ONE time, as I plan to keep this beast for a long while. I don't know the differences between early and later heater cores which did extend into the engine bay, but knowing what Porsche did in 85.2, I'm pretty certain they are not interchangeable. Comments, please.