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Took our 73 Mach 1 for a ride today---not good.

Flysure1

Active Member
I kept telling the wife I smelled mouse pi$$, went to car wash, was outside drying it off and opened the passenger door and the smell was antifreeze, it was running pretty freely out of the heater core, kind of irked me a little cause I put in a new one a few years back, I caught a ride to a store and bought a set of sheet metal visegrips and pinched off the hoses to get home, I am thinking about eliminating the core because I never drive it in the winter anyway. Had 2 kids pull up in a Chevy truck asking about the car when we were leaving sandwich shop, one had middle east accent and wanted to know if I would sell it, I said sure as the wife was saying no, he asked again how much and I said it was insured for 20 thousand, show me a figure--wife again said no. I guess I would have been divorced and only had half the money if I would have sold it.
 
I would replace the heater core to keep it running just in case you did sell the car. Who knows.....maybe the car new home would be Anchorage.
 
My advice: Don't sell it. You'll get over it and be back to enjoying the car in no time.

I'd take the original heater core and have it fixed at a shop rather than put one of the new "repo" jobs in it.

Good luck!
 
I bypassed mine. No real need for it here anyway. The only way ill put one back in is if I put a new ac system in it.

Sent from my Desire HD using Tapatalk
 
I would replace the heater core with a tested new one or repair the old one and test before install. Then, if you never use the heater, just plug the hose attachments on the engine and be done with it. If you ever need a heater working, it is ready in a few mins. time for selling or any other purpose.

Some new ones do not fit worth crap so check it out good. Most seem to have the tubes out of alignment for the mounting and some are smaller cores all together. Most seem to be aluminum now vs the copper of old days too.
 
If you bypass it permanently, you can get rubber cap-off plugs at O'Reilley's, which is what I'm using on the water pump. I replaced the fitting on the intake with a short bolt.

Ignore the filth.

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The cap works good but does develop surface cracks over time, I check it periodically and carry a spare just in case.
 
i tried those caps years ago when i blew the heater core out in my 85 GT. they would last a couple races before they blew so went to a small looped hose. you should be o.k. as long as you aren't too hard on the motor. this was back in the late 80's when street racing wasn't a no-no....
 
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