Alright ... after a year of using the Passport as only a warm weather toy, I've decided I'm going to replace the heater core this fall.

Looking at Rockauto.com there are several I can order. They include:

SPI or Four Seasons $71
GDI/Transpro $83.79
Stant $117
Ac/Delco $118

Anyone have any thoughts on which one to choose? They do have some drawings of them, but not enough detail to tell anything. I'm hoping that one of them has metal nipples going into the engine compartment so I don't break it again.

TIA,

I am looking into the same thing myself. I went down to West Virginia last week for a camping trip and started losing coolant onto the floor board. Not fun in the middle of nowhere. I took it to a garage and they said that for Isuzus, there isn't a core per-se, but a "hearter unit" that is $350 rather than the standard $75 or so for just a core. I have a 96 rodeo, does any of this make sense, or was he just trying to rip me off. Well, he couldn't get the "heater unit" until today, this happening last tuesday, so I told him I would think about it and bypassed the heater all together. That works for now, but I want to fix it before winter-obviously.
Sorry for the legnth, any infor is appreciated.

I only know about my 98 rodeo, but I wouldn't pay $350 for a heater core. When I repaced mine I just went to a local junkyard. Heater cores are rarely ever damaged in an accident. I think I paid $35 dollars. You do have to tear the entire dash apart to replace it. It's not terribly difficult; just a lot of work.

As for it being a "heating unit", mine looked just like every other heater core I've ever seen.

I have the same problem.
I'm smelling coolant coming out of the vents while driving, its gets worse when I turn the AC on.
Does this mean the "heater unit" is leaking? or the evaporator?, connectors?
Is it just a matter of replacing the unit? I was looking in the helms manual,
it seems like a moderate amount of work but doable for me. How difficult is it to swap out the heater unit? Isn't there a simple kit to reclaim the freon?
I might just take it in.

//dx

If the A/C was leaking it would quickly quit working and wouldn't have much of a smell. It wouldn't take long for the a/c to totally depressurize through even a relatively small leak.

In terms of the heater core ...

It's just a little radiator that the heater fan blows air through. On the Isuzu the a/c apparently gets in the way (just been reading the manual myself) so that also generally needs to be evacuated (I think some have accomplished the change out w/o evacuating the freon).

I've heard it's a minimum of 5 hours shop time, so that makes it an expensive job. I'm afraid I'm going to have to do it myself as well.

The three different heater cores I found were at rockauto.com. I've ordered several things from there, and always had good luck.

Call a couple of local radiator shops. See if they have a listing for your application. I think you should be paying no more than the lowest price of your choices.

Steve G

how did you do this?
what parts would I need.

//dx

To bypass the heater core (a situation I've been living with since I did it as a trail fix about a year ago) you just need to disconnect it, and then use one hose to make a loop from the connection that sends water to the heater core to the one that returns it to the engine.

So there are 2 hoses running to the heater core. One delivers hot water to it, one returns the hot water to the engine. Both go into the cab on the passenger side of the vehicle at the back of the engine bay; they clamp on to pieces of fragile plastic pipe sticking out.

By looping one hose around and taking the heater core completely out of the loop you stop any leaks in the passenger compartment, but also make it impossible to have heat or a front window defroster; 2 things necessary on a vehicle in Colorado almost year round.

It's easy to do; just takes a couple of minutes. The hardest part is getting off the old hoses.

Thanks!
Now I've bought some time to treat my MBVS (multiple broken vehicle syndrome). I've got 5 vehicles and ALL of them need some sort of mission critical repair.
I've found the heater core unit at various salvage yards for 35-100 USD.
www.car-parts.com

DX

Here's my 2 cents. Go with the GDI/Transpro. We sell these where I work (Oreilly). They are all metal, no plastic. I have not had to return any of these that I've sold. In fact I don't think I've seen any of them returned in less they just decided not to do it. In fact above all else, I believe in them since I put one of them in my truck when my factory core went out. Just a couple of words of advice when fixing it. The dash is a pain, but once all the bolts/nuts retaining it are out it come out easily. Make sure to clean out everything in the heater box where the heater core sits. Take it out and scrub it out with soap and water to make sure every little bit of anti-freeze is gone. Last but not least, the factory core had a foam pad wrapped around it, most likely to absorb any vibration, so buy some foam tape to wrap back around it. Good luck.

Richard <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/patriot.gif" alt="" />